While the rest of the media is in full battle mode today speculating about national security advisor Condoleezza Rice’s testimony tomorrow before the ten-member commission investigating the September 11th terrorist attack, USA Today‘s Mimi Hall is looking backward and offers up a flagrant example of White House spinning that nobody apparently bothered to challenge.
On March 9, White House press secretary Scott McClellan briefed reporters, saying President Bush had changed his mind and would answer privately all questions put to him by the 9/11 panel.
When asked if the administration would also reconsider and allow Rice to testify, McClellan said Rice already had delivered four hours of private testimony. “Only five members [of the commission] actually showed up,” said McClellan, “despite the fact that it [Rice’s testimony] was scheduled for the entire commission.” (Read: Commission so uninterested, we won’t be back.) And then, McClellan put on his best headmaster’s voice and lectured the troops: “I think you need to keep that in context for your reporting.”
Later that day, the Associated Press’ White House Correspondent Terence Hunt repeated McClellan’s “only five members showed up” quote, apparently content that the Bush press secretary wouldn’t indulge in spinning the contentious question of cooperation.
It took Hall a month to get back to the issue, but eventually she called Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the 9/11 panel. (We can only assume AP and dozens of others at the briefing have his name on their Rolodexes.) Turns out, according to Felzenberg, it was the White House that had set a cap on the number of commissioners who could attend. Felzenberg told Hall: “We were a little surprised that the White House has repeatedly implied to the public that commissioners were uninterested in attending these meetings.”
Unlike McClellan, Felzenberg didn’t do his own lecturing to the media about “context.” Or even about that little trick they teach you in Journalism 101 — get both sides of the story. As in: Pick up a phone.
–Susan Q. Stranahan
Susan Q. Stranahan wrote for CJR.