The reasonable and the unreasonable media
CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who has been the one covering Fast and Furious, described the reaction from the White House and the Department of Justice:
In between the yelling that I received from Justice Department yesterday, the spokeswoman — who would not put anything in writing, I was asking for her explanation so there would be clarity and no confusion later over what had been said, she wouldn’t put anything in writing — so we talked on the phone and she said things such as the question Holder answered was different than the one he asked. But he phrased it, he said very explicitly, “I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks”…
the DOJ woman was just yelling at me. The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me…the person screaming was Tracy Schmaler, she was yelling not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House…
I’m certainly not the one to make the case for DOJ and White House about what I’m doing wrong. They will tell you that I’m the only reporter — as they told me — that is not reasonable. They say the Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, I’m the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I’m unfair and biased by pursuing it.
We just asked what the media would do. Now we know what they’ve been doing. The NYT and the Post are being “reasonable.”