Here’s How The Media Covered Jay Carney’s Sick Burn Of Karl Rove

At Tuesday’s White House Daily Briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney responded to Karl Rove’s smear of Hillary Clinton in blistering fashion, mockingly calling him “Dr. Rove,” and questioning Rove’s cognitive capacity. One crucial aspect of White House reporting that often gets missed, however, is what actually ends up getting on the air. That’s where the rubber meets the road, and narratives are set, so here’s how the six television news outlets covered the exchange, between Carney and NBC News’ Peter Alexander.

One of the most frequent complaints I hear about White House reporters is the types of questions they ask, which is sometimes valid, such as when a reporter embeds falsehoods in his questions. Less valid, though, is the complaint that asking a question automatically confers legitimacy to its premise, as in the case of Pete Alexander’s Rove query. I’m using this as an example because one of our commenters, Tom Blue, specifically asked about it, but you can apply the lesson more broadly. Tom correctly identified the end product, how the answer gets reported, as more important than the question itself.

The single most difficult part of the White House reporter’s job is getting the press secretary to say something, anything, that isn’t already in a press release, and in order to do that, we have to employ some serious kung fu. Despite our best efforts, though, about 98% of what happens at briefings never even makes it to air. This exchange is a great illustration of that, because Alexander actually asked Carney three questions on Tuesday, two-thirds of which went into the White House briefing crapper. When we do manage to jar something loose, however, it matters much more how news editors treat it, and how it gets reported…READ MORE

By: Tommy Christopher

Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.