BLOGGER: Ari Fleischer Speaks for C-Span Audience

By Connect Mason Blogger Isaac Pacheco

My online journalism class met at one of George Mason University’s television studios yesterday to participate in a C-SPAN distance learning teleconference between GMU, Pace University and the University of Denver. Steve Scully, senior executive producer and political editor for C-SPAN, hosted the program, and Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer joined in as the guest speaker.

See the interview.

During the first half of the interview Fleischer gave a brief overview of his background and then discussed his supporting role during George W. Bush's first presidential campaign in 2000. He also delved into corollaries between the current Presidential primary battles and those that Bush faced in the last two elections. Fleischer shared his personal account of 9/11, detailing his travels and dealings with the President in the hours following the attacks. The interview was interwoven with questions from Scully and video clips of past primary debates and campaign speeches.

For the remainder of the interview Fleischer fielded questions from students, a decidedly less professional set of inquisitors than the White House press corps. Frank Clifford, a Pace student, was given the first opportunity to ask a question, but instead chose to launch an ill-advised, poorly planned and even more poorly executed, attack on Fleischer’s integrity as well as perceived failures in the Bush administration. In the rambling diatribe, often interrupted by his own nervously-stammered self-corrections, Clifford asked Fleischer why he had knowingly lied to the American public on a regular basis during his term as press secretary.

Fleischer, who routinely dealt with hostile media during his tenure at the White House, had little problem dismantling the matchstick house of indictments levied by the clueless student. During his rebuttal, Fleischer admitted that the Bush administration had drawn incorrect conclusions concerning Iraq’s nuclear and biological weapons capabilities, but had based those conclusions on intelligence that had been widely verified by multiple agencies and sources.

George Mason University was given the next opportunity to ask a question, and Professor Steve Klein turned the microphone over to me. Following the Pace student was a blessing. All I really had to do was say my full name correctly and keep from cursing out loud to improve on the previous, juvenile performance. I thanked Mr. Fleischer for joining us, introduced myself and asked him if there were instances during his time as White House press secretary where he was forced to compromise his beliefs or morals in order to report to the media things he disagreed with?

His response to my question as well as those from other questions during the interview can be downloaded or streamed from here.

The interview will be aired in its entirety today at 5 PM, E.S.T on C-SPAN3. Clifford’s comments begin at timestamp 00:40:57:00, George Mason University comments begin at timestamp 00:46:37:00 and my comments begin shortly thereafter. Check out the Web-news formatted version of this blog post, with full quotes from Fleischer and students, tomorrow at Universal Veritas.