The media dread of positive Bush television images is sending some into hysterics. Connolly actually insisted on Fox that the president's flight to Baghdad was not a "troop movement," there should be less fuss about keeping the logistical details secret. In G.I. Ceci's world, keeping the commander-in-chief's movements quiet in a war zone is less important than troop movements. Is there any doubt that he is a highly desirable target for terrorists and Baathist remnants? She should not be surprised (but probably would be surprised) to hear the public's response: Oh, shut up. Criticize the policy if you want, or criticize the politician, but don't try to tell us that media access is more important than the president's security.

Not all journalists lacked sense on the Sunday shows. On CNN's "Reliable Sources," host Howard Kurtz goaded Post reporter Mike Allen and Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman about the Baghdad trip, but they were decidedly less outraged than Kurtz was, as he asked: "Was the press used here for an elaborate two-hour, turkey-filled presidential photo-op?" Klaidman reminded Kurtz that the press is always seen as "used" in one way or another, and media behavior would have been as much or more of an issue had the press blown the secret of the president's trip.

For all the claims of Bush as puppet master of the press, by Friday morning, all three network morning shows were raining skepticism on the trip, to no one's surprise. ABC's Charlie Gibson wondered why "things are so unstable" that the president had to "sneak in, in darkness." CBS's Harry Smith insisted the president erred in his speech to soldiers, that he should not be connecting the Iraq war to the fight against terrorists. NBC's Matt Lauer wondered if the Baghdad trip was arranged to blunt criticism because "he did not attend any of the funerals of the fallen soldiers in Iraq."

This should have stopped G.I. Ceci from making silly claims of the press being "absolutely controlled" by Bush two days later. But that presupposes that she actually watched the TV news, which apparently is too much to expect.