Washington — It was "must-see Thursday" at the White House as a dozen NBC news cameras shadowed President Bush through an unusually packed made-for-TV schedule.
He walked his dogs, huddled with CIA and FBI briefers, reached out to labor union leaders, pored over education policy with his advisers, lunched with Vice President Dick Cheney, waxed profound about the presidency to White House Fellows, talked NATO expansion with the Lithuanian president, signed a bill into law, gave marching orders to his commission on bioethics, sweated through a midday workout and received an award from the 4-H club.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The only door closed to NBC, which was filming for a day-in-the-life broadcast next week, was the one keeping cameras out of Bush's casual evening cocktail party with Republican lawmakers.
"The president and the vice president have agreed to open up the White House today so that American people can have a very rich understanding of the events that take place at the White House, including many of the scenes that take place behind the scenes," said White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.
And so, the executive mansion was essentially turned into a movie set, with massive panels of plastic sheeting erected on the North Lawn so that NBC anchor Tom Brokaw could tape his segments safe from the gaze of passing tourists. On the South Lawn, a remote-controlled camera at the end of a 20-foot jib caught Bush up close as he walked from the Oval Office to his limousine.
The one-hour NBC special, produced by its news division and called "The Bush White House: Inside the real West Wing," will air Wednesday immediately before the network's fictional White House drama, "The West Wing." Extra footage will be used for a separate Discovery Channel special scheduled to air Friday.
Thursday was no average day for a president who mostly keeps 9-to-5 hours. And White House aides admitted in private that they jammed more into Bush's day than they normally would in order to give NBC cameras an idea of the breadth of what their boss does.
The meeting with Lithuania's Valdas Adamkus, for example, was originally slated for the following week but moved up to coincide with NBC's taping, a White House official said.
One of 12 camera crews roaming the grounds since around 4 a.m. EST was allowed inside the exercise room of Bush's private living quarters for his weightlifting routine after he'd worked up a good sweat.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.