Bush's Media Cherry Picking

Here's possibly Williams's toughest exchange:

Williams: "Mr. President, Donovan McNabb, the Eagles quarterback, recently said that black quarterbacks are under more scrutiny than white quarterbacks. Do you think that's true in all American life?"....

Bush: "I'm sure there are cases where somebody feels like the criticism -- the harsh criticism comes because expectations, you know, aren't being met or because -- you know, let me just say, like, for example, Condi Rice. You know, she gets criticized. I don't think she would tell you that she's been criticized more than any other secretary of state because of her race. Maybe she would. I don't think so. I've never heard her complain about it."

At the end of the interview, Williams thanked Bush for his time.

Bush: "Yes, sir."

Williams: "Appreciate it."

Bush: "Good job."

Williams: "Thank you."

In His Own Words

Here's video of Williams talking to Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly yesterday. Said Williams: "NPR decided that that was cherry-picking, the White House shouldn't be asking one correspondent/reporter/analyst versus another, that they should make a general invitation. . . .

"As you know, people all compete to get interviews with the president, and the president's never done an interview about race relations. so this was a rare opportunity, and I'm glad that Fox is making the most of it."

His own feelings about NPR's decision? "It's driving me crazy and I think it was the wrong decision, but, you know, you've got to live with it. But I think it's crazy . . . that any organization would say no, we're going to turn our back on the president."

Said Kelly: "And good for you, because you went ahead and did the interview anyway, as any good reporter should do."