So I'm reading what is supposed to be a puff piece by Mike Celizic in the Today Show section at MSNBC about Jenna Bush's upcoming wedding to Henry Hager on May 10.
It seems to do a serviceable job of describing their upcoming nuptials, what the attendants will wear, where it will be (an informal affair at the Bush family Crawford, Texas ranch), where they met, where he proposed. All nice stuff.
It's only slightly annoying that a picture caption at the article reads, "Jenna Bush, 25, and her fiance Henry Hager are scheduled to be married on May 10 in Texas." Cold feet on the part of the bride or the groom is always a possibility, but "will be married" seems more appropriate. But really, not a big deal.
But towards the end, Celizic drops in this:
Jenna Bush, 26, is a 2004 graduate of the University of Texas, where she was twice charged with misdemeanors for alcohol-related offenses.
What? He's kidding, right?
No, he's not. Not only did the classless Celizic decide to bring forth news of minor misdemeanors that is almost seven years old (note how he omitted 2001, the year of the offenses, when Ms. Bush was 19), he brought up nothing else about her time at UT.
So, for the record, Mike, here is what Wikipedia has that you didn't have the decency to include:
She attended the University of Texas at Austin where she was a legacy member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority (her mother, First Lady Laura Bush, is also a Theta).
..... Jenna graduated from UT with a degree in English in 2004.
It also appears that Celizic's chronology of Jenna's work career thus far is incomplete. He writes:
On graduation, she worked as a teacher for a charter school in Washington, D.C. She took a leave of absence from the job to work as an intern for UNICEF in Latin America. Her book about the experience, “Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope,” was published last year.
Along with her mother, Jenna Bush has written a second book — "Read All About It!" — to encourage children to read.
But the Wiki entry adds this:
After her internship for UNICEF, she returned to her teaching position at the charter school in Washington, D.C., where she is again currently teaching.
Ms. Bush may or may not be currently teaching, but, unless there's an error in the admittedly less-than-perfect Wikipedia, Celizic appears to have missed the fact that she returned to teaching after her UNICEF internship.
Additionally, the intro tease at a feature article in the November 2007 edition of Texas Monthly ("Girl Gone Mild"; only the tease and the first four paragraphs are available without registration, which probably requires a subscription) says this:
Today, the president’s daughter is all grown up, teaching in an inner-city public school, soon to be married, and even sooner to be the best-selling author of a serious book about AIDS.
Apparently, in Mike Celizic's world, telling readers about the noble things a daughter of George Bush has done is less important than citing the minor blemishes in her distant past -- even in a puff piece.
Shame on you, sir.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
