All alone in the crowd

I read this in US News and World Report:

White House photographers last week got a lesson in presidential authority. Already in place for a Bush visit to a New York seniors facility, the newsmen were asked by the master of ceremonies if they’d take pictures of the crowd before President Bush arrived. No one stepped forward. That is until Bush heard and called on Reuters photographer Larry Downing to get snapping. “Ask and ye shall receive,” grinned Bush. “The president just sort of ambushed me,” said Downing. Downing is something of a Bush fave. In Istanbul in 2004, Downing recalls taking a picture of NATO officials, then pausing to write down their names. From behind, a man asked, “Do you need any help with the names?” It was the prez.

In other words, reporters apparently refused an opportunity to show that crowds of people wanted to see the President.  Please contrast that, with the way in which the MSM, given the opportunity, worked to obscure the fact that nobody wanted to crowd around Sheehan.