Wednesday, November 09, 2005

How Orwellian Can You Get?

I thought I had seen the nadir of stupid things that this
administration had done.

Especially with the lies that were so easy to disprove.

This, however, takes the cake.

Rewriting the text of the White House news gaggle of 10/31/05, and attempting to pressure agencies into altering their own transcripts to match.

When every network with a camera crew there, and every reporter with a tape recorder going, is going to have the exact exchange on tape.

Absobloodylutely astounding.

From Think Progress (which also has video on the site)

There is a brewing controversy about what exactly was said at the White House press conference on October 31. Everyone agrees NBC’s David Gregory said this:

Q Whether there’s a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations.

Congressional Quarterly and FNS both transcribed Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s answer as “That’s accurate.” The White House transcript lists McClellan’s answer as “I don’t think that’s accurate.”

If you listened to the clip, it’s clear McClellan says “that’s accurate.” Nevertheless, the White House is trying to get CQ and FNS to change their transcripts. They’ve refused.



UPDATE: this White House looks even more foolish -- on their own website, where the White House has its own transcript , is the video. Look at about 5:20 into the video for the disputed exchange

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