Bleep The Press

[ELVIS]

BLEEP THE PRESS: CAMERA MOVED OFF POWELL DURING RUSSERT GRILLING; AIDE ATTEMPTED TO CUT OFF INTERVIEW


http://www.drudgereport.com/mtp.jpg

I saw this twice yesterday. Powell did a goob keeping of his cool. I bet he reamed her a new ass after it was finished...

Sun May 16 2004


An aide to Sec. of State Colin Powell ordered a halt to a MEET THE PRESS interview and directed a camera to shoot a palm tree during provocative questioning by host Tim Russert!

Powell was being interview by satellite from Jordan.

State Department press aide Emily Miller fumed as Tim Russert went beyond the 10 minutes allotted for the NBC Sunday session.

MORE

13 minutes in to the interview, Miller attempted to pull the plug.

As Russert grilled Powell on his presentation at the UN of Iraq's alleged WMDs -- Miller moved the single remote camera off Powell.

"You're off," Miller announced.

"I am not off," Powell warned.

"No. They can't use it, they're editing it..." Miller said on an open microphone.

"Emily, get out of the way. Bring the camera back please," the secretary snapped.

MORE

Russert aired the exchange unedited.

Powell was 45 minutes late to the taping, a top source explained.

NBC's MEET THE PRESS joined in progress....

TIM RUSSERT: Finally, Mr. Secretary, in February of 2003, you placed your enormous personal credibility before the United Nations and laid out a case against Saddam Hussein, citing.

(Camera moved off of interview subject)

EMILY MILLER, STATE DEPARTMENT PRESS AIDE: You're off.

SECRETARY POWELL: I am not off.

EMILY MILLER, PRESS AIDE: No. They can't use it, they're editing it.

SECRETARY POWELL: He's still asking the questions.

EMILY MILLER, PRESS AIDE: He was not ...

SECRETARY POWELL: Tim, I am sorry I lost you.

MR. RUSSERT: I am right here Mr. Secretary. I would hope they would put you back on camera. I don't know who did that.

EMILY MILLER, PRESS AIDE: He was going to go for another five minutes.

SECRETARY POWELL: We've really scre...

MR. RUSSERT: I think that was one of your staff Mr. Secretary. I don't think that's appropriate.

SECRETARY POWELL: Emily, get out of the way. Bring the camera back please. (Camera returns to the interview subject) I think we're back on Tim, go ahead with your last question.

MR. RUSSERT: Thank you very much, sir.

In February of 2003, you put your enormous personal reputation on the line before the United Nations and said that you had solid sources for the case against Saddam Hussein. It now appears that an agent called "Curve Ball" had misled the CIA by suggesting that Saddam had trucks and trains that were delivering biological chemical weapons.

How concerned are you that some of the information you shared with the world is now inaccurate and discredited?

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm very concerned. When I made that presentation in February 2003, it was based on the best information that the Central Intelligence Agency made available to me. We studied it carefully. We looked at the sourcing and the case of the mobile trucks and trains. There was multiple sourcing for that. Unfortunately, that multiple sourcing over time has turned out to be not accurate, and so I'm deeply disappointed.

But I'm also comfortable that at the time that I made the presentation it reflected the collective judgment, the sound judgment, of the intelligence community, but it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that I'm disappointed, and I regret it.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Secretary, we thank you very much for joining us again and sharing your views with us today. SECRETARY POWELL: Thanks, Tim.

(END OF PRE-TAPE INTERVIEW)

MR. RUSSERT: AND THAT WAS AN UNEDITED INTERVIEW WITH THE SECRETARY OF STATE, TAPED EARLIER THIS MORNING FROM JORDAN.

WE APPRECIATE SECRETARY POWELL'S WILLINGNESS TO OVERRULE HIS PRESS AIDES' ATTEMPT TO ABRUPTLY CUT OFF OUR DISCUSSION AS I BEGAN TO ASK MY FINAL QUESTION.

COMING NEXT ...

(END)

:elvis:

[FORD]

Considering Emily Miller's past associations,("Brooks Brothers riot at the Dade county courthouse in 2000 as a Tom Delay staffer) I'm sure she was "assigned" to Powell to make sure he didn't say anything that would go against the neocon shitbag script. I thought Russert and Powell both handled the situation well, despite the little twit's interference. The fact that the BCE are now even trying to censor their own spokespeople cannot be ignored.

[ELVIS]

Russert still pissed (http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/5/17/93941.shtml)

"A taxpayer-paid employee interrupted an interview," an angry Russert said after the program. "Not in the United States of America, that's not supposed to go on. This is attempted news management gone berserk. Secretary Powell was really stand-up. He was a general and took charge."

Russert could have easily edited out the embarrassing exchange but didn't. "It's part of the story," Russert explained defiantly.

As the story made its way across the news wires Sunday, Powell saw it necessary to call Russert from his jet and was said to be apologetic.

But State Dept. officials have been less than apologetic. State Department spokeswoman Julie Reside told the Washington Post she disagreed with Russert's account.

She said that NBC "went considerably beyond the agreed end time. Other networks were waiting for their interviews and had satellite time booked, and we didn't want to keep them waiting."

:elvis:

[FORD]

Not buying that excuse. It's true that Powell was booked for pretty much all the Sunday shows (or at least NBC, ABC, and FAUX. Probably CNN too), but it's no coincidence that Emily the Nazi twit tried to cut him off right when the subject was Powell's appearance before the UN in Feb 2003 which turned out to be based on BCE lies and fabrications.

[Ally_Kat]

From the NY Daily News--

Official respect for the First Amendment is apparently in steep decline.
The other day, an intrepid journalist and truth-seeker was grilling a powerful public figure. But before the interview was over, the powerful public figure's press aide abruptly broke in as tape rolled and stopped the interrogation.

Tim Russert interviewing Colin Powell?

Nope.

Try Brian Lehrer interviewing Tim Russert.

"We were given precisely 10 minutes with Russert to tape an interview about his new book from 8 a.m. to 8:10 a.m. for broadcast at 10 a.m. last Friday," the WNYC radio host told me yesterday.

"My impression was that he was very tightly scheduled, and had to do five or six interviews one after the other and his people were trying to keep him on schedule ... Eight minutes into the interview, a woman's voice cut in and barked, 'WNYC, you have eight seconds left!' And the interview came to a quick end."

Lehrer added that the glitch was deleted from what sounded, when it was broadcast, like a seamless conversation.

"It was no big deal," Lehrer said, noting that the interrupter was not an NBC News employee. "These things happen. It was just the usual bureaucratic stuff and getting an interview. So we edited it out."

But two days later, Secretary of State Powell's press aide, Emily Miller, was so desperate to keep her boss on schedule that she tried to end Russert's taped interview when it ran into overtime. The "Meet the Press" moderator went ballistic.

Not only did Russert castigate Powell's aide on his own NBC show, he gave righteously indignant interviews about "attempted news management gone berserk" to CNN and The Washington Post.

On Monday, Lehrer poked fun at Russert's tantrum by airing the rude interruption that he had earlier excised.

"If Colin Powell's people were guilty of attempted news management gone berserk," Lehrer told me yesterday, "then I can say only that Tim Russert's people succeeded at it."

Russert could not be interrupted for comment yesterday.

[FORD]

But did Russert's handlers cut off the interview in the middle of a question that put Timmy on the spot? One that would question the entire credibility of his employers, NBC??

It's a common thing for anyone plugging a book to do short radio interviews, and schedule several of them back to back. It's an entirely different situation than the Secretary of State's staffers cutting off an interview immediately after the Secretary was asked a question about his use of information, used to justify a war, which was proven to be fraudulent.

[John Ashcroft]

OK Ford, let's hear the conspiracy here.

[FORD]

No conspiracy. Just a simple fact that Emily the nazi twit was hired as Colin Powell's "nanny" so that he doesn't say anything that opposes the Fraudministration's treasonous neocon shitbag "gospel".

Which he might have done, if he admitted that the "evidence" he presented to the UN in February 2003 was a load of shit.

[Ally_Kat]

Originally posted by FORD
But did Russert's handlers cut off the interview in the middle of a question that put Timmy on the spot? One that would question the entire credibility of his employers, NBC??

It's a common thing for anyone plugging a book to do short radio interviews, and schedule several of them back to back. It's an entirely different situation than the Secretary of State's staffers cutting off an interview immediately after the Secretary was asked a question about his use of information, used to justify a war, which was proven to be fraudulent.

But Russert wasn't the only interview/appointment for Colin that day just like Brian wasn't the only interview that Russert had that day. The press aides were both doing their jobs, which isn't an easy one btw.

If the question was so important for Russert, he should have put it out there earlier, perhaps around the 8 minutes mark, and not after he had run over. See, with such a question like that, there are bound to be follow-up questions. It's a heavy question, and I don't mean b/c it questions the administration. I mean that it could create a list of follow-up questions to what Colin responded with, and thus a longer conversation that he could not afford timewise. 3 minutes may not seem long, but then that's 3 minutes you lose going to your next appointment, not to mention whatever transportation problems may be abound.

Things like this happen with press aides all the time. You can try to look for a conspiracy in it, but that would be grasping at straws.

[John Ashcroft]

Originally posted by FORD
No conspiracy. Just a simple fact that Emily the nazi twit was hired as Colin Powell's "nanny" so that he doesn't say anything that opposes the Fraudministration's treasonous neocon shitbag "gospel".

Which he might have done, if he admitted that the "evidence" he presented to the UN in February 2003 was a load of shit.

I was referring to Russert's infraction...

[FORD]

Originally posted by John Ashcroft
I was referring to Russert's infraction...

I have no idea about that one. Don't get any east coast radio stations out here ;)