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July 4, 2004
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — His questions were not all softballs, but when a reporter from Al-Ahram, the Egyptian newspaper, went to the White House in May to interview President Bush, he was so polite as to be deferential, a trait that the president would no doubt enjoy seeing become protocol among the press corps.

"I have four topics, Mr. President: Iraq, the Israeli-Arab issue, the so-called greater Middle East and bilateral" relations between Egypt and the United States, the reporter said. "Which one do you choose of them, Mr. President?"

To which Mr. Bush diplomatically replied, "Whatever you want to do, sir, you're the distinguished journalist." When the session was over, Mr. Bush was moved to say, "Good job. Very good job. Very good interview."

The atmosphere was considerably chillier two weeks ago when Mr. Bush found himself parrying tough questions from another journalist, Carole Coleman of the Irish broadcasting company RTE.

Though she had agreed to the White House's request that she submit her questions in advance - a practice that few if any members of the regular White House press corps would ever agree to - she chose not to listen passively as Mr. Bush ran through his stock answers. Instead, she challenged some of his assertions and interrupted him repeatedly with follow-up questions, provoking the presidential ire, making herself something of a heroine in Ireland and setting off a new round in the debate over whether some American reporters are too timid with Mr. Bush.

Although he typically answers a few questions from reporters several times a week and has become more comfortable doing occasional full-scale news conferences - where he often banters with and teases his American inquisitors and sometimes cuts them off - Mr. Bush hardly ever agrees to sit-down interviews with American news organizations. This newspaper, for one, has not interviewed Mr. Bush since he took office.

But Mr. Bush is more accommodating to foreign news organizations. He regularly agrees to speak to journalists from parts of the world where he needs to get his message across, especially the Middle East, and from countries he is about to visit. The interviews are usually quite short - 10 minutes or so - and give the president a chance to make his points through journalists who might be a little cowed by the setting and the pressure of questioning the president of the United States.

If the White House expected Ms. Coleman to stick to that role, its assumption was shattered within minutes after she sat down with the president in the White House library on June 24. In a contentious 11-minute session just before Mr. Bush traveled to Ireland, she questioned Mr. Bush sharply about Iraq and repeatedly cut off his responses to challenge him on particular points.

"Let me finish. Let me finish. May I finish?" Mr. Bush said the first time it happened, when Ms. Coleman interrupted him to point out that he had not yet found banned weapons in Iraq.

"Let me finish," Mr. Bush repeated a moment later when she cut him off again to challenge him on the distinction between what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, and what was happening in Iraq. "Let me finish, please. Please. You ask the questions, and I'll answer them, if you don't mind."

The White House was sufficiently miffed about the interview that it later complained to the Irish Embassy in Washington. But Mr. Bush did not seem to take it personally. After the interview ended, he posed for a picture with Ms. Coleman, even throwing his arm around her shoulder.

"In Ireland, we give all our politicians a tough time," said Ms. Coleman, who agreed with the suggestion that European politicians are more battle-hardened by the parliamentary requirement that they face regular and direct questioning from the opposition.

"I felt I did my job, " she said.