Carole Coleman
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Carole Coleman is an Irish journalist, who until recently worked as the Washington correspondent for RTÉ. She is a journalism graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology.
She is best known for a probing television interview of President George W. Bush just before his official visit to Ireland in the summer of 2004. The interview, for which questions were approved by the White House press office, led to complaints by Bush and his press officers. It is said, without any proof, that Bush complained personally to Bertie Ahern about a perceived lack of regulation of state-owned media in Ireland following the interview[citation needed].
Coleman said that she was surprised by the White House staff's reaction to the interview, but that she had no regrets:
Clearly the White House had thought they would be dealing with an Irish "colleen" bowled over by the opportunity to interview the Bushes.
. . . .
Had I been fair? Should I just have been more deferential to George Bush? I felt that I had simply done my job and shuddered at the thought of the backlash I would surely have faced in Ireland had I not challenged the president on matters that had changed the way America was viewed around the world.
In October 2005, Coleman published Alleluia America. This book begins with an account of her interview with Bush and its aftermath. It goes on to describe Coleman's travels through the parts of the United States which voted for Bush in the 2004 election and the people she met in those places.
[edit] References
- Carole Coleman, "Ireland: I wanted to slap him", Sunday Times, October 9, 2005 [1]
- Carole Coleman, Alleluia America!: An Irish Journalist in Bush Country, ISBN 190414876X
