Ordinarily, [tag]White House[/tag] press [tag]gaggle[/tag]s are relatively quick and painless. Yesterday’s wasn’t. Scott [tag]McClellan[/tag] and the Washington Post’s Jim [tag]VandeHei[/tag] had quite an illuminating discussion en route New Orleans, not about Katrina, gas prices, Plame, or Iraq, but about the [tag]television[/tag]s on board Air Force One. Seriously.
“It’s come to my attention that there’s been requests — this is a serious question — to turn these TVs onto a station other than [tag]Fox[/tag], and that those have been denied,” VandeHei told McClellan, who is soon to be replaced by former Fox anchor and self-described conservative Tony Snow.
“My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?” VandeHei asked.
“Never heard of any such thing,” McClellan responded. “My TVs are on four different channels at all times.”
VandeHei noted that McClellan has four televisions in his office, and clarified that he was referring to the ones that reporters can see.
“They’re always turned to Fox, which a lot of people consider a [tag]Republican[/tag]-leaning network.” VandeHei noted that the televisions are paid for with taxpayer dollars.
McClellan asked VandeHei if he’d asked to have the channel changed. VandeHei said administration officials told him, “We don’t watch [tag]CNN[/tag] here; you can only watch Fox.”
McClellan initially dismissed the concern, calling it “quite amusing,” but came back 18 minutes later to report that the station had been changed to CNN, per the [tag]press[/tag] corps’ request.
Last month, we learned that Dick Cheney insists, when he travels, that all hotel-room [tag]TV[/tag]s are tuned to [tag]Fox News[/tag]. But forcing the White House press corps to watch the Republicans’ network?
I guess it’s not enough to bombard reporters with propaganda from the press secretary; the Bush gang figures they should reinforce the message with TV “news” broadcasts.