'Journeys with George' reveals much about president — and a jaded press

To appreciate HBO's "Journeys with George," the self-mocking campaign documentary airing at 9:30 tonight, you must cast your thoughts back to the first Bush presidency.

That's about when the cult of personality took over from the cult of policy in American political reporting. Led by rising stars such as The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, quick-shot pop psychology supplanted old-fashioned and admittedly dry analysis.

There probably was a good balance somewhere between the two, but whatever it was, we've lost it. One consequence is a drastic deterioration in the influence of hard news coverage.

Today, national politicians know an entertaining appearance on Leno or Letterman counts more with voters than the earnest work produced by a veteran news correspondent toiling away in relative obscurity.

Within this context, the 90-minute "Journeys with George" is doubly revealing.

Filmed through the course of the 2000 Bush presidential campaign by Alexandra Pelosi, who then was a reporter for NBC, this fluffy and intermittently fascinating documentary makes two points — one intentional, one likely not.

The film's chief hook is that George W. Bush turns out to be rather charming and quick-witted. This is supposed to surprise viewers, an aspiration that may have more to do with the media's thundering lack of insight than with presumed voter naiveté.

More important, by its neglect of anything substantive, "Journeys with George" underscores how trivialized much of the reporting on our political process has become. Keep that in mind while you watch the coverage of voting returns this evening.

Granted, the documentary's creator isn't exactly a heavyweight. Although her mother is Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and she speaks of being raised on politics, Alexandra Pelosi is more facile than profound in her observations.

Perhaps because of this deficit, she employs an arch, ironic form of narrative intended to show she knows how absurd the very idea of campaign reporting is.

But Pelosi mainly proves it's hard to look down your nose when you're in over your head.

She's certainly no match for Bush. In several of the striking encounters that are this documentary's chief allure, he turns the tables on her.

Video camera on shoulder, Pelosi attempts to unsettle Bush with one of those tongue-in-cheek hipster questions — if he were a tree, what kind of a tree would he be?

"I'm not a tree, I'm a Bush," retorts the future president. "You see, I'm quicker than you think I am, Alexandra."

He then snatches away the camera and subjects her to a series of pointed questions about a certain young man from Newsweek with whom she's been seen having private conversations. By the end, Pelosi is on the defensive.

Fans of the president will love such moments; detractors are likely to be furious with Pelosi for being apparently unable to offset these barbed love fests — for that's what they are — with solid reporting about candidate Bush's stands on various issues.

Instead, she attempts to provide evenhandedness by going to her colleagues for commentary on Bush, his team and the nature of political campaigning itself.

Most of their replies do not reflect well on either the political or reporting process. It's startling how many speak with identical mixed tones of smug world-weariness and easy self-loathing for their work.

Of course, that simply may reflect Pelosi's gravitation to those echoing her own apparent discomfort.

One senses reporters such as The Dallas Morning News' Wayne Slater readily could have offered more in the way of thoughtful comment.

There's evidence that toward the end of the campaign trail, Pelosi's colleagues wearied of her nearly as much as they did of the endless turkey sandwiches and cold coffee.

One night, she polls a plane of drunken reporters on which candidate they think will win the election, and the majority predicts Gore. The story "somehow" is leaked to the press the next day, and her colleagues ostracize her on the plane — until Bush intervenes.

He goes over to Pelosi and begins a conversation. "When they see me talking to you, these people are gonna be your friends again," he says. "But they're not your friends."

By the conclusion, Pelosi confesses this work is not for her. That's probably an accurate calculation, though we may be glad she lasted long enough for "Journeys with George."

Kay McFadden: 206-382-8888 or kmcfadden@seattletimes.com