NBC's 'deceptive' editing draws Bush ire

Media analyst Tim Graham says the White House is justified in its strong criticism of NBC News. White House counselor Ed Gillespie sent a terse letter to NBC News earlier this week, accusing the network of "deceptively" editing an interview with President Bush.

During the interview, correspondent Richard Engel asked Bush whether his comments before the Israeli Knesset -- about appeasing terrorists -- were directed at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. According to Gillespie, the editing was "clearly intended to give viewers the impression that [President Bush] agreed with [Engel's] characterization of his remarks when he explicitly challenged it."
 
Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center (MRC), says the White House has every reason to be upset with NBC News.
 
"...[C]learly the viewers at home could see that Richard Engel was pressing Bush as to why his policies were such a horrendous failure. They were very biased questions," Graham points out. "And ... when you compare that, or stack that up next to the most recent Brian Williams interview on NBC with Barack Obama -- where he held up a picture of TIME magazine and said, 'How would your mother feel about this?' -- you know, there's a real, dramatic tone difference," he notes.
 
Graham says it was a mistake for Bush to do the interview because Engel has stated publicly that war should be illegal. And Bush should have known, argues the MRC official, that the interview would have been approached from that angle.
 
He also notes that NBC refused to air a portion of the interview in which President Bush told Engel the premise of his question was wrong. Graham says NBC treats Obama like a best friend, but treats President Bush as if he is the enemy.