NBC, White House Spar Over Bush Interview
NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel courtesy NBC Photo
The White House has taken issue with NBC's editing of an interview with
President George W. Bush about a recent speech at Israel's Knesset.
In the speech, Bush mentioned the president of Iran, and then said: "Some will believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals..."
When asked by NBC News correspondent Richard Engel if that was a shot at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Bush's reply in the interview was, "You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently the political calendar has...And when, you know, a leader of Iran says that they want to destroy Israel, you've got to take those words seriously."
Aides to the president accuse NBC of misrepresenting Bush when it was editing out this passage from his reply: "People need to read the speech. You didn't get it exactly right, either. What I said was that we need to take the words of people seriously."
NBC said the full, unedited interview has been available all along on its
web site and that the White House does not participate in its editorial decisions.
The White House fired back, "It's simply absurd for people to have to log onto the Internet and stream video to get accurate information from NBC News." -
J.R. Whalen
