Pandering and Libby Lewis Libby Confusion

Two media notes in Lloyd Grove‘s column today:

PANDERING, LAURA BUSH-STYLE? After the First Lady submitted to a softball interview about “at-risk youth” last week with White House radio correspondent April Ryan, President Bush‘s wife invited Ryan up to the family quarters for an hour-long tour. Since then, Ryan – who hugged Mrs. Bush when the tour was over – has been singing the First Lady’s praises on the black-oriented, 450-station American Urban Radio Network. Was Laura trying to shore up African-American support in a time of trouble? “I don’t think so,” Ryan said. “President Bush’s approval rating with African-Americans is at 2 percent.” A White House spokesman said that the private tour happened on the spur of the moment at Ryan’s request: “April asked Mrs. Bush, and Mrs. Bush obliged.”

LIBBY CONFUSION: Who can blame National Public Radio anchor Noah Adams for mistakenly reporting the federal indictment of “Libby Lewis” on Friday’s “Day to Day” program? Libby Lewis – as opposed to Lewis (Scooter) Libby – is an NPR reporter who’s been covering the legal troubles of Vice President Cheney‘s former chief of staff. Lewis, who claims no silly nickname, never worried that she had been indicted. “I have a very good lawyer,” she told me.

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