George Bush and the New York Times: A Contentious Relationship

George W. Bush’s relationship with the New York Times got off to a rocky start. At a campaign event in early September of 2000, Bush, unaware that his microphone was on, leaned in towards running mate Dick Cheney and said, “There's Adam Clymer - major league asshole - from the New York Times.” Cheney responded, “Yeah, big time.”1

And so began Bush’s public relationship with the New York Times. The long and frequently contentious back and forth between Bush and the newspaper became, in many ways, the definition of the president’s tenuous relationship with the press. Though the Times’ editorial board operates on a totally separate basis from the main newspaper, the staff editorials penned during Bush’s tenure in office offer an interesting insight into how journalists viewed the former president. An analysis of the editorials written throughout Bush’s first term paint the picture of the intellectual reaction to a presidency gone horribly wrong.

The analysis offered in this chapter was compiled through an examination of the editorials written by the New York Times during Bush’s first term. Those editorials of which George Bush, or one of his explicit policies, was the subject were counted. Editorials that merely suggested a course of action for the president, offered an analysis of his decisions without opinion, or included positive and negative comment were counted as “neutral” editorials. All others were designated as either “positive” or “negative”.

The New York Times Editorial Board is composed of 16 journalists.4 The board is responsible for writing the paper’s daily editorials, which represent the “voice of the board, its editor and the publisher.” The board’s members are all distinguished members of the Times’ universe; the current board editor, Andrew Rosenthal, served as National Editor for the Times during the 2000 election.

Though the editorial board would come to write highly critical editorials of Bush, in its endorsement of Al Gore for president in 2000, the board was kind. “We commend Mr. Bush for running a largely positive, inclusive campaign. He has not reviled government like Ronald Reagan in 1980 or played on divisive social themes as his father did in 1988,” the board wrote. “But on women's rights, guns and law-enforcement issues, he has a harsh agenda, and the centerpiece of his domestic program is a lavish tax cut for the rich that would negate the next Congress's once-in-a-century opportunity to move the country toward universal health care and stabilization of Social Security and Medicare.”

This early assessment of George Bush is in great contrast to the Times’ later editorials. Here, the divisions are ideological. It is not that the board sees Bush as a bad or ill-equipped candidate. Its problems with him are not personal. But the Times is irrefutably liberal, and as the above quote demonstrates, Bush was not. Still, there is an obvious respect for how Bush handled his campaign. Bush lost that respect, hard won, over the four years of his first term.

2001

By his inauguration on January 20, 2001, Bush had made a somewhat favorable impression on the New York Times, and it gave a positive assessment of his inaugural address. It noted that Bush’s arrival at the White House had deeply divided the country, and he faced an uphill battle on his policy agenda.5 The board seemed impressed with the speech’s theme of unity and moving beyond partisanship, writing, “Mr. Bush spoke with the firmness of a man determined to step past the complications of the election and validate his hold on the office with pledges of high purpose.” 

The editorial was more generous than it may seem. Notoriously liberal, that the board would give Bush such an open chance is somewhat remarkable. The 2000 election, won by Bush only after a decision by the Supreme Court, had left an extremely bitter taste in the mouths of many Americans, particularly liberals. Polling after the election shows that 45 percent of Americans were dissatisfied with the outcome election.6 Many Democrats were outraged on inauguration day, and in anything by a conciliatory mood. Indeed, Gallup recorded the highest ever partisan response difference for a president’s first quarter during Bush’s first term.

Bush’s inaugural message of unity clearly appealed to the Times. In the wake of such an acrimonious election and tense partisan divisions, the idea of every American coming together to make the country better was understandably appealing. But there are traces of doubt laced in the inauguration editorial. While the editorial board was drawn to Bush’s message of cohesion throughout the country, it suspected he might not be the one to do it. Following a quote from the speech about how every American deserves a chance, the board wrote, “If he governs in that spirit, Mr. Bush can lift the nation to a new era of inclusion and social justice,” the implicit suggestion being that Bush very well may not govern in such an inclusive spirit.