April 27, 2006
Hotline After Dark -- What's Your Cable Alias
"Alias" kicks butt on ABC, pundits kick it on cable:
Lots of admin news happening yesterday, leaving reporters to talk about Tony Snow and Karl Rove all in one breath.
WHY CAN'T WE JUST ALL GET ALONG?
Snow stopped by "Special Report" last night: "I want to get along with the press corps and understand whatever concerns they may have and at the same time try to figure out exactly the technical aspects of doing the job effectively. I'm the guy who's going to spend the next couple of weeks watching briefings and meeting with staff and figuring out how it all works."
On his press sec. style: "I'm probably more Fitzwaterian."
On his predecessor: "Not only do I not want to engage in comparisons with Scott, I'm not sure I could get inside his head and figure out what his role is. I simply know what I want mine to be, which is somebody who's an effective counselor and press secretary."
TAKES ON THE NEW GUY
Reporters offered their assessments of Snow last night:
CNN's Malveaux: "He is wasting no time in really reaching out to us, trying to improve, if you will, somewhat the strained relations between the White House and the press corps" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," 4/26).
Slate's Dickerson, on the Rove testimony happening the same day of the announcement: "Tony Snow in his first
task, which was to provide one good news day for the White House, he's already failed" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 4/26).
NPR's Liasson: "He clearly wants to make reporters feel like they're getting something as opposed to just being in this horrible kind of weird dysfunctional relationship" ("Special Report," FNC, 4/26).
Washington Post's Milbank: "It will ... help the president a great deal to have a guy that everybody likes in the press corps, at least as of this moment. ... Of course, we did like Scott before" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 4/26).
FNC's O'Reilly: "The truth about Tony Snow is this. America is a better country because he will be in the Bush White House. Snow is not a bubble guy. He'll tell the president what he thinks, and he will not sugar coat it" ("O'Reilly Factor," 4/26).
IF THERE'S GOOD NEWS FOR THE WH, THERE MUST BE BAD NEWS FOR THE WH
CNN's King: "Sources sympathetic to Rove are saying they believe this could lead to the resolution. From their accounts, they say the special prosecutor has a few lingering questions in their view about Rove's account of exactly why he didn't tell the full story in his first grand jury testimony about conversations with reporters" ("Situation Room," 4/26).
MSNBC's Shuster: "The theory out there has been that maybe Karl Rove was changing his testimony, not because his memory was refreshed, but rather because Matt Cooper had just been subpoenaed in the case" ("Hardball," 4/26).
Newsweek's Fineman: "Karl Rove's testimony shines a light once again on the whole question of whether ethics in government means anything in Washington these days" ("Scarborough Country," MSNBC, 4/26).
CNN's Toobin: "This is an example of how in Washington, the more important you are, the fewer rights you have, in a funny way, because any ordinary person who is under investigation in a white collar case would very simply take the fifth, would never even darken the door of the grand jury, never expose himself to the risk of testifying once, much less five times. But Karl Rove is deputy chief of staff. He can't take the fifth and stay in his job" ("Situation Room," 4/26).
FNC's Angle: "Sources close to Rove emphasized that Fitzgerald still says Rove is not a target of the investigation" ("Special Report," 4/26).
NO REAGAN OR FOOTBALL REFERENCES SO DID THIS INTERVIEW REALLY COUNT?
Sen. George Allen (R-VA) played "Hardball" with substitute host David Gregory. When Gregory asked him about Snow, Allen said: "You'll banter with him pretty good, David" (MSNBC, 4/26). [EMILY GOODIN]
Posted at 07:17 AM
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