President Bush spoke at the Desert Town Hall speaker series in Southern California yesterday and banned all media from covering the event. The former president even barred representatives from two of the events’ sponsors, a local CBS affiliate and The Desert Sun, who were scheduled to moderate the question and answer period. A Desert Town Hall official said he didn’t recall such a request being made by any of the event’s previous speakers, which have included Tony Blair, ret. Gen. Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice:
In a departure from previous events, the news media were barred from covering former president George W. Bush’s appearance at the Desert Town Hall speaker series Monday in Indian Wells. [...]
Referring to the change in presenters, [DTH board's vice president Brian] Harnik on Monday stressed that “the decision is up to our board of directors.”
But he said he had “no memory” of a previous instance in which a member of the media was removed as a Desert Town Hall moderator days before the event.
Bush took questions from attendees, who paid anywhere from $80 to $1,150 for a ticket to hear Bush speak, but all questions had to be submitted ahead of time. The Desert Sun reported that Bush appeared at a local school on Saturday as well, but “[n]o media was allowed into the event, and organizers even declined to say what time the president’s speech was scheduled to begin.” However, the Sun reporter did manage to get in the Desert Town Hall event and according to her following story, Bush merely put forth his same platitudes about 9/11 and spreading freedom.
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