White House 'spin' testimony -- COM 150, 209, 317

COM 209 (intro to newswriting) students especially take note! A story in today's Washington Post analyzes what Libby trial testimony tells us about the way the White House handles the news media. Personal disclosure: I've worked both sides of that street (although certainly not in the White House!), and there's nothing terribly unusual about what came out yesterday in court. But it shows us the way of the world.

Here's the spin that Dana Milbank, who covers the White House for the Post, put on testimony by Cathie Martin, former communications director for Vice President Cheney. "Spin" is like putting English on a pool ball, it's a way of slanting things so the news media tell your side of the story:

It is unclear whether the first week of the trial will help or hurt Libby or the administration. But the trial has already pulled back the curtain on the White House's PR techniques and confirmed some of the darkest suspicions of the reporters upon whom they are used. Relatively junior White House aides run roughshod over members of the president's Cabinet. Bush aides charged with speaking to the public and the media are kept out of the loop on some of the most important issues. And bad news is dumped before the weekend for the sole purpose of burying it.

With a candor that is frowned upon at the White House, Martin explained the use of late-Friday statements. "Fewer people pay attention to it late on Friday," she said. "Fewer people pay attention when it's reported on Saturday."

Milbank, with an apparent assist from courthouse reporter Carol D. Leonnig, also mentioned what happens to a political press operation that gets too, well, political.

Martin, perhaps unaware of the suspicion such machinations caused in the press corps, lamented that her statements at the time were not regarded as credible. She testified that, as the controversy swelled in 2004, reporters ignored her denials and continued to report that it was Cheney's office that sent former ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate allegations of Iraq's nuclear acquisitions. "They're not taking my word for it," Martin recalled telling a colleague.

Martin, who now works on the president's communications staff, said she was frustrated that reporters wouldn't call for comment about the controversy. She said she had to ask the CIA spokesman, Bill Harlow, which reporters were working on the story. "Often, reporters would stop calling us," she testified.

This prompted quiet chuckles among the two dozen reporters sitting in court to cover the trial. Whispered one: "When was the last time you called the vice president's office and got anything other than a 'no comment'?"

Journalism student take note: This is why we get cynical about communications staffers. Public relations students take note: Here's what happens when we try too hard to fool the journalists.