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Grim, Defensive, Bush Meets Press, Shoring Up War by Joe Hagan On Tuesday evening, April 13, President George W. Bush, furrowed and wound tight, shrouded in determination, moved down a red carpet in the East Room of the White House to engage the press on prime time television. His evening appearance was meant to re-establish his leadership for the American television viewer during a week when violence in Iraq had stolen the news cycle from the Administrations policy of unshakable resolve. Bush, was at first grim, stern, alternately energized and halting, emphatic and inarticulate, mixing his confident smirk with stumped silences as he batted out his message with in terse slogans: We must not waver . Bush had arrived, the press had a different sense of the history about to unfold. Bushs staff framed the evening, stating the message of the broadcast: It was a historic moment and historic opportunity. Fox News assisted him with a helpful ticker: BUSH: Freedom is the deepest need of every human soul. Bush delivered an unusually long and fervent opening statement, breaking the news that more troops might be called up and sent over if requested, and reasserting the June 30 hand-off date to an Iraqi authority. He then opened himself to questions, some of which he answered, others of which he simply responded to with his own unrelated statements. He stuck with the company line that he may have been misinformed, but the attack on Iraq served the world well. Whether that line washes in the next few months remains to be seen. Bush appealed directly to the TV viewer by acknowledging what they were seeing there every day. Look, he said, nobody wants to see dead people on their television screens. Fox News gave this interpretation to the statement: BUSH: I WILL NEVER LET OUR YOUNGSTERS DIE IN VAIN. In a coup de grace, the President bestowed the final question to an NPR reporter, who asked if Mr. Bush had failed to properly communicate the gravity of the current situation. Bush had to remind viewers that he understood the responsibilities of a wartime President. And he had to provide an estimate of some sense of his own fallibility, which he did, ever so slightly.
Were not going to get an advancetheyd rather have him make the news, rather than Peter Jennings. Now, no less than 82 United States soldiers have been killed in April alone, with more than 560 wounded. As Newsweek and MSNBC analyst Howard Fineman told The Observer , quoting Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo: Hes got a whole lot of splainin to do. Since the Presidential campaign began, the administration has sought to keep a tight rein on the news cycle. Almost none of President Bushs media appearances have been effective. His Meet the Press interview with NBCs Tim Russert was un-Presidential. Meanwhile, the Democratic primaries usurped the headlines for months, as the conflict in Iraq rose like a flood around the White Houses feet. Now, in April alone, television has begun to do what it can during a war, and what the President acknowledged: No one likes to see dead bodies, he said during the press conference. Bush, polls are showing that the public believes less and less that the war in Iraq is making them safer from terrorism. These were facts that could no longer be controlled by the same PR professionals who rolled acquiescent reporters one year ago, before American troops stormed the sands of Iraq. This time in 2003, President Bush was leading the public where he wanted them to go, from his role as the wartime commander-in-chief. The press, with little traction from an opposition party, were cowed. What a symbol that was for their media strategy and their success at it, said Mr. Theres a lot of built-up animosity and resentment and even some self-loathing involved here in the press room, and indeed in all the media. Every reaction invites an equal and opposite reaction, eventually. If thats so, the action and the reaction in the East Room last night was mild on the surface, roiling underneath. The President had never looked more resolved nor less sure-footed. As a prime-time press conference, it may not have been the evening that the White House had wanted.
Carell, a longtime Daily Show correspondent, was just joshing: No one has actually seen the pilot that he and the new cast completed a few weeks ago. Carell knows what people are saying: Until now, The Office has been defined exclusively by the comic brilliance of British wit Ricky Gervais, whose curl-up-in-your-seat-and-wince smugness drills as deeply into social humiliation as Larry David does playing Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm . In May, NBC will announce whether the American version has made the fall schedule. If it does, it will be a radical departure for the network: True to the original, NBCs The Office was shot like a documentary about office life, a mix of script and improvisation, with no laugh track or studio audience. Gervais and his co-creator, Stephen Merchant, advised the actors and the producers on how to pull it off. Among critics and Hollywood player-haters, this smells like another colossal failure in the works, Couples II , Ab Fab on NBC. Its been years since British imports were seen as easy Hollywood transfersnot since the early 1970s, when Norman Lear went to the BBC to borrow All in the Family and Sanford and Son .
Still, The Office could also be a counterintuitive hit for NBC, the start of a tectonic, post- Friends shift in the game plan for a company about to merge with a raft of new cable properties from Vivendi Universal. Ultimately, its all about Steve Carell, whose dark, furrowed eyes and pencil-line mouth would define the show. So far, his stars appear to be aligning quickly: This summer, he will appear alongside Will Ferrell in two big movies, the local-news comedy Anchorman and the new Woody Allen picture Melinda and Melinda . Hes a great undiscovered talent, said Jon Bines, a former writer for The Daily Show who now works for Jimmy Kimmel Live . Carells hire had changed their minds about an otherwise gruesome idea. Hes going to do what they werent able to do with Coupling , which is satisfying the people who loved the show, said Mo Rocca, the horn-rimmed Daily Show star and VH1 talking head. On the other hand, he also believed the dangers of upsetting a frothing fan base were overrated. Its important not to think that everyone has seen it, because they havent. Carell said a number of other actors tried out for The Office , including Bob Odenkirk, of Mr. Show , and standup comic and Philip Seymour Hoffman look-alike Jim Gaffigan. Its one of those shows I think a lot of people wanted to get in on, he said. I talked to one director who passed on it, or didnt enter into discussions about directing, just because he was afraid of ruining the original. Carell realized from the start that he had to reinvent the character and avoid impersonating Mr. I didnt want to lock it in too hard, because Ricky Gervais was so good and definitive in that role . Theres no way you can improve on what he did, so I thought the most advisable way to go about it would be to just try something different. Carells own comic building block is the unblinking stare, with a layer of bitterness behind the eyes. Theres always an underlying sense of resentment in his performances, said Kahane Corn, a supervising producer for The Daily Show , which really helps determine the direction of every single line that comes out of his mouth. Both his face and his comic persona very clearly summon Peter Sellers. Carell plays absurdity so straight that he becomes the comic foil to everything and everyone around him. Its that bumbling innocence, but also thinking its competence, said Mr. As a Daily Show vethe started just as Jon Stewart took over as hostMr. Carell defined the unflappable mock-newsman that is the staple of show. Carells trademark moment came after a round of Republican debates in New Hampshire in late 1999, when he interviewed Arizona Senator John McCain.
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