President Bush's surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to Baghdad may have been a big hit with U.S. troops stationed there, whose morale skyrocketed from the visit. But within hours reporters were grousing that the White House "lied" to them to keep the mission secret.
"There is the small but inconvenient fact that the White House lied to the press," Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz griped on CNN – even before Air Force One had returned to U.S. airspace.
Kurtz complained that he and other reporters had been expressly told that Bush would be eating Thanksgiving dinner at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. "They even put out the menu – free range turkey, if you're interested," he noted.
"A lot of the journalists I've talked to today are upset that this kind of deception was engaged in, not for military secrecy – although clearly there was a security aspect – but to set up this grand turkey photo-op for the president."
But even CNN anchor Carol Lin seemed to have trouble understanding why Kurtz & Co. were bent out of shape.
"Well, if you have full access, Howard – I mean, what's the downside, really?" Lin asked. "What's the dark side of a trip like this? It was great for troop morale. It made pretty pictures. It made people feel good on an American holiday."
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