White House fury over 'deceitful' editing of Bush speech

The White House has called on NBC News to set the record straight on “deceitful” editing of an interview with President George Bush, in which a correspondent asks whether comments about the president of Iran were directed at Barack Obama.

Bush aides were furious at how the president’s answer was portrayed when Richard Engel questioned him about his condemnation of “the false comfort of appeasement” in an address last week to the Israeli parliament.

However, NBC said today it stood by its treatment of the interview.

Mr Bush had mentioned the president of Iran in his speech, and said: “Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.”

Democratic presidential hopeful Mr Obama’s campaign considered that statement an attack on him, which the White House has denied.

Mr Engel asked Mr Bush if he was referring to Mr Obama in his speech.

As it appeared on Nightly News on Sunday and the Today show yesterday, Mr Bush’s response 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.”

However, the White House said NBC edited out these words that Mr Bush said between those two sentences: “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.”

Bush counsel Ed Gillespie, in a letter to NBC News president Steve Capus, said that “this deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured storyline is utterly misleading and irresponsible”. He asked that the network air Mr Bush’s response in full on the two programmes.

The White House routinely counters news stories it disagrees with by issuing Setting The Record Straight press releases. But the one against NBC News stands out for its angry tone and its accusation that the news division deceptively and deceitfully edited the president’s words.

It also came personally from Mr Gillespie, one of the top figures in the White House and a veteran politico as former head of the Republican Party.

NBC said the unedited interview had been available since Sunday on the network’s website, and that the reporting reflected the interview accurately. The extra sentences by Mr Bush were included during a report on Sunday’s Today show.

Mr Capus said there was no effort to be deceptive and called Mr Gillespie’s criticism a gross misrepresentation of the facts.

“Just as the White House does not participate in the editorial process at the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal or USA Today, NBC News, as part of a free press in a free society, makes its own editorial decisions,” NBC said in a statement.

In NBC’s nightly newscast yesterday, anchor Brian Williams reiterated that the entire interview was available on NBC’s website and that viewers could post comments on the network’s blog if they wanted.

Moments later Mr Gillespie issued another statement, saying: “It’s simply absurd for people to have to log on to the internet and stream video to get accurate information from NBC News.”

Mr Gillespie brought up other grievances, too, including NBC News’ coverage of the Iraq war and the nation’s economic woes. The White House was not happy when NBC News decided to call the situation in Iraq a civil war and called attention to its decision.

However, Mr Capus said it was better to discuss the other issues “in a more appropriate forum”.