Cable Game Exclusive! Ed Gillespie Blasts NBC News!! Live From Washington DC!!!

Ed Gillespie, a Republican big shot now serving as Counselor to President Bush in the White House, just blasted NBC News at Grover Norquist's legendary "Wednesday Meeting," the weekly conclave of leading conservative activists in Washington DC.

As Cable Gamers know, the White House has been at war with NBC News since May 18, when reporter Richard Engel mugged President George W. Bush, using sneaky editing.

NBC is sticking to its unfair and unbalanced position, as Brian Williams made clear on "Nightly News" on Monday. Meanwhile, of course, such not-ready-for-broadcast TV hit men as Keith Olbermann are actively dumping on the Bush White House.

But now Gillespie is fighting back. At the Grover meeting--150 or so folks, representing the top grassroots leaders and representatives of groups around the country--Gillespie joked that MSM reporters, siding, of course, with NBC, are sucking up. MSMers are "talking to Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews like they’re Edward R. Murrow," Gillespie quipped.

And then Ron Kessler, the always-interesting reporter for Newsmax.com, asked Gillespie, "Will the White House cut off NBC?" To which the White House man answered drily, "John Yang is a decent reporter." In so doing, of course, Gillespie deftly left out any mention of the rest of NBC News. Then he added, thinking aloud, "Maybe [NBC] can have an interview, but only on the condition that [NBC] air it in its entirety."

In fairness--OK, more like pseudo-fairness-- NBC has posted the entire Bush interview on its website. But as Gillespie noted, a web-posting is not the same as running the edited version twice on national TV. Meanwhile, those who wish to see the White House position in detail can click here to see the full text of Gillespie's angry May 19 letter to NBC News president Steve Capus, as well as supporting materials.

But then Gillespie this morning continued, "If you look at the editing [of the Bush interview]... if a presidential campaign ran such a snippet...NBC would run a fact checker thing, and hammer [the presidential campaign], for deceptive advertising." Pow!

This White House vs. NBC controversy isn't going away, folks. If NBC News can get away with ambush editing today, it will get even worse in the next few months, as NBC and MSNBC and the rest of the MSM go all-out to elect Barack Obama.

The White House vs. NBC, Continued--"In Case You Missed It."

This just came from the White House press operation, at 3:19 PM ET. It's obvious that the Bush folks are not giving up their tussle with NBC, and so Counselor Ed Gillespie is sharing his side of the fight with, in this case, Fox News' Megyn Kelly.

The White House does not want people to miss this:

"We Are Not Going To Allow For People To Say, As Fact, That The President Attacked Anyone On The Floor Of The Knesset. He Asserted American Policy And We Are Going To Continue To Do So."

– Counselor To The President Ed Gillespie, 5/20/08

MEGYN KELLY: The White House is not at all happy with NBC News. In an unusual move, the Administration is calling the network's story reporting on its recent interview with President Bush, "utterly misleading and irresponsible." The controversy is over the President's answer to a question asked by an NBC reporter about the President's policies when it comes to negotiating with Iran and Barack Obama. The White House says there is a difference between what the President said to that reporter and what NBC viewers actually saw. Here's the interview as it appeared on NBC Nightly News. (Fox News' "America's Newsroom," 5/20/08)

RICHARD ENGEL: You said it was appeasement. Were you referring to Senator Barack Obama?

PRESIDENT BUSH: You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently the political calendar has. And when a leader of Iran says that they want to destroy Israel, you've got to take those words seriously.

KELLY: Here with us now to talk about what exactly the problem is, is White House Counselor Ed Gillespie. Thank you for being here with us. Alright, it gets a little confusing, but just so our viewers understand, the reporter asked President Bush – he said, President Bush, you said negotiating with Iran is pointless and that it's appeasement. Were you referring to Barack Obama when you made those comments? Now, in response, President Bush said to him – you didn't get that exactly right. And he went on to clarify his actual position on negotiating with Iran. Then he said that bit about, my positions have not changed but the political calendar has. You say NBC selectively edited that exchange, for what purpose?

ED GILLESPIE: Well, to take out the part where the premise of the question was challenged by the President, where he rejected the notion. He said, read the speech, you did not get that exactly right either. Then he went on to say, here is what I said. They removed that, very artfully by the way. If you look at the clip you wouldn't know that there was a removal of an edit of the President's remarks that was masked by NBC. That's why I say it's deceptive. What we have asked is that they run the full response by the President. Let his own words speak for themselves and do not take them through editing, out of context, and make it seem like he was affirming the charge being made by the interviewer there. They have said they're not going to do that, because even though they aired that deceptively edited piece on "The Today Show" and "NBC Nightly News," they said that viewers can go on their website and stream video of the actual answer itself. So, that's their response; if people want to see the truth, they can go on the website and download it.

KELLY: So at the end of the day, your charge is that NBC viewers are left with the impression that the President agreed with the reporter's premise, that "negotiating with Iran is pointless." When if fact, the President had said – that is not what I said, and my position has always been that we would talk to Iran if they suspended their uranium-enrichment program.

GILLESPIE: Well, two things, Megyn. The President's position on Iran has been clear, which is we are bringing multilateral pressure on Iran to abandon any effort to obtain a nuclear weapon and if they suspend verifiably their nuclear-enrichment programs, then they can come to the table with the international community. We have always said that. That part of the question was ignored – or that part of the answer was ignored. More importantly, the notion that when the President states American policy and the policy of this Administration somewhere, that it could be taken as an attack on anyone, and in the case of the question here: an attack on Barack Obama. The President said, read the speech, you didn't get that exactly right. The President's policies have been clear for a long time. We believe that we need to stand by Israel as a friend and ally in the Middle East. We believe that we shouldn't allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. We don't believe that you should negotiate with terrorists like Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. That is the long-standing position of the United States. If people disagree with that, they are free to, but it is not an attack on anyone. We are not going to allow for people to say, as fact, that the President attacked anyone on the floor of the Knesset. He asserted American policy, and we are going to continue to do so.

KELLY: Let me ask you, because NBC came out and said, look, editing is part of journalism. And that is true. We, in the news, are hard pressed to pick clips that will fit into a two-minute piece and so on, and they have those pressures there as well. What is your response to that defense? They also say that it is a gross misrepresentation of the facts to say that they engaged in deceitful editing.

GILLESPIE: All I can ask is to allow your viewers – and of course they can go on the website at MSNBC.com, to find out the actual airing of the President, what he actually said. But they didn't just truncate the President's comments; they excerpted the part where he took exception to the premise of the question and made it seem like he was agreeing with the premise of the question when he absolutely, utterly did not. That is what is misleading about it and they masked the edit. You couldn't tell that that response had been edited by NBC News. Our concern is that when you have people like Keith Olbermann and Christopher Matthews at MSNBC and the frequently blurring of the lines between that commentary – that advocacy on their part on behalf of certain candidates, with the NBC news division increasingly commingling, that there may be a spillover effect here that is disconcerting. We also asked NBC if they still considered Iraq to be a civil war, when we have seen the unity government of moderate Shia and Sunni go after Shia and Sunni extremists in Iraq, reclaim the port of Basra. They still have this public hand-wringing over deliberating and coming to a conclusion that Iraq was in civil war. They stopped saying it – that was in November of 2006, around September of 2007 they stopped saying it – but they have never said, were they wrong to declare it in the first place, or that they declared it over. They question whether or not official government data about the economy is believable. Why did they think that? They did not respond to those concerns at all.

KELLY: We put the statement from NBC on the screen about it being in charge of its editorial process.

GILLESPIE: I can request that they make available to their viewers what the President actually said and they're free to say no, which they did.

KELLY: We appreciate you being here. It is an extraordinary story and we appreciate your clarification.

"White House takes swipe at NBC News" -- What Do The Jeffs, Immelt and Zucker, Think About That Headline? And Oh Yes, GE Shareholders. Remember Them?

That was the headline of an article atop the website of The Hill today.

The Hill, as in Capitol Hill, is one of those insider-y publications that normally intimidate The Cable Gamer. But this piece, by Klaus Marre is clear as a bell:

The White House on Monday sent a scathing letter to NBC News, accusing the news network of “deceptively” editing an interview with President Bush on the issue of appeasement and Iran.

At issue were remarks Bush made in front of Israel's parliament earlier this week.

Specifically, White House counselor Ed Gillespie laments that the network edited the interview in a way that “is clearly intended to give viewers the impression that [Bush] agreed with [correspondent Richard Engel's] characterization of his remarks when he explicitly challenged it.

“This deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured storyline is utterly misleading and irresponsible and I hereby request in the interest of fairness and accuracy that the network air the President’s responses to both initial questions in full on the two programs that used the excerpts,” said Gillespie in the letter to NBC News President Steve Capus.

Gillespie used the opportunity to also inquire whether NBC News still believes that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. In November 2006, the network decided to label the infighting in the country a “civil war.”

“I noticed that around September of 2007, your network quietly stopped referring to conditions in Iraq as a ‘civil war,’ ” Gillespie wrote. “Is it still NBC News’s carefully deliberated opinion that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war? If not, will the network publicly declare that the civil war has ended, or that it was wrong to declare it in the first place?”

Gillespie also hit NBC News on its reporting on the state of the economy.

“I’m sure you don’t want people to conclude that there is really no distinction between the ‘news’ as reported on NBC and the ‘opinion’ as reported on MSNBC, despite the increasing blurring of those lines,” Gillespie concluded. “I welcome your response to this letter, and hope it is one that reassures your broadcast network’s viewers that blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC don’t hold editorial sway over the NBC network news division.”

So it will be interesting to see how NBC and MSNBC react to this blast from the White House. Of course, Keith Olbermann will be delighted, because he obviously enjoys being in a war--any war. As Peggy Noonan once said of Bill Clinton, he is a teabag who brings his own hot water. Although in Olbermann's case, it is more apt to say that he brings his own too-small-tea kettle. Or, come to think of it, he is, in fact, his own too-small tea kettle.

So count on Olbermann to blow his stack soon enough, quitting in a media martyred rage, whereupon he will go on to some other gig, paid for by some adoring liberal billionaire groupies.

But I wonder what the Jeffs think about this. They lack Olbermann's pyrotechnics--which some insist on calling "talent"--and besides, they have a lot of stock options to hang on to.

NBC president Jeff Zucker, of course, will be getting high-fives from his fellow MSMers. No doubt they will give him an Emmy, or a Peabody, or a Polk, just for getting under George W. Bush's skin.

But Zucker's boss, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt is in a more complicated situation. Maybe he's a Bush-hating lefty, too. But more likely, he is just your basic non-ideological corporate suit. That is, smart enough, even if he obviously isn't smart enough to fill the shoes of his predecessor Jack Welch.

And now, thanks to MSNBC and now NBC, Immelt finds himself even more over his head--he is in the deep waters of politics. Immelt & Co. find themselves in a war with not only Mark Levin, and now the White House, but soon enough, the entire conservative half of the country. That's not good for advertisers, shareholders, and customers.

If the libs are smart, they will think of some sort of award to give to Immelt, as a consolation prize for getting his corporate you-know-what into the bad-press grinder.

GE will regret the day that MSNBC hired Olbermann, thus introducing the left wing cancer into its body corporate. Heck, GE will eventually regret the day that it bought NBC.