Bored White House Reporters

Dan Froomkin’s White House briefing pointed us today to an amusing piece where the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s reporters covering a visit from the President were shocked at the behavior of the White House traveling press corps:

“While Bush’s appearance was thrilling for most of The Cannon Center audience, it was significantly less so for the two dozen members of the national press who travel with him. . . .

“Most of them had also traveled with him last week to New Jersey, Ohio and Indiana, where, they said, he made the same pitch for Social Security, conducted the same sort of ‘conversation’ with local panelists and even told the same jokes.

“As a result, few reporters took notes or even paid much attention. Some read their E-mail. The only time they seemed intrigued Friday was when hecklers tried to interrupt Bush. But ultimately, they decided, even Memphis’s hecklers weren’t particularly interesting.”

It’s obvious that the trio of Memphis writers don’t cover a lot of events with POTUS, because from the sounds of it the press corps were on some of their better behavior considering they were covering the same speech for the umpteenth time. You should see how punchy and testy they get towards the end of a multi-day campaign swing in October….

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