Press to Rummy's questioner: "Jeez, why so crabby?"

Hopefully this interview on CNN isn't going to set the tone for press reactions to Ray McGovern's hardball questions to Rumsfeld yesterday, but I won't be placing any bets on it.

The questions he received from Paula Zahn:

*Did you go to this speech today with the intent of challenging Secretary Rumsfeld?

*What was it, then, that you wanted to accomplish by following [a heckler's] pointed question?

*Essentially, what [Rumsfeld] told you is: I never said exactly where the weapons of mass destruction were. I was referring to, we had a pretty darn good idea where the sites were ... Do you buy what he said today?

*How much of an ax do you have to grind with Secretary Rumsfeld?

*There was a point where it appeared as though you were going to get kicked out ... Donald Rumsfeld encouraged whoever I think had their hands on you at the time to let you stay there. Does he get any credit for that today?

Wow. Had Zahn done her homework, she would have known that only a sucker would 'buy what Rumsfeld said' about WMDs. And just how much "credit" should any public official get for simply taking questions from the public? If that's what the press considers bold, we're in big trouble.

But this bogus war is bringin' me down, man. Let's get back to that car crash!

I should note that McGovern gives excellent answers to Zahn's questions, and does his own part to point out the way in which the press has abdicated its duties:

"It's not a matter of axes to grind. It's a matter of telling the truth. And we pledged, in my day at the CIA, to tell it without fear or favor, to tell it like it is. And, when I see that corrupted, that is the real tragedy of this whole business."