White House War on Fox Bleeds Over to Pentagon
By John Noonan
You have to admire the Obama administration's message discipline, no matter how silly the talking point. He's got General Casey making diversity the Army's prime directive after the Ft. Hood shootings, his National Security Advisor emphasizing that troop levels in Afghanistan aren't important (contrary to the USFOR-A boss), and now we learn that even the Pentagon is adopting the White House's thin-skinned approach to PR:
...last week it seemed particularly frosty in the room, as Fox Pentagon producer Justin Fishel got an obvious cold shoulder from Pentagon Spokesman Geoff Morrell.
Fishel had posted story the day before that seemed to put the Pentagon at odds with the White House over how soon prisoners at Guantánamo would be betting H1N1 flu shots. By one account the Pentagon spokesman named in the Fox story, Bryan Whitman, was particularly upset, and chewed out Fishel in the Fox booth within earshot of other reporters in the correspondent's corridor.
The next day, November 4th, Fishel was clearly feeling the chill from Morrell, who when Fishel attempted to ask a question, curtly rebuked him for interrupting, "Excuse — Justin, I'm addressing this question. You raised your hand. I'm happy to call on you in some point in this engagement," Morrell remonstrated Fishel.
As Fishel patiently held up his hand up, Morrell ignored him, only acknowledged Fishel at the very end of the briefing, after another producer from a competing network, Luis Martinez of ABC, was called on and "deferred" his question to Fishel.
Fishel said, "Thank you. I've had my hand up the whole time," to which Morrell replied, "I didn't see you. I'm sorry. "
"I don't believe that for a second," Fishel retorted before asking and getting an answer to his question. |
