Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Ron Suskind spoke last night at the Miller Center for Public Affairs in a forum titled "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush." The forum addressed the relationship between the White House and the press, the treatment of administration officials who spoke openly to the press and the president's usage of faith to garner support.
Ron Suskind "has enjoyed a greater access to the White House than any other journalist, with the possible exception of Bob Woodward," said George Gilliam, director of Forum Program and Special Programs at the Miller Center. "I think he is a first-rate journalist."
Suskind began his talk by briefly reflecting upon his tenure at the University as an undergraduate student and then delved quickly into the plight of journalists trying to thoroughly and accurately cover the White House.
"To try to be authentic these days, to ask questions of the people in power -- it's difficult," Suskind said. "This administration has evolved new techniques to handle people like me. Their strategy, in a word, is simple: ignore them."
Suskind continued by describing the changing relationship between the White House press corps and the White House officials.
"Basic questions that they were comfortable asking all of a sudden have become dissent," Suskind said.
Suskind also said more often than not, the administration had no qualms about refusing to answer any press corps questions.
Suskind continued in his description of the Bush administration's tight image control by recounting his relationship with two former Bush administration officials who spoke frankly and openly to him and who were subsequently expatriated by the administration. One of whom, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil, provided Suskind with not only open comments, but with thousands of documents that fleshed out the inner workings of the Bush administration, calling it "the largest unauthorized information disclosure during any sitting president's term."
O'Neil and the information he divulged were the subject of Suskind's book, "The Price of Loyalty," published in January of last year.
Suskind participated in a question-and-answer session after his speech and took the opportunity to express the importance of informed consent in what he called the "unfinished experiment" of American democracy. Suskind also briefly touched upon Bush's unique use of faith in garnering support from the American citizenry and loyalty from Bush's own administration.
Paraphrasing Bush's message, Suskind said, "'You want me to be strong, especially in times like these?Then you need to have faith in me.'"
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