Dana Milbank’s kvetching about Bush’s regional TV interviews seems mild in comparsion to loud TV protests last night. CBS’s John Roberts intoned: “It was the public relations equivalent of a declaration of war aimed at the national media, President Bush claiming the American people aren’t getting the truth about Iraq.” ABC’s Terry Moran suggested: “The President was out golfing this holiday afternoon, but he spent the morning whacking the press.”

Whacking, “war”-declaring Bush was then quoted saying less-than-wild things about “I am mindful of the filter through which some news travels, and sometimes you just have to go over the heads of the filter and speak directly to the people, and that’s what we will continue to do.” If this is “whacking” and “war,” how do we describe the nightly efforts of Roberts and Moran?