PoliCon
05-05-2011, 12:07 PM
Unbelievable: White House asks small California newspaper to edit remark about First Lady
May 5, 2011 · 9 comments
One would think the folks at the White House would have full plates these days what with three wars, impending economic implosion, terrorism and the like.
Nevertheless, someone in the White House found time to complain to a small California newspaper about a throwaway comment about Michelle Antoinette buried in an article about the Marine One helicopter.
The Daily Caller has the details:
… Gina Channell-Allen, president of the Pleasanton Weekly in Pleasanton, California, said that her paper “received a call from the White House asking us to take out part of the story because it reflected poorly on the First Lady.”
The story in question was a soft feature about Marine One titled, “Inside Marine One, President Obama’s helicopter,” that ran in the paper on April 20. Pleasanton staffer Amory Gutierrez “didn’t get to ride in ‘Marine One,’” she wrote in her story, “but I did get the VIP tour and took photographs of the otherwise unseen aircraft.”
She also wrote a sentence that the White House thought made FLOTUS look snooty.
“Basically the reporter said that the First Lady didn’t speak to the pilots but acknowledged them by making eye contact,” Allen wrote in her email.
Allen says she “complied” with the White House’s request “because it was not worth making a fuss over.”
She added, “I thought it was interesting, though, that the [White House] was concerned enough about image to contact a little weekly paper in Pleasanton.”
The Pleasanton Weekly should consider itself lucky that the administration chose to handle this with a phone call from the White House. It could easily have been a phone call from the IRS.
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/white-house-asks-newspaper-to-edit-remark-about-first-lady
May 5, 2011 · 9 comments
One would think the folks at the White House would have full plates these days what with three wars, impending economic implosion, terrorism and the like.
Nevertheless, someone in the White House found time to complain to a small California newspaper about a throwaway comment about Michelle Antoinette buried in an article about the Marine One helicopter.
The Daily Caller has the details:
… Gina Channell-Allen, president of the Pleasanton Weekly in Pleasanton, California, said that her paper “received a call from the White House asking us to take out part of the story because it reflected poorly on the First Lady.”
The story in question was a soft feature about Marine One titled, “Inside Marine One, President Obama’s helicopter,” that ran in the paper on April 20. Pleasanton staffer Amory Gutierrez “didn’t get to ride in ‘Marine One,’” she wrote in her story, “but I did get the VIP tour and took photographs of the otherwise unseen aircraft.”
She also wrote a sentence that the White House thought made FLOTUS look snooty.
“Basically the reporter said that the First Lady didn’t speak to the pilots but acknowledged them by making eye contact,” Allen wrote in her email.
Allen says she “complied” with the White House’s request “because it was not worth making a fuss over.”
She added, “I thought it was interesting, though, that the [White House] was concerned enough about image to contact a little weekly paper in Pleasanton.”
The Pleasanton Weekly should consider itself lucky that the administration chose to handle this with a phone call from the White House. It could easily have been a phone call from the IRS.
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/white-house-asks-newspaper-to-edit-remark-about-first-lady