DC Fishbowl: White House Briefings

[Gorf]

DC Fishbowl appears to be some bloggers based in DC.

Since "day passes" to attend the morning media "gaggles" at the White House are supposed to be easy to get (according to the White House press secretary) they've been trying to get a pass to attend a morning "gaggle".

www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/

[Gorf]

White House Briefings, Part I

We've been very interested in the last month will all the stories about Jeff Gannon, the White House briefings, and press credentials. It seems pretty clear that, at best, the credentialing system is hard to navigate and, at worst, it might be biased in one way or another. Moreover hardly anyone seems to understand how the process works to get one of the day passes (as opposed to the permanent "hard passes") that Gannon used to cover the briefings for two years for Talon News.

Thus we thought we'd try to see what all the fuss is about and attempt some real reporting. Our goal: Obtain a day pass through normal channels and actually go cover a White House morning "gaggle." We're leaving now to head down to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

A full report of our escapade will come later today, but, for now, posting may be sporadic this morning.

[Gorf]

Tuesday, Mar 01
WH Gaggle Watch: Day One -- REJECTED

As we reported earlier this morning, today marked Day One in Fishbowl D.C.'s quest to cover a White House morning "gaggle." The short version? The day passes aren't exactly easy to get. We were smoothly and professionally rejected access by the White House Press Office in under an hour this morning. The longer version? Read on:

With all of the news about White House credentialing--hard passes vs. day passes, Congress passes vs. White House passes--it became clear that few people, including many White House correspondents themselves, understood exactly the process that allowed their brethren to show up for work each day. Since Fishbowl D.C.'s main goal is to cover the media industry in Washington, we thought that figuring out that process was a natural story.

We started planning last week while President Bush was in Europe, enlisting the help of MediaBistro's editor-in-chief and talking with several White House correspondents about how the process for admittance should (in theory) work. According to everyone with whom we talked, MediaBistro, Fishbowl D.C.'s parent, should meet the criteria for a day pass to cover the White House: It is (a) independent and nonpartisan, (b) regularly published, and (c) primarily supported by subscribers or advertising.

Certainly, having read the articles last week in the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, as well as this review of a forthcoming history of the Washington press corps, we figured we were at least as "real" as many of the more colorful characters who have admitted to the briefing room.

While several correspondents offered to help get Fishbowl a day pass, it seemed a more appropriate experiment to try without any special access: Exactly how easy is it for an average no-name journalist with no special connections to get access to the White House?

We had been told that the more time you give the Press Office to get clearance, the easier it is, so we started yesterday laying the groundwork. We called four times seeking admittance. After the first call to the Press Office, we spent the rest of the afternoon dealing with the Media Affairs Office. (By way of explanation, the Press Office handles the regular White House press corps, and Media Affairs handles internet and local press.)

We first spoke with a very perky intern whose name we didn't catch but who helpfully took down our name, publication, Social Security Number and date of birth. She promised a spokesperson would return the call promptly. Three more calls to the Media Affairs office over the course of the day, up until 6:10 p.m. last night, yielded nothing. Each time we explained what publication we represented and that we wanted to cover the morning gaggle. John, Jenny, and Caroline--the three equally helpful and perky interns with whom we spoke--all promised a call back from an unnamed spokesperson. They said they weren't allowed to give out his name. Finally during the last call last night, we begged to speak with anyone who wasn't an intern. Unfortunately for us, Caroline said, "everyone is in a meeting."

Now we once did press work ourselves, and have some experience in not returning press calls, so we weren't initially put off by the lack of response. Indeed we've heard from both reporters who cover the White House and former Bush press aides that not returning phone calls is pretty much standard operating procedure. Today we decided to try the more direct approach and just show up.

We put on a tie and suit, and with a reporter's notebook in hand, we looked very much the part of a real journalist. At 8:33 a.m. this morning, we showed up at the north gate on Pennsylvania Avenue, where the press enter every morning. (We confirmed today with James "Jeff Gannon" Guckert that this was the same gate he used every morning to enter.) After explaining to the uniformed Secret Service agent at the gate that we were there to cover the morning gaggle, we got buzzed up to the guard house. After presenting a driver's license, we waited while the officer checked against the people cleared for the day. Perhaps not surprisingly, Media Affairs hadn't put our name on the list.

The officer had us call the Press Office from a nearby phone and once again give them our personal information: Name, publication, SSN, DOB. The intern answering the phone promised that as soon as the woman who dealt with clearances showed up, they'd get back to us.

Meanwhile, we leaned on the fence outside the guard house and read John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley: In Search of America." A steady trickle of reporters passed by, and we spent several minutes chatting with an old friend, AP's Nedra Pickler, as she went in for the day. After about twenty minutes, another officer came out of the guard house and explained that he had just talked with the Press Office: Fishbowl D.C. had officially been denied access for the day. No further reason. He presented us with the Media Affairs phone number scribbled on a napkin. We thanked him and departed.

Everything today was very smooth and very professional. Now we'll start trying to get in to tomorrow's gaggle.

The scoreboard thus far:

Fishbowl: 0
White House: 1
Today's Humiliation Factor: Low

[Gorf]

Wednesday, Mar 02
WH Gaggle Watch: Day Two

Day two, strike two. If you're joining this story in progress, a brief update: Last week we came up with the idea of reporting on the White House's morning gaggle where Jim "Jeff Gannon" Guckert suddenly got so famous a month ago. We've been trying since Monday to get one of the "easy and available" day passes that allowed Gannon access for two years. No such luck.

On the up side, we seem to be getting stonewalled at a higher level than before. When we tried calling the White House Press Office this morning a very non-perky young woman told us: "Oh, if you're with Fishbowl D.C. you need to talk directly to Media Affairs." We never even got a chance to explain what Fishbowl was! At least yesterday morning the Press Office people were polite and helpful.

Full daily report, including your daily dose of Jenny and Caroline, after the jump. Yesterday's first installment is here.

Day Two

After striking out in person yesterday morning, we turned back to working the phones.

Midday we made the first call of the day: We spoke with intern Caroline and politely gave all of the same information we've given before. Since the Press Office at least had been nice enough to reject access rather than simply not returning calls, we asked whether we should try to go through them again. Caroline informed us that all day passes have to go through Media Affairs. She promised someone would get back to us.

On the second call, mid-afternoon yesterday, intern Jenny seemed to get sort of annoyed when reminded we spoke on Monday. We asked for Caroline but it turns out she was away from her desk, and all of the non-interns were (again) in a meeting. Thus Jenny was stuck answering all of the same questions again. We asked when the meeting might break up and when we might expect to hear back from someone, and she said testily, "I don't have that information, sir." You can say one thing about Jenny and Caroline: They're polite to a fault.

We spoke with Jenny a third time just after 5 p.m. yesterday when we called, and she seemed even more annoyed this time. However, we did get some more information out of her. The most amusing aspect of the call? We asked her who the head of the Media Affairs office was, and Jenny said she's unable to release that information-despite not only the names but their salaries being publicly available. We did ask whether speaking to Ken Lisaius, who's listed as the deputy director of the office, would do any good, but Jenny explained that he wasn't the spokesperson with whom we needed to speak. (She did seem a little impressed we knew a name. Point for us!)

Expressing some frustration with two days of stonewalls, we asked to hold while she tried to track someone down since everyone was (yet again) in a meeting, but Jenny politely told us she couldn't tie up the line. (Aside: You'd think that for something like the White House they'd be willing to splurge on having enough phone lines.) We finally asked, "Do you have any suggestions on how we could get cleared in?" "I'll see what I can do," she ended the conversation. We're still waiting to hear back.

The last time we called yesterday, we thought we'd employ a little trickery: Call late and hope that someone other than the interns were answering the phones by then. Unfortunately, perky Caroline headed us off at the pass: the mysterious spokesperson we needed was finally out of his marathon meeting but now he had already left the office. Damn. The plus side? We knew we were making progress because Caroline at least recognized Fishbowl this time. She seemed more amused than annoyed, thankfully.

This morning, rather than waste another $2.70 trip to the White House, we thought we'd call once before leaving the apartment. Hence the call to the Press Office and hence the quick transfer to Media Affairs intern John. John! Good golly! We hadn't spoken with him since Monday. It was great to hear his voice again (He actually sounds a good bit younger than Caroline and Jenny.). He told us our mystery spokesperson was out of the office. At least he's not stuck in another meeting...

So no gaggle today. Perhaps tomorrow?

The scoreboard as it stands:

Fishbowl: 0
White House: 2

Phone Calls: 10 (includes two calls to the Press Office to check on the gaggle time)
Trips to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: 1

Humiliation Factor: Low
Frustration Factor: Medium (Rising)

[Gorf]

WH Gaggle Watch: Day Three

We were really hoping that we'd be able to say today: "Third time's the charm!" as we waltzed into the White House briefing room today. Perhaps the first two days were just a test and they wanted to be sure we REALLY wanted to go to a briefing.

Nope. No such luck. It's even worse today because it appears the Media Affairs has just stopped answering the phone when we call.

A brief recap of the last three days of our quest to get a one day press pass to cover a White House briefing:

Fishbowl: 0
White House: 3

Total Phone Calls Placed: 17
Total Phone Calls Returned: 0
Total Non-Interns We've Spoken With: 0
Trips to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: 1

Humiliation Factor: Low
Frustration Factor: High

Full report after the jump. (Day One is here, and Day Two is here.)

John, Caroline, and Jenny (or is it Jon, Jeni, and Carolyn?) are the three people who answer the phone in Media Affairs. We spent most of yesterday talking with intern John.

He answered the initial query yesterday morning, and then the second time we called late morning and the third time early afternoon. The third call, after greetings, we made chit-chat for a moment before we blundered into secret territory: We asked how long he'd been there, but he abruptly cut the conversation short: "I'm not supposed to answer any questions. I'm just an intern." We mumbled something about just trying to be friendly, and he said, "I understand that, sir." He happily said he'd pass our message along.

Two phone calls late afternoon yielded nothing but an answering machine, but on our fifth call yesterday Jenny picked up.

We exchanged pleasantries. She laughed cutely when we wished her a "Happy Wednesday." Now, for the first time, after 5 p.m. on the third day of trying to talk to someone ANYONE who wasn't an intern, we resorted to begging: "We'd really, really like to speak to someone." She seemed almost sympathetic. We agreed to hold for a moment while she looked around. Alas, our mystery spokesperson had stepped away from his desk. She apologized and promised she'd place our message right on top of his desk. Again, always polite.

Before we hung up, we asked Jenny to say hi to Caroline, whom we hadn't gotten to speak with all day.

Our final call of the day also went to an answering machine, and our call this morning did too. Do they perhaps have Caller ID in the Media Affairs office and know to ignore our calls? Ugg. That'd be a whole new level of frustration.

So where do we go from here? It's obvious that the phone calls aren't working. Maybe we're going to have to a try a different tack...

[Gorf]

WH Gaggle Watch: Day Four, Midday Update

This is a mid-day update about trying to get a White House daily press pass to cover a briefing. We don't generally do this, but we're having an especially frustrating day.

After three days, we realized this morning that the phone call route wasn't working -- especially since they seem to have stopped answering the phone at the Media Affairs Office. We asked our boss and MediaBistro's editor, Elizabeth Spiers (a "real" journalist for sure), to fax a letter requesting access on our behalf.

No one has answered the phone in the Media Affairs office all day. Because we were initially concerned that Jenny, Caroline, and John had just stopped answering our calls, we tried calling this morning from a different number: No luck. Elizabeth also had no luck calling from her office. What's going on here?

Does anyone have a fax number for the White House Office of Media Affairs? Anyone have any other ideas? Drop us an email: garrett AT mediabistro DOT com.

As an aside and a preview of a larger post for the future, we never meant this to be an absurdist comedy. We really just wanted to cover a briefing--perhaps the most famed journalism institution in the city--and write about the atmosphere. This was supposed to be simple. Everyone we talked to last week said the White House would almost surely grant a pass without much hesitation. It's been four days and we haven't even been able to speak to a person to make our case for covering a briefing. Nothing. Ugg.

[Gorf]

Thursday, Mar 03
An Open Letter to the White House Media Affairs Office

To Whom It May Concern:

We've been trying diligently and unsuccessfully this week to gain access to a White House press briefing. Unfortunately we've never received a call back despite over 20 different phone calls and one visit over the past four days. Since we have not been able to make our case to a White House staffer for covering the briefing, we decided to take a few paragraphs here to explain our efforts.

Full letter after the jump.

Both White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan and the White House Correspondents' Association are on record as saying that the White House should be open and accessible to journalists seeking to cover the President and his administration--and that, as long as a news organization met several basic tests of its legitimacy and independence, its reporters should be granted access.

Specifically, in his February 10th Press Gaggle, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan explained the process through which reporters can gain access to the White House and laid out a very fair and wise interpretation of the role of the White House Press Office in the credentialing process. He said at the time that he did not believe it was the place of the White House to test the legitimacy of any news gathering organization seeking to cover the President:


As the press secretary, I don't think it's the role of the Press Secretary to get into picking or choosing who gets press credentials....I've never inserted myself into the process. [Jeff Gannon], like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly, and so he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes, just like many others are. The issue comes up -- it becomes, in this day and age, when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide or try to pick and choose who is a journalist. And there -- it gets into the issue of advocacy journalism. Where do you draw the line?


According to these and other statements by the White House, Fishbowl D.C. should meet the criteria for a White House daily press pass. It is a daily independent web publication owned and operated by MediaBistro Inc., a New York-based journalism and publishing industry company. By both design and practice, Fishbowl D.C. is a non-partisan and independent publication that covers the media industry and journalism in Washington, D.C. It, like MediaBistro's other web properties, is supported by revenue from advertisers and subscribers.

McClellan also stated in this same gaggle that a reporter needs to provide a Social Security Number, date of birth, and pass a background check. Fishbowl has, in previous instances, been cleared by the Secret Service and White House to enter the building, meet the President, and even enter the Oval Office. Given that we know of no reason for any change in our security status, we believe that we should be able to be cleared back into the building.

Thus, despite meeting the publicly available criteria for entrance both as a news organization and as an individual, Fishbowl D.C. has been unable to gain access. The actions of the White House Media Affairs Office this week are a de facto denial of press credentials. Indeed we have thus far been unable to speak with anyone to make our case for covering a briefing. Respectfully we request either a formal denial of our request, along with the reasoning behind such a decision, or at least the chance to speak with a press officer and make the case for admittance.

Our interest in the briefing is to cover one of the greatest institutions in Washington journalism. The press briefings and gaggle, through decades of history, have been central to our understanding of how the presidency functions and the key way that the press interacts with the nation's leader. Our interest is not in asking a question in the briefing. In fact, if we're admitted, we will promise not to ask a question. We will not be disruptive. We will not embarrass the press corps, President, or White House staff.

We have no interest in being difficult or causing trouble because we believe that a functioning democracy depends on access of the press to government, and we would not do anything to jeopardize the continued and future access of other journalists. Along those lines, at every step we've tried to be as polite and friendly as possible and to demonstrate our goodwill towards the institution of the White House and the Press Office. We greatly appreciate that the Secret Service officers and interns with whom we've interacted have, in turn, been eminently friendly and polite in response.

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter, and hope to attend a briefing in the near future.

Sincerely,

Fishbowl DC

[Gorf]

Friday, Mar 04

WH Gaggle Watch: Day Four -- Success???


Is that light we see at the end of the tunnel?

There's a classic "This American Life" episode entitled "The Middle of Nowhere" that features one of the show's staffers trying to resolve a billing issue with MCI. She spends hours on hold, gets passed from person to person, and never gets anywhere. All she gets is deafening silence. Finally the only way she gets ahead is by enlisting the help of Ira Glass. The whole story veers back and forth between a Joseph Heller novel and something Kafka would write.

"The Middle of Nowhere" was about where we felt by mid-afternoon yesterday, when in desperate frustration we penned an open letter to the Media Affairs office. But then things started to turn around, helping hands were extended, and light appeared. Here's the only score that matters today:

Hope Factor: High

Full report after the jump. (Day One is here; Day Two is here; Day Three is here; and our Open Letter is here.)


By lunch yesterday, call after call had gone not only unreturned but now unanswered. Thinking the Media Affairs office might just not be answering OUR calls, we tried calling from a different number. No luck. We enlisted the help of MediaBistro's editor Elizabeth Spiers, who tried calling from her office in New York. Nada.

As we wrote yesterday, our next step was to ask Elizabeth to fax a formal written request for access. She tried calling to get a fax number. No answer. We each tried the main White House Press Office. Before the Press Office would give us a fax number, they asked each of us who we were. When we answered "MediaBistro" and "Fishbowl D.C.," after a long pause on hold, we each got transferred back to Media Affairs. No answer.

We finally reached Caroline mid-afternoon and she promised someone would call us back. We got a friendly little laugh out of her by begging for someone to return our call and offering to bake cookies, cupcakes, or send flowers. She said she'd try.

Elizabeth similarly reached someone in Media Affairs but the woman answering (Caroline? Jenny?) wouldn't give out a fax number. We had to talk to a spokesperson for that. We each did a post asking for the fax number, and eventually tracked one down. Late yesterday afternoon, Elizabeth finally faxed over a formal request, and we sat down to write the open letter.

After that low point, though, things started to break our way. We got an emailfrom Knight Ridder's Ron Hutcheson, president of the White House Correspondents Association, who said that, without prompting, he'd raised the issue with the White House Press Office. USA Today's media reporter Mark Memmott was interested in writing a story about the saga and he started making calls. Late yesterday, he spoke to a spokesperson who said that that the Press Office had gone ahead and cleared us in.

While we still haven't heard back from Media Affairs, we did get an email from someone who handles credentials for the Press Office last evening (our first communication back from the White House all week) that seemed to imply we'd be able to attend a briefing next week as long as we provided vitals. (There's no briefing or gaggle today because the President's on the road in Indiana.)

We put out calls this morning to confirm that everything is set, but no formal word yet.

So is this it? Come next week, will Fishbowl D.C. be the first blogger to attend a White House briefing? (Have other bloggers covered a briefing before?)

We'll keep you posted.

[Gorf]

WH Gaggle Watch: Success -- with no Question Marks

Just received official word from the White House Press Office: Fishbowl D.C. will be cleared to attend Monday's press briefing.

Special thanks to all the "real" reporters who offered help this week, along with all the tips and suggestions from readers. Thanks also to Jenny, Caroline, and John in Media Affairs for putting up with our annoying calls.

Let the White House blogging begin...

[goGopherBill]

One of the first questions you should ask is..
if the reason we invaded Iraq is for OIL as the demogods prevailing logic implied why are we paying $2.09 per gallon for gas...?


Wouldnt the President want to use all that oil for us?
or could the Bush doctrain of spreading democracy really be working ...keeping the world a safer place..and the charges he did it for cheap oil were just more pooperganda from the left.

I think you should post jobs created during this years recovery as part of a more balanced informative ,educational process...

or do only wish to educate us to be all like hollywood democrats?

[Deleted]

First of all, what makes you think Bush and his cronies want CHEAP oil (and gas)? Quite the opposite.

Secondly, if you think W's PRIMARY interest in the Mideast has anything to do with anything other than OIL, you are more naive than I thought.

Thirdly, can you say "Baaaaaa"?

[Gorf]

I have absolutely NO idea how any of your questions pertain to gaining access to the White House morning "gaggle" press conferences, however, I shall endeavor to play along with yet another of your thread hijackings.

goGopherBill said:

One of the first questions you should ask is..
if the reason we invaded Iraq is for OIL as the demogods prevailing logic implied why are we paying $2.09 per gallon for gas...?

Wouldnt the President want to use all that oil for us?
or could the Bush doctrain of spreading democracy really be working ...keeping the world a safer place..and the charges he did it for cheap oil were just more pooperganda from the left.

GWB, his family, and his friend are pretty much all heavily associated with the oil companies.

The oil companies have reaped record level profits over the past few years as the prices increased.

For 2003 the oil companies average 7.3% profit on each gallon of gas sold. That would be 14 cents on each gallon at the current ~$2 prices and 21 cents on each gallon at ~$3 per gallon which they're predicted to reach by summer.

The "conservatives" tried to accuse Kerry of advocating a 50 cent per gallon gas tax, which he actually never did.

That said, however, at least such a tax would have given extra income to the government and allowed for helping pay down some of the national debt rather than going to line the pockets of the oil companies.

I think you should post jobs created during this years recovery as part of a more balanced informative ,educational process...

Okie dokie...

Private sector jobs are still down 477,000 since GWB took office.

Over 800,000 government jobs have been created which makes the overall total a bit of a net increase on jobs since GWB took office. Haven't we always been told that the "conservatives" want smaller government? Why such a dramatic increase in government jobs is that is truly the case?

There has been a net increase of over 2,000,000 people in the job market looking for jobs with those coming up age to enter the job market far out numbering those retiring and leaving the job market.

Making an effective reduction under GWB's watch of well over 1,000,000 jobs. That's never happened before in our nation's history.

or do only wish to educate us to be all like hollywood democrats?

Isn't the only actor in office the republican governor of California?