Tension With White House And The Press
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs makes another attempt to ‘help’ the working press.
In my recent CNN interview with Robert Gibbs, the press secretary said he offered the White House Correspondents’ Association a deal: “We won’t do background, you don’t do background. . . . The specific offer was, if you’ve got a background source, one, you should put them on the record. And if you’re not going to put them on the record, then have somebody at the White House — give them an opportunity to say that that is or is not true. And we would attach our name to it.’ … Bloomberg’s Edwin Chen, who heads the correspondents’ association, responded by e-mail: ‘Taken at face value, Robert’s high-minded offer went nowhere and is unworkable because the press is not monolithic — thank goodness. We probably could never agree to act as a single bloc on anything short of defending the freedom of the press; there will always be the outliers who can’t resist the temptation of scoring ‘a scoop’ based on anonymous source(s).’ … Days after Gibbs met with Chen [on access questions], … the White House began making some modest changes. When Obama met with congressional leaders on the Supreme Court vacancy, a press pool was allowed to ask a couple of questions. And when Obama called the Endeavour astronauts, pool photographers were allowed to take pictures … One growing problem for both sides is the dwindling use of press charters for the president’s trips. With fewer cash-strapped news outlets willing to underwrite the cost, reporters were forced to fly commercial on Obama’s visits to Prague and Cape Canaveral — and some White House support staff had to be left home rather than hitching a ride on the press charter.”
