Bill Plante on His Famous Question

By Alissa Krinsky 

CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante speaks out today, on CBS’s Public Eye, about the much-discussed “If he’s so smart, why did you lose Congress?” question he directed at President Bush after Karl Rove‘s departure announcement yesterday. Plante says, “There was no time to frame that question because the event [that] morning was a statement, not a news conference. So I asked a more direct one. I thought it unlikely that they would answer, but it’s always worth a try.”

“The point is that reporters are not here as guests. We’re here to ask questions. Why? Because if we were ever to agree to ‘behave,’ we’d be walking away from our First Amendment role – and then we really would be the shills we’re so often accused of being.”

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