As she leaves, Bush’s press secretary has some advice for reporters

Since she succeeded Tony Snow as presidential spokesperson in September 2007, Perino has been able to observe the press closely. She told the standing room only crowd at her final briefing,

“it’s quite remarkable that everyone says they want to add more commentary to their news pages. In some ways, I think, well, how is that even possible. It seems sometimes that that’s all that there is.”

Over breakfast, Perino was especially critical of reporters who write a news story on one day and then the next day write an analysis piece that is just thinly veiled opinion. While noting that there is some real analysis being produced,

“Most analysis to me now is just basically a chance for reporters to use a lot more adjectives and adverbs. And it is very hard then for a press secretary the next day to go back to working with that reporter as an objective journalist"

Reporters send the White House press secretary a staggering amount of email seeking information, Perino said. Last weekend, she worked hard to clean out her email in-box and left on Friday with 997 emails. On Monday, the inbox contained 2,172 messages.

“And that is mostly from reporters asking me every little thing and some big things and it is completely overwhelming"

At the morning briefing, Perino declined to offer advice to her successor.

“I wish my successor, Robert Gibbs, all the very best. Please go easy on him — for a week."

[I'll never complain about my email again {well, for a week...}]

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