President Bush Clarifies His Newspaper Reading Habits, Sort Of

By: E&P Staff Reports on President Bush's reading habits in regard to newspapers have ranged from "almost never" to "six or seven a day." Some have said he does read the paper every day--but only the sports pages. In one of his several chats with the president on Monday, NBC anchor Brian Williams asked him directly about it.

From the transcript:

WILLIAMS: "Once and for all -- and I know you've had some fun with members of the press on this subject -- how much television news do you watch? How much do you read the morning papers, news magazines? How much do you see in an average week?"

BUSH: "I don't see a lot of the news. Every morning I look at the newspaper. I can't say I've read every single article in the newspaper. But I definitely know what's in the news. Occasionally, I watch television. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but it's occasionally. I'm working at that point, as are you.

"But I'm very aware of what's in the news. I'm aware because I see clips. I see summaries. I have people on my staff that walk in every morning and say, 'This is what's -- this is how I see it. This is what's brewing today,' on both the domestic and international side. Frankly, it is probably part of my own fault for needling people, but it's a myth to think I don't know what's going on. And it's a myth to think that I'm not aware that there is opinions that don't agree with mine. Because I'm fully aware of that. . . .

"I read the newspaper. I mean, I can tell you what the headlines are. I must confess, if I think the story is, like, not a fair appraisal, I'll move on. But I know what the story's about."