White House to NYT: Take It Back!
By Paul Kiel - December 19, 2007, 10:19AM
It's not every day you see the White House spokesperson going out of her way to respond to a news piece, but they really didn't like this morning's piece in the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/washington/19intel.html?ei=5088&en=5a5d0b9810ad569a&ex=1355720400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all on the involvement of administration lawyers in discussions on the CIA tapes. In particular they objected to this line:
The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.
Dana Perino says
administration officials haven't "publicly commented on facts relating to this issue" -- so if they haven't acknowledged anything, how could the Times account be different?Of course, given the amount of reporting that's been done on this story based on anonymous sources, it seems likely that the Times was referring to background discussions with administration officials, not their public comments. And we agree with the White House that the Times' story is "pernicious and troubling" -- but it seems like that's better applied to the CIA tapes fiasco overall rather than the Times' reporting.
Full statement:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004941.php