Bush Was Not Amazed

The White House press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, denounced the scanner story as “media-manufactured.” Bush was simply impressed by a new type of scanner, he said. Other reporters said privately they thought Rosenthal’s story was a cheap shot.

In fact, Rosenthal wasn’t in the press pool that saw Bush try the scanner. He wrote his story from a TV tape of the event and the pool report of a reporter who watched Bush at a distance. After reviewing the tape, the Times last week ran a story backing Rosenthal’s account. NEWSWEEK’S view of the tape: Bush acts curious and polite, but hardly amazed.