A Wink and a Fraud

The New York Times

A Wink and a Fraud
By MAUREEN DOWD

At the Gridiron Dinner in Washington on Saturday, where Old Media gently mocked politicians with corny songs, I sat next to a presidential gag writer, Landon Parvin. He was saying jokes work best when Republicans make fun of Republicans and Democrats make fun of Democrats.

President Bush, looking spiffy in white tie and tails, swung by to talk to Mr. Parvin. He didn't look my way, but proceeded back up to the dais.

Suddenly, W. turned around, stopped and looked right at me. Then he flashed a wink, not a flirty wink but a mischievous Clark Gable "I've got your number and you think you've got mine but I win" wink.

Bush had a cold, but he was feeling pretty hot.

He started his presidency with a tentative demeanor and a chip on his shoulder. Now, even with the Middle East still roiling and the Democrats still spoiling for a fight over Social Security, W. feels as if he's won a lot of hands and has a big pile of chips.

He's confident enough to send two unilateralist hawks who specialize in blowing off the globe - John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz - to run global institutions that epitomize multilateralism. (Wolfie's biggest qualification to run the World Bank? His prediction that Iraqi reconstruction would pay for itself with Iraqi oil revenues.)

In The Washington Post, the reporter Mark Leibovich wrote that the president has been almost like a different person since the Iraqi elections, so loosey-goosey as he tries to sell his Social Security agenda and other programs that "he is resembling a Texas auctioneer pitching private accounts on the borscht belt."

When a woman at an Arkansas town meeting last month told W. she was from De Queen, he replied, "That is right next to De King."

At the Gridiron, Mr. Bush slyly joked that he had the "dangedest puppy" who would roll over on command - but only some of the time. "I renamed him 'John McCain.' "

I may have gotten a presidential wink, but I still don't have my regular White House pass back. (Maybe I'd get it back if I became a male escort?) But Bush aides have now decided to let in a blogger. Maybe they're grateful that bloodhound bloggers ran off Dan Rather.

But this White House may not like New Media any more than Old Media. It's already moved on to Fake Media.

Here is yesterday's headline on the humorist Andy Borowitz's Web site: "White House Reporter Turns Out to Be Cheney. Fake Mustache Falls Off Veep During Press Briefing."

The White House isn't backing off its plan to replace real news with faux news. The Bushies created their own reality to convince the country that Iraq was a threat to U.S. security. So even though the war has given birth to some of the very evils it was supposed to fix - like more recruits for Osama, and Saddam's formerly sealed weapons' falling into terrorists' hands - Bushies like the results of their war.

Now the White House has its own gulag: C.I.A. agents snatch suspects and fly them to places like Egypt and Syria to be strung up in chains and tortured. And The Times reported yesterday that at least 26 deaths of prisoners in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan may be criminal homicides. So it also has its own Soviet-style propaganda campaign.

At his news conference yesterday, the president bristled a bit when a reporter reminded him that after it was revealed that his administration was paying columnists to shill for agency programs, Mr. Bush had ordered that such tactics cease.

But, as the reporter noted, the administration is still using government money to produce stories about the government that are broadcast with no disclosure that the government is producing them.

David Barstow and Robin Stein wrote in The Times on Sunday that at least 20 agencies had made and distributed fake news segments to local TV stations; the administration spent $254 million in its first four years to buy self-aggrandizing puffery from P.R. firms.

The president joked that he could tack on an "I'm George W. Bush and I approved this disclaimer." But then he said he wouldn't - that it was up to local stations to reveal the truth.

He said his Justice Department had found that the fake news programs are "within the law so long as they're based upon facts, not advocacy."

And, of course, this is a White House that never makes up facts to suit its purposes or sell its programs. It serves its propaganda baldfaced, with no hint of its real agenda.

At least I got a wink.

E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com

originally published March 17, 2005