It was Wolf Blitzer Versus Bill Clinton on CNN’s The Situation Room where the former President resisted a baited-hook question that would have allowed him to take a potshot at the administration’s Iraq war policy — and had a vigorous give-and-take with host Wolf Blitzer.
Part of the problem is that if you read the entire transcript linked above, Blitzer was trying to get a strong, definitive and on-the-offensive answer from Clinton. But Clinton in effect suggested it isn’t always black and white — that he can support the war but still have some questions about it. That led to this exchange:
BLITZER: So I assume that the answer is, yes, the war was a mistake. Is that your answer?
CLINTON: You’re trying to get me to make news, and I’m trying to educate people. It doesn’t matter whether it was a mistake to go in or not at the time. I thought we should have let the U.N. inspectors finish.
We are where we are. We can’t undo what has happened. Fifty-eight percent of Iraqis voted in the last election. That’s more than we had turn out in 2004. And we’ve got a lot of good people there working hard to train the security forces and the military forces.
My answer is, whether it was a mistake or not, we are where we are and we ought to try to make this strategy succeed, support that strategy. It’s the only option that will get us out in an honorable way, having made these sacrifices mean something.
BLITZER: That’s my job. I’m a newsman. That’s what I try to do, is make news. And you try to avoid news. That’s your job.
Well….not necessarily. Clinton simply seemed to be suggesting that matters aren’t always clear black and white — that there are gray areas at times as well. People may differ over whether those gray areas even exist. But he was practicing what GOPers call “nuance.” Blitzer didn’t want it. And Blitzer is correct: it is indeed the job of a newsman/newswoman to make news — or at leastto EXTRACT news.
It isn’t that an interview subject doesn’t want to make the news. The interview subject may give the reporter the kind of answer the reporter is seeking — an answer the reporter feels is necessary to make news. That’s what happened here. Now, if Wolf had tried the same questions on Jimmy Carter, he may have had more luck. But Clinton clearly views the whole war issue as one that has more complexities.
Here’s another interesting quote, too:
BLITZER: You’re now in the CNN SITUATION ROOM, at least via satellite, how do you feel?
CLINTON: Well, I like being in the other situation room, but I like this one better: There’s less pressure and more freedom and I know I can walk out on you. I couldn’t walk out of those other situations.
Could that be a reference to a certain CNN news personality who took a walk recently?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.