Sunday, March 25, 2007
Reporters Getting Snow-balled at The White House
On Sunday's edition of CNN's "Reliable Sources," Howard Kurtz spoke with John Harris, managing editor of Politico.com, Jill Zuckman, national correspondent for the “Chicago Tribune”, Ed Henry, CNN White House correspondent, and Dan Lambro, chief political correspondent for “The Washington Times” spoke about the relationship between politics and the media. Read the full trascript HERE. Below is a portion of the discussion:
KURTZ: When President Bush offered to have Karl Rove and other White House officials testify before Congress about the firing of those eight U.S. attorneys, but in secret, not under oath and with no written record, it was obvious the press didn't think much of the proposal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Why do you have a transcript of the briefing every day and you won't have a transcript of what Karl Rove is going to tell Congress?
SNOW: Do you have a transcript of the conversation you and I had over in the corner the other day?
HENRY: We don't have a transcript.
SNOW: Do you have a transcript of the conversation we have when you call me up and try to get an answer?
KURTZ (voice over): The grilling of Snow continued on the morning shows.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS: Most people on the street, members of Congress, say, if you haven't got anything to hide, why not go up and testify under oath?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Why not Karl Rove and Harriet Miers? Why not the people who they want to subpoena? Why not have them testify under oath?
SNOW: Harry, you're sounding like a partisan rather than a reporter here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KURTZ: Ed Henry, you and your colleagues have been going at Snow pretty hard on this issue. It sounds like you think the Bush proposal is a terrible idea.
HENRY: Well, the bottom line for me that when you're a White House correspondent, you have a duty to ask tough questions. Earlier in the week, Tony Snow, when I asked him a question about Iraq , told me off camera to "zip it." He later apologized for that, but
You've got John Harris on your panel, and I seem to recall when he was covering the Clinton White House, there were pretty tough questions for Bill Clinton, and I didn't necessarily hear Republicans think that John Harris and others asking tough questions of the Clinton White House were doing the bidding of Republicans.
I think you have to let the chips fall where they may, whether you're covering a Democratic or Republican White House, and tough questions come with the territory -- Howie.
KURTZ: All right. Well, zip it for just one moment so I can get John Harris in. You were a White House correspondent for years. You know that when 10 reporters in a row pound the press secretary on the same issue, it can sound pretty one-sided.
HARRIS: Well, that's right, but that doesn't mean that it is one-sided. And the sort of pushback that Tony Snow was giving to -- hey, you're being partisan -- is itself part of the defense for them to get off the defensive.
You have to brush it off and go to the heart of what's very legitimate questions, as Ed says.
Keep asking them. The job is not to be popular. It is to try to get answers.
And that can be difficult to do with this White House.
ZUCKMAN: And the press briefing is not a television show. The bottom line is what reporters write in their newspaper stories or on their Web sites, or put on television in the evening news broadcasts.
KURTZ: But these days the press briefing is a television show.
ZUCKMAN: Well, you know, that shouldn't stop reporters from asking questions.
# posted by ATN @ 8:08 PM 
