NAKED EMPEROR

Angry White House reprimands Irish interviewer for 'dissing' Bush

THE White House has lodged a complaint with the Irish Embassy in Washington over RTE journalist Carole Coleman's interview with US President George Bush.
The White House told Ms Coleman that she interrupted the president unnecessarily and was disrespectful. She also received a call from the White House in which she was admonished for her tone.
On several occasions during the 15-minute interview, Bush asked Coleman not to interrupt him.

It has also emerged that presidential staff suggested to Ms Coleman as she went into the interview that she ask him a question on the outfit that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern wore to the G8 summit.

Pampered Bush meets a real reporter

Coleman asked tough questions about the mounting death toll in Iraq, the failure of US planning, and European opposition to the invasion and occupation.
And when the president offered the sort of empty and listless "answers" that satisfy the White House press corps -- at one point, he mumbled, "My job is to do my job" -- she tried to get him focused by asking precise follow-up questions.

See the interview, and decide if Coleman "overstepped the bounds of politeness".

[The chief executive who gleefully declares that he does not read newspapers cannot begin to grasp the notion that journalists might have an important role to play in a democracy.]