Llewellyn
King
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June 2, 2008
Scotty, We Hardly Knew
Ye
In
my opinion, Scott McClellan was one of the worst White House press
secretaries ever. He was often short with reporters and refused to say
anything about anything that was not in his talking points. He did not
seem to know what role the White House press corps played in the
functioning of the government.
When McClellan did not want to answer a question, he would “refer” you
to other agencies or to the vice president's office. In fact, McClellan
had three standard evasive practices. One was the referral, which he
learned from his predecessor Ari Fleischer. The second was to invoke the
war on terror to shut down a line of questioning. And the third, which
he also learned from Fleischer, was to accuse the questioner of asking a
“hypothetical” question. The third practice gave McClellan undue
leverage because most questions embody a hypothesis.
I
would sit in the press briefing room in the White House and wonder if
McClellan really understood why we were there. He was argumentative,
obtuse and sometimes scornful. He did not seem to understand that we
were there to work, to advise the world about the activities of the
administration and the mindset of the president.
So
it is with great surprise that we learn that McClellan was on our side,
all the time yearning for us to ask him tougher questions. Give us a
break.
During his tenure as press secretary, McClellan knew that the press
corps, singly and collectively, had great doubts about the merits of the
war and the continuing disingenuousness of the vice president in trying
to link Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. If McClellan was yearning for
greater press coverage of the failures of the administration, he was
awfully good at hiding his desire.
My
colleagues are quite astounded that McClellan has written a
kiss-and-tell book. But we wonder whether he wrote it more because he
was eased out of his job than because of any deep feelings he
might have had about high administration officials lying about Valerie Plame.
As
news, McClellan's book is hot stuff. But as literature, apparently it is
wanting. One reviewer has described it as “limp.” Another has said it is
inferior to former counter-terrorism tsar Richard Clarke's memoir. It is
perhaps even inferior to former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill's
lifting of the veil on the White House.
The importance of McClellan's revelations, and why they dwarf the
others', is because he was the public face of the administration. As a
press secretary seeks to control what the world thinks of a president
and his actions, whatever he says now, McClellan day after day defended
the president, the war, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the
interrogation of prisoners by harsh means.
It
is likely that media-savvy people like Karl Rove, with their friends in
the press, picked up the disillusionment of reporters with McClellan.
They realized that they needed someone who got along better with the
press, knew what motivated them and was less combative.
The White House got what it wanted in Tony Snow. Snow was a conservative
and a journalist. He knew not only what the man in the Oval Office
wanted but also what the irregulars in the briefing room needed. He
understood that the press office has to operate efficiently – phone
calls have to be returned and documents have to be provided. McClellan's
press office was perceived to be erratic.
Snow's successor, Dana Perino, who was promoted with his blessing, is
also well regarded by the press. She is very well informed and, on the
whole, treats reporters civilly, although sometimes she will attack one
– a throwback to the days of McClellan. Unlike McClellan, she does not
act as though the sole purpose of the press corps is to antagonize the
briefer.
The smart money in the press corps is on Perino getting a job with a
network as soon as she leaves her job in the White House. That is now a
well-trodden path, blazed by George Stephanopoulos.
© 2008 North Star
Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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