Many people have noted the general discomfort yesterday exhibited by Jay Carney as he twisted himself into contortions while using seemingly inexhaustible obfuscation.
However, what is lesser known was the backstory prior to the “official” briefing.
The originally scheduled White House press briefing was supposed to take place at 12:30pm. However, just before start time, the ABC exclusive report containing the secret Benghazi e-mails hit the wire…. The White House delayed the briefing til 1:45pm and pulled select media in for a closed “off record” briefing.
Then word hit of the “propaganda ‘off the record’ briefing”, and the White House pushed it back further, until 3:15pm… Getting all their Ducks in a row. The Huffington Post reports on the fiasco:
The White House found itself with another press corps controversy on its hands on Friday, after it emerged that it held a secret briefing about the Benghazi attacks with a select group of White House reporters.
Spokesperson Jay Carney was initially supposed to hold a briefing at 12:30 PM on Friday. However, ABC’s Jon Karl threw a wrench in that plan when he reported that the State Department had been involved in lengthy revisions of CIA talking points about the attacks.
All of a sudden, the press briefing was pushed back to 1:45 PM. Then, Politico reported that the White House had held a secret briefing about the Benghazi developments with reporters. The site reported that, while the contents of the briefing were on “deep background,” meaning that they could be used as background information in reporting, the existence of the meeting itself was off the record.
However, not all reporters were invited to the briefing. White House journalists have complained many times in the past about their level of access to administration officials. On Friday, at least one, April Ryan, made her feelings about the briefing very clear:
Big mistake!!!!!! Reporters are not happy with this off the record briefing before the briefing with a handful of the Press Corps.
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) May 10, 2013
This off the record briefing is not a partisan issue but a matter of journalism and getting true on the record quotes for reports.
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) May 10, 2013
I am so unsettled about this.
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) May 10, 2013
After the Politico report, the public briefing was again pushed back, this time to 3:15 PM. Politico’s Roger Simon mocked the White House’s handling of events:
WH brief pushed back from 12:30 to 1:45 to 3:15 as elite press are schmoozed off the record on Benghazi. Gosh, what deft stagecraft.
— Roger Simon (@politicoroger) May 10, 2013