CBS News White House correspondent John Roberts apologizes. I still don’t think his explanation gives a good enough answer to my question: Vulgarity aside, what is the point of asking such a dumb question?
Roberts writes: “I was merely attempting to reconcile past statements about Harriet Miers with the President’s new nominee for the Supreme Court.” Excuse me, but that is so LAME! Of course President Bush said Harriet Miers was the best person for the job after he nominated her. What’s he going to say, “I picked her name out of hat”? C’mon John. We all know how it works. Contradictions that result from meaningless PR gibberish are not really that damning. Pretending like you’re some kind of expert marksman after hitting such an easy target is just ridiculous. “I was merely attempting to reconcile…” Get outta here with that.
UPDATE: Roberts apologizes again. He must be getting a lot of heat over the specific wording of his question, specifically whether he intended to use the phrase “sloppy seconds” in a vulgar way. I still think that’s not really the issue. The issue is the disintegration of civil discourse between the press and the White House, and the way that manifests itself in these juvenile “gotcha” questions.