Scott McClellan screws up his own talking points about talking points

Scott McClellan, former White House press secretary and author of the disputed tell-all book about the Bush White House's misleading ways, seems to have been misleading some recent viewers himself.

McClellan is still traipsing around the cable TV circuit peddling his book. Last week on MSNBC's "Hardball" he was asked if the White House saw Fox News as a "tool" for getting President Bush's message out.

"I make a distinction between the journalists and ... the commentators," McClellan said. "There were commentators and other pundits of Fox News that were helpful to the White House.... Certainly we got talking points to those people."

He mentioned Bill O'Reilly in the mix.

Oh, boy, McClellan didn't factor in O'Reilly's response.

"I never once received a talking point from the White House, so McClellan is not telling the truth about me," O'Reilly responded on his own "O'Reilly Factor" on Fox. "Should I be angry? Naaah. But I have to call a lie a lie."

Then O'Reilly got McClellan on his radio show, "The Radio Factor": "The truth is, I messed up," McClellan hastily explained to his host. "I was specifically not trying to single anyone out, including you."

Our Swamp friend Mark Silva has the rest of McClellan's yarn here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Photo credit: Richard Drew / Associated Press

Comments

[dave]

of course. who owns and who controls the respective corporate media?
that would be where talking directives come from.
and the polite requests go to.
the formation of media cartels has for a long time led to a permanent infomercial, an intricate extensive propaganda war waged against the people 24/7, and inextricably linked to the centers of financial, and political power. the more people not aware and alert to this, the more efficient the propaganda.

[Armanius]

I am sure most media outlets get "talking points" from the White House. It's called daily briefings and documents advocating/explaining the White House's position about policies and actions. Yes, we can place the label "talking points" to those briefings, and all of a sudden, Fox News is turned into Pravda. Clearly, that was Chris Matthews' intention in getting McClellan to state that O'Reilly and Hannity received "talking points" from the White House. Nevertheless, McClellan has now retracted his statement in public, but most political commentators and media outlets that jumped on the story appear to be downplaying his retraction.