Bush Goes 'Over the Heads' of National Media

"The Bush administration, displeased with the news coverage of the war in Iraq, has accelerated efforts to bypass the national media by telling the administration's story directly to the American public," the Washington Post's Dana Milbank writes. In an "unprecedented effort to reach news organizations that do not regularly cover the White House," Bush did five eight-minute interviews with regional broadcasters yesterday. Mentioning improvements to Iraq's hospitals and schools, Milbank reports, "he said that 'there's a great deal of consistency' in the administration's actions and 'a very clear strategy' while expressing "'a sense that people in America aren't getting the truth.' In one interview, with Hearst-Argyle, he said, 'I'm mindful of the filter through which some news travels, and somehow you just got to go over the heads of the filter and speak directly to the people.'"