Giving Information? Or Hiding It?
The portion I'm highlighting is an exchange between Snow and Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, who came to the White House beat from Capitol Hill. As Allen points out, Capitol Hill "reporters have relatively free rein." Check out the exchange:
Stolberg: "Coming from [the Capitol Hill] environment, the White House felt utterly constraining. I often tease Tony and tell him he's the most useless press secretary ever."
Snow: "Thanks, Sheryl."
Stolberg: "I'm trying to get information out of you. You're trying not to give me information."
Snow: "I'm not sure that's quite the case."
Stolberg: "You ARE trying to give me information?"
Snow: "Yeah, but sometimes – ''
The AP's Terence Hunt, to laughter: "At a slow pace!"
Snow: "No. My view on this is pretty simple, which is: On a big story, if we don't get our side out, we have no right to complain if it's not reported. So we've certainly tried to be more aggressive, for instance, before a big speech and so on. There are going to be times when for various reasons – national security, or sometimes even the propriety of dealing with other individuals in Washington, around the world – you are, in fact, going to clam up for a little while until others have had their chance to speak. I've been getting lots of questions tonight about the decision the British government's made. Well, the prime minister has not yet made his announcement, and it's a little presumptuous for me to start characterizing or pronouncing on something that hasn't happened yet. So, 'stonewall,' 'useless press secretary.' But sometimes that, in fact, is the appropriate thing to do. On the other hand, again, I'm a big believer that if we come and complain that you haven't reported something and you have to ask for it, then that's our fault."