Conspicuously absent from most major newspapers' coverage of President George W. Bush's recent condemnation of political advertising by 527 groups -- the practice of which Bush deemed to be “bad for the system” on August 23 -- is Bush's dramatic flip-flop on the issue. On the March 5, 2000, edition of CBS's Face the Nation, Bush said of the independent groups that were running ads attacking his Republican primary opponent, Senator John McCain (R-AZ): "[T]hat's what freedom of speech is all about. ... People have the right to run ads. They have the right to do what they want to do, under the -- under the First Amendment in America."

From the March 5, 2000, edition of CBS's Face the Nation:

BUSH: [T]here are people spending ads that say nice things about me. There are people spending money on ads that say ugly things about me.

PANELIST GLORIA BORGER: Should ...

BUSH: That's part of the American -- let me finish. That's part of the American process. There have been ads, independent expenditures, that are saying bad things about me. I don't particularly care when they do, but that's what freedom of speech is all about. And this allegation somehow that I'm involved with this is just totally ridiculous. It is uncalled for.

[...]

BORGER: [D]o you think you should stop these ads?

BUSH: You know, let me -- let me say something to you. People have the right to run ads. They have the right to do what they want to do, under the -- under the First Amendment in America.

Media Matters for America's LexisNexis search of recent coverage by major newspapers of Bush's condemnation of 527s revealed that nearly all of them failed to point out Bush's drastic shift on this issue, including stories that appeared on the front page of the August 27 editions of both The Washington Post and The New York Times. One notable exception was the Chicago Tribune, which reported on August 27: “The announcement also represents a reversal of Bush's position on 527s during his first presidential campaign, when he said the exchange of positive and negative television ads is 'part of the American process.'” USA Today, in the penultimate sentence of an August 26 article, mentioned claims by “Kerry campaign officials and Democratic activists” that “Bush's latest move against 527 groups was hypocritical.”

In addition to his comments on Face the Nation, Bush has defended political ads by outside groups on other occasions. During a primary debate in South Carolina on February 15, 2000, then-Governor George W. Bush responded as follows to a question about outside groups that run political ads: "[I]t's their right in America to do so. This is America." And The Baltimore Sun reported on April 24, 2000, that, on the issue of 527s,
"[s]pokesman Scott McClellan said Bush has said that 'he will preserve the right of groups and individuals to speak in the political process'."