I've gotten some criticism in the comments section that the questions I ask at the White House are insufficiently hard-hitting. Commenter 'Tru,' for example, complained on March 6 that I sound "like a MSM whore." Well, Tru, I must be doing something right, because Dana Perino keeps dissing me. Monday, again, she ended a press briefing leaving me the only reporter with my hand still up.
It was the fourth time this year that's happened, during a period in which she's called on me only twice. Needless to say, mainstream media reporters never receive this kind of treatment. It's true that Les Kinsolving, who's been covering the White House for 35 years, was blackballed by Tony Snow for a grand total of three days last year, but Les writes for the right-wing news site World Net Daily, not exactly a mainstream outfit.
Snow's justification for ignoring Les was that he asked too many questions that did not "bear on the President's responsibilities." All the questions I've asked, however, have been about Iraq, which is very much part of the President's responsibilities. In light of the fact that Perino recently claimed that reporters aren't asking about Iraq anymore, you'd think she'd welcome questions about a place where American taxpayers are spending borrowed money at the rate of $10 billion a month.
It was the fourth time this year that's happened, during a period in which she's called on me only twice. Needless to say, mainstream media reporters never receive this kind of treatment. It's true that Les Kinsolving, who's been covering the White House for 35 years, was blackballed by Tony Snow for a grand total of three days last year, but Les writes for the right-wing news site World Net Daily, not exactly a mainstream outfit.
Snow's justification for ignoring Les was that he asked too many questions that did not "bear on the President's responsibilities." All the questions I've asked, however, have been about Iraq, which is very much part of the President's responsibilities. In light of the fact that Perino recently claimed that reporters aren't asking about Iraq anymore, you'd think she'd welcome questions about a place where American taxpayers are spending borrowed money at the rate of $10 billion a month.
On Monday, for example, I wanted to ask the following question:
"Last week, the Pentagon completed a study that found that there was no cooperation between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. However, the press conference announcing the report and the publication of the report on the Internet were cancelled at the last minute. Was the White House embarrassed that the report contradicted previous administration claims of a relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda?"
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