Journalism Junction

President Bush, joining the ranks of media critics lately, brings his own unique take to the sticky question of what constitutes fair and comprehensive journalism.

At his Oct. 5 news conference, he took the press to task for dwelling on the negative: "Listen, we're making good progress in Iraq. Sometimes it's hard to tell it when you listen to the filter." He said much the same thing soon thereafter, at a Kentucky fundraiser: "We're making great progress -- I don't care what you read about." And this week, he expanded on the theme: "There's a sense that people in America aren't getting the truth. I'm mindful of the filter through which some news travels, and sometimes you just have to go over the heads of the filter and speak directly to the people."

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The president's own recipe for a balanced media diet in this contentious age emerged at the end of his Sept. 22 interview with Fox News. Brit Hume asked him how he gets his news. Bush said he glances at headlines "just to kind of (get) a flavor for what's moving" but "I rarely read the stories."

He has "great respect for the media," he says. "But I also understand that a lot of times there's opinions mixed in with news." To shield himself, he gets the news from his staff: "I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world."

As with most of us media critics, Bush's idea of objectivity is very personal. What I'm not so clear about is his definition of "filter."