[wordup] Should History Record the Unvarnished Bush?

[Adam Shand]

Via: Daniel Hasenstaub <danielh at spack.org>
From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56556-2002Apr15.html

Should History Record the Unvarnished Bush?
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, April 16, 2002; Page A17

Last Tuesday was one for the presidential blooper reel.

At a speech in Bridgeport, Conn., President Bush declared that he wanted
each American to volunteer for "4,000 years," a variation of his usual
call for "4,000 hours" that produced guffaws in the audience. Later, at
a fundraiser, Bush bestowed a new name on Connecticut's lieutenant
governor, Jodi Rell. "I appreciate Lieutenant Governor Judi Kell for
being here," he said. "Great to see you again, Judi."

Whatever, says Cathleen Hinsch, a spokeswoman for Rell. "You don't
correct the president."

But the White House does. Both goofs, and accompanying laughter, were
stricken from the record -- deus ex machina -- in the official White
House transcripts.

A similar sanitizing occurred the day before, in Knoxville, Tenn., when
Bush was interrupted by hecklers shouting about Enron and the
counterterrorism campaign -- an unusual occurrence noted in news
accounts of the speech. Federal News Service, a private organization,
transcribed the boos, shouts and cheers, along with the president's
struggle to deliver his lines:

[PRESIDENT BUSH]: I've come to highlight what works, so others around
the country, if they're interested in --

MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE: (Chanting.) (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: -- if you're interested --

MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE: (Chanting.) (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: -- if you're interested in doing what is right to
encourage your citizens to become involved -- (chanting continues from
the audience) -- and so I want to thank the city of Knoxville,
Tennessee, for showing Americans -- (chanting continues from the
audience) -- for showing Americans how best to help their communities.
(Cheers, applause.)

The official White House transcript made no mention of the hecklers or
Bush's false starts.

The opposition sees a Soviet-style move to airbrush infelicitous
phrases. "These transcripts are done for near-term history as well as
long-term history and it's a real problem if they start rewriting them,"
said Joe Lockhart, a former press secretary for President Bill Clinton.
"The White House is rewriting history."

Lockhart said the Clinton administration never cleaned up transcripts
except to correct spelling, but veteran correspondents recall the
practice occurring in both Democratic and GOP administrations.
Lockhart's predecessor, Mike McCurry, said he gave White House
stenographers "some leeway" to repair verbal abuses, including the task
of "restoring 'g' to the English language" when Clinton's accent deleted
the sound.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers routinely "revise and extend" their remarks
in the Congressional Record.

Still, lawmakers do not benefit from the sort of real-time foot-noting
available to a president. In Missouri last month, Bush expressed his
desire for "making the death tax permanent." The White House transcript
placed an asterisk next to the blooper and a footnote saying "should
read 'death tax repeal.' "

In February, Bush baffled some listeners when he said he had spoken with
the Japanese prime minister about "the devaluation issue" and told
Japan's parliament the United States and Japan had been allies "for a
century and a half." Asterisks in the official transcript indicated Bush
meant to say "deflation" and "half a century."

The most public allegation of transcript sanitizing was last September,
when White House press secretary Ari Fleischer warned that Americans
"need to watch what they say." The phrase did not at first appear in the
White House transcript.

The White House stenographers are respected professionals employed by a
private contractor. Marshall Jorpeland of the National Court Reporters
Association said the stenographers would not independently veer from
verbatim. "When people hire us they expect a word-for-word account," he
said. "In terms of cleaning it up on their own, I don't think they'd do
that without that being the guidance."

So are Bush aides providing "guidance"?

White House spokeswoman Anne Womack noted that the transcripts have at
times included hecklers and Bush-coined words such as
"misunderestimated." "We view the transcripts as a historical record of
the presidency," she said. "We expect accuracy and commend the
stenographers for their excellent work."

Cleaning quotes can be hazardous. Recently, a White House transcript had
Bush talking about stock options that "earn the money," when in fact the
president had correctly used the Wall Street jargon "in the money." The
confusion prompted an incorrect news report that Bush was shifting
policy. In this case, Bush was better left unscrubbed.

© 2002 The Washington Post Company