White House Objects to NBC News Interview with Bush

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White House Objects to NBC News Interview with Bush

May 19, 2008 6:03 PM

ABC News' Jennifer Duck Reports: White House Counselor Ed Gillespie sent a scathing letter to NBC News President Steve Capus criticizing the editing of Richard Engel's interview with President Bush in the Middle East amongst other comments made on NBC News.

Gillespie's letter was emailed as a "Setting the Record Straight" press release to a broad political email list and was posted on the White House website. But the release was unusual because it came from one of the president's top aides personally, was written in a furious tone and included a request to re-air the responses in full.

In the letter, Gillespie wrote, "This deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured storyline is utterly misleading and irresponsible and I hereby request in the interest of fairness and accuracy that the network air the President's responses to both initial questions in full on the two programs that used the excerpts."

NBC News released a statement in response saying, "Richard Engel's interview with President Bush has been available, unedited, in it's entirety, for the past day, on our website. Our reporting accurately reflects the interview. Just as the White House does not participate in the editorial process at the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal or USA Today, NBC News as part of a free press in a free society, makes its own editorial decisions."

The edited excerpts which aired on the Today Show and NBC Nightly News involve Engel questioning President Bush about his speech to Israel's parliament and whether President Bush was referring to Barack Obama when talking about appeasement and Iran.

At the end of the letter Gillespie said, "Mr. Capus, I'm sure you don't want people to conclude that there is really no distinction between the "news" as reported on NBC and the "opinion" as reported on MSNBC, despite the increasing blurring of those lines," and took the opportunity to bash MSNBC hosts Matthews and Keith Olbermann.

The president's counselor also asked if the network has "reconsidered its position that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war..." since according to Gillespie NBC "quietly stopped referring to conditions in Iraq as 'Civil War '" in 2007.

Gillespie also took time to address his complaints with NBC's reporting on the economy.

On the NBC "Nightly News" today, anchor Brian Williams addressed the issue and told viewers that Engel's interview is available in its entirety on the MSNBC Web site.

However, that wasn't good enough for Gillespie.

After the broadcast he issued another statement saying, "...it's simply absurd for people to have to log onto the Internet and stream video to get accurate information from NBC News."

May 19, 2008 in Thompson, Fred, Veepstakes, Vote 2008: Democrats | Permalink | User Comments (90)

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Whose lost the most credibility among the American people, the media, or the Republican party? Personally, I'd have to call it a tie.

Posted by: blog | May 19, 2008 6:19:31 PM

who cares about bush? why doesn't he just go to crawford and be quiet until his time is up?

Posted by: Myshiba | May 19, 2008 6:21:48 PM

In ready NBC's (pathetic) response, one can only conclude that they agree with Gillespie that it was 'totally misleading and deceitful'.

...NBC News as part of a free press in a free society, makes its own editorial decisions...

Right. No matter how partisan they are.

Posted by: Fisher | May 19, 2008 6:22:14 PM

BUSH WON'T BE ON THE BALLOT NEXT YEAR. SO LETS MOVE ON. Obama will lets why i'm voting for him.

Obama08

Posted by: DAN | May 19, 2008 6:31:39 PM

Does the White House have nothing better to do than take on NBC? How ridiculous.

Posted by: willy | May 19, 2008 6:57:30 PM

I had to chuckle as I read of the White House's assertion that "NBC was manufacturing storylines." Since the Bush White House has mastered the art of manufacturing storylines it's difficult to have much sympathy for them. Thank you NBC News for covering the news and not yielding to pressure from Ed Gillespie, the White House and their ilk.

Posted by: Sherrill Franklin | May 19, 2008 6:59:40 PM

im a democrat and i opposed the war but lets give the man his due:since the surge, things have turned around. emotion is one thing, facts on the ground another. given enough time, we can help bring stability to iraq.

Posted by: ron | May 19, 2008 7:12:21 PM

Posted by: ron | May 19, 2008 7:12:22 PM

Posted by: ron | May 19, 2008 7:37:32 PM

I agree both NBC and MSNBC have been the most biased news media of all the networks. This is a shame! No wonder its rating is down. The News President should be fired for lack of ethics of journalism and misleading the nation.

Posted by: J | May 19, 2008 8:29:19 PM

I believe Bush in this case, because if there's anything the Bush White House knows it's deceit.

Posted by: hopesprings52 | May 19, 2008 8:38:44 PM

lol...so the White House staff is mad at NBC because they were unfair to Bush. lol What did the Bush people expect ?? NBC hasn't told the truth about anyone they don't like for ages. Bush staff...if you go swimming with the sharks and get bit, it's your fault. lol

Posted by: Roger King | May 19, 2008 8:42:40 PM

Well I dunno, seems like the Prez should chill out. He is very unpopular and attacking the media won't change that fact.

Posted by: IndieVisible | May 19, 2008 8:47:45 PM

Why blame everything on the President, after all, we voted for and do have a congress which is basically Democrate.

Posted by: joyce | May 19, 2008 8:48:15 PM

Bush & Obama are two of a kind, big babies...

Posted by: Abe | May 19, 2008 8:57:00 PM

Remember, Bush is the republican and Obama is the democrat. Both of them are worthless.

Posted by: Art | May 19, 2008 9:00:57 PM

They decide, they report. We don't watch.

Posted by: b | May 19, 2008 9:02:43 PM

I kinda feel bad for him now, like Hillary Clinton (and earlier, Mitt Romney). Both are on their ways out but trying to hold their heads up. Then again, they only have themselves to blame for their current situations, but more likely than not they just didn't know any better. Regardless, they've made themselves hated by the majority of Americans and while I do feel bad for them, it's time to go away.

Posted by: DCA | May 19, 2008 9:04:45 PM

MSNBC is a piece of junk.Biased,mean spirited and full of opinions from good for nothing loud mouths posing as journalists.We have a free press but not irresponsible press in our country which MSNBC epitomizes.The best way to shut down this disgrace is NOT to watch it.

Posted by: vic | May 19, 2008 9:08:09 PM

Geez, I thought NBC and MSNBC went off the air years ago. I did some channel surfing and don't even have them programmed.

Posted by: Carl | May 19, 2008 9:10:06 PM

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