From mediamatters.org
Media ignores another Bush flip-flop: Bush was for 527s -- before he was against them
Conspicuously absent from most major newspapers' coverage of President George W. Bush's recent condemnation of political advertising by 527 groups -- the practice of which Bush deemed to be "bad for the system" on August 23 -- is Bush's dramatic flip-flop on the issue. On the March 5, 2000, edition of CBS's Face the Nation, Bush said of the independent groups that were running ads attacking his Republican primary opponent, Senator John McCain (R-AZ): "[T]hat's what freedom of speech is all about. ... People have the right to run ads. They have the right to do what they want to do, under the -- under the First Amendment in America."
From the March 5, 2000, edition of CBS's Face the Nation:
BUSH: [T]here are people spending ads that say nice things about me. There are people spending money on ads that say ugly things about me.
PANELIST GLORIA BORGER: Should ...
BUSH: That's part of the American -- let me finish. That's part of the American process. There have been ads, independent expenditures, that are saying bad things about me. I don't particularly care when they do, but that's what freedom of speech is all about. And this allegation somehow that I'm involved with this is just totally ridiculous. It is uncalled for.
[...]
BORGER: [D]o you think you should stop these ads?
BUSH: You know, let me -- let me say something to you. People have the right to run ads. They have the right to do what they want to do, under the -- under the First Amendment in America.