Reporters Want CNN On Airforce One
Weird story...
You'd think that reporters traveling on Air Force One would have better things to do with their time than to watch television, or worry about which station the television is turned to.
Also, VandeHei's statement where he says he complained about the channel and was told it couldn't be switched but didn't know who he was complaining to comes off as a bit...contrived. Like maybe he didn't really talk or complain to anyone and was just trying to make a bigger issue out of this than it really is.
He seemed a little petty, but that's no big surprise coming from a journalist toward the Bush administration.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It wasn't the price of gasoline, Darfur or the rebuilding effort in New Orleans that preoccupied the White House press corps Thursday aboard a flight on Air Force One.
It was what channel they could watch on the White House televisions, Fox or CNN.
During a briefing led by White House spokesman Scott McClellan as President Bush was traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana, the Washington Post's Jim VandeHei asked why the White House televisions always seemed to be tuned to Fox News and if it was possible to have them tuned instead to CNN.
"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 Fox, 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 Republican-leaning network."
VandeHei noted that the televisions are paid for with taxpayer dollars.
"And my understanding is that you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true?"
McClellan said it was the first he had heard such a claim, and that it was not true.
"In fact, I've watched other channels on here," he said.
"I've never known anyone that's raised a complaint about a request from back here to watch a different channel," McClellan added.
VandeHei replied, "I'm officially raising it, and officially complaining about it."
McClellan then asked whether VandeHei had tried to have the change made.
"I was told -- the quote was, 'No,' when I asked for CNN," the reporter said.
McClellan asked him with whom he had spoken, but VandeHei said he did not know.
"Well, the magic people at the other end of the phone ... I was told, 'We don't watch CNN here, you can only watch Fox,' " VandeHei said.
McClellan said he found the question "quite amusing," and left to see about making the change.
Eighteen minutes after VandeHei raised the issue, McClellan had resolved it.
"We just called up. They're going to be changing it, at your all's request, to the channel that you requested, which is CNN -- from the press corps."
You'd think that reporters traveling on Air Force One would have better things to do with their time than to watch television, or worry about which station the television is turned to.
Also, VandeHei's statement where he says he complained about the channel and was told it couldn't be switched but didn't know who he was complaining to comes off as a bit...contrived. Like maybe he didn't really talk or complain to anyone and was just trying to make a bigger issue out of this than it really is.
He seemed a little petty, but that's no big surprise coming from a journalist toward the Bush administration.
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