Presidential historian and CBS News commentator Douglas Brinkley gave an interview to Media Matters for America on the press attention being paid to the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. Apparently willing to lend his credentials and authority to the left-wing website whose sole purpose is to bully and intimidate the media, Brinkley provided MMfA with just what they needed to preemptively admonish the press on any coverage of Bush that might not be totally negative.
The article, entitled Historians, WH Reporters: Press Shouldn’t “Whitewash” Bush Record In Library Reports, relies heavily on Brinkley’s stature as a presumably objective historian to paint as objective fact that Bush was an awful president:
“Right now he’s ranked as one of the lower presidents because of the War in Iraq and the economy tanking so he’s got a long way to go to get rehabilitated,” said Douglas Brinkley, a top presidential historian and author. “It is a long revisionist road up from the bottom for George W. Bush. He is ranked toward the bottom rung of presidents.”
Indeed, surveys of historians regularly find Bush ranked among the worst of U.S. presidents.
Having toured the new library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Brinkley described it as having a “compassionate conservative motif” for Bush, adding, “I was surprised how much wall space was given to AIDS in Africa, marine conservation, No Child Left Behind. I got the feeling that the Bush crowd was trying to paint their president as more of a centrist than many people feel.”
But Brinkley stressed that whatever positive image is being attempted this week cannot rewrite his presidency.
“I don’t think it matters two weeks from now, it is a building opening and people tend to be jubilant,” he said. “It’s the beginning of revisionism of a presidency.”
Given Brinkley’s participation in this hit piece, it will be revealing to see his analysis on CBS News in the coming days as they report on the library’s opening. Perhaps CBS News will fully disclose to their viewers that Brinkley is far more than a historian and has moved into the realm of political activist by participating with such a partisan and biased group as Media Matters.