Reprinted from The Washington Times, March 3, 1998
Mummy's tale stirs
McCurry's retaliation
By Paul Bedard
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
White House aides and reporters yesterday agreed that relations have deteriorated to a low, driven by coverage of the Lewinsky affair and the publishing of embarrassing off-the-record comments by spokesman Michael McCurry.
With reporters and the White House already angry at each other over the trickle of facts and titillating leaks in the latest scandal, the publishing of comments made in confidence by Mr. McCurry to reporters in a "social" gathering has further frayed the relationship between scribe and spokesman.
As a result, Mr. McCurry and his aides are reconsidering whether to continue talking to reporters on an off-the-record basis, in which reporters get an inside view of White House thinking and Clinton aides can gauge what reporters are interested in.
"Certainly, you know, we'll have to adjust our behavior accordingly," said Mr. McCurry. "But it's really your issue more than it's our issue."
At issue is a passage in a forthcoming book, "Spin Cycle," by Howard Kurtz, the media critic of The Washington Post, in which he details Mr. McCurry's comments made to reporters in an off-the-record chat during a rare ride on the press charter in 1996. The complete passage was first published yesterday in the "Inside the Beltway" column in The Washington Times.
Mr. Kurtz wrote that Mr. McCurry told the president after a Connecticut fund-raiser that his joking remark that a 13-year-old Peruvian mummy looked good enough to date was not wise. Mr. Kurtz wrote that Mr. Clinton snapped at Mr. McCurry, who then hitched a ride with reporters instead of traveling on to Wisconsin on Air Force One.
Asked on that flight about Mr. Clinton's appraisal of the mummy, Mr. McCurry replied: "Probably she does look good compared to the mummy he's been ----ing."
Said Mr. McCurry late yesterday: "I've had some painful reminders that the days of the old 'Boys on the Bus' have been circumscribed."
The publishing of those comments startled many longtime reporters and White House staffers, who said it could prevent other social contacts between reporters and Mr. McCurry.
"It chills background conversations between reporters and sources," said Terence Hunt, White House bureau chief for the Associated Press.
"It's unfair when reporters are talking to sources and then come back and burn them," said Mr. Hunt, a 16-year veteran of White House coverage.
"One of the sad things resulting from this could be that we have less contact with people like McCurry," said Laurence McQuillan of Reuters, president of the White House Correspondents Association.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said, "It makes you wonder what is off the record. I guess the bottom line is, nothing is."
Mr. Lockhart said an off-the-record session can help both sides, but "probably helps reporters more." Without the sessions, including social gatherings such as Mr. McCurry's infrequent trips on the press charter that follows Air Force One, "it makes your job harder."
Among White House reporters yesterday, the big question was which White House reporter told Mr. Kurtz of the off-the-record comments.
"This is your problem, not ours. You've got a rat," said a White House official.
Said Mr. Lockhart: "I don't have a big gripe with Kurtz."
Previous off-the-record sessions have not remained off the record. For example, at the end of the president's recent vacation on Martha's Vineyard, the White House invited reporters to an off-the-record party during which the president put on an odd hat and wig. Within three days, the episode was revealed.
While there are no specific rules regulating social functions with press aides and senior Clinton staff, there is a general presumption that nothing will be reported. Staffers mingle with reporters in an off-the-record manner to help create cordial relations in an otherwise adversarial relationship. "It makes it easier to work with people even in a hostile relationship," Mr. Lockhart said.
The clash over the mummy's tale follows White House anger of coverage of the president's purported affair with Monica Lewinsky. Aides have complained to reporters that news organizations are reporting rumor or exaggerating details of the story; reporters have complained that the president has not been as forthcoming as he promised he would be when the story first broke into the news.
Mr. McCurry, for example, said that the credibility of the news organizations could be crushed if the president's denials are verified. But he has also conceded that the White House's credibility would be ruined if the president's story is proven false.Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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