LA Times trumpeted Snow's “unscheduled access” to Bush -- even after Snow said his predecessors had it, too

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

The Los Angeles Times reported that Tony Snow pushed for and obtained “unscheduled access to the president” and that this “arrangement could be helpful as Snow, 50, attempts to build trust with a White House press corps that had an adversarial relationship with his predecessor and as he tries to help Bush recover from low public approval ratings.” The previous day, however, Snow appeared on Fox News and said he will have the same access to Bush as did his predecessors.


Reporting on the official announcement on April 26 that Fox News personality Tony Snow would be the new White House press secretary, the Los Angeles Times said on April 27 that Snow pushed for and obtained “unscheduled access to the president” and that this “arrangement could be helpful as Snow, 50, attempts to build trust with a White House press corps that had an adversarial relationship with his predecessor and as he tries to help Bush recover from low public approval ratings.” However, the Times' suggestion -- that Snow's access to Bush is a unique arrangement -- was contradicted by Snow's comments on the April 26 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, in which Snow said he will have the same access to Bush as did his predecessors.

Prior to April 26, as rumors circulated that Snow was considering the position, a variety of news outlets reported that Snow was negotiating for increased access to Bush and a direct role in shaping press policy. The National Journal's weblog, The Hotline (subscription required), reported on April 25 that “Snow is said by Republicans familiar with the negotiations to have asked for guaranteed access to the president's ear and to an unusually large degree of latitude to reconfigure the WH press operation.”

Snow appeared on Special Report on April 26 to give his first interview after the official announcement that he would succeed departing press secretary Scott McClellan. Host Brit Hume asked Snow specifically about his level of access, and Snow replied that he will have the same access that other press secretaries have had in the Bush White House. From the April 26 edition of Special Report with Brit Hume:

HUME: First of all, tell me about the assurances you have about your access to all that goes on in the White House and your access to the president.

SNOW: Well, the press secretaries in this White House have all had what they call walk-in access. So, when you need to, you can walk in and you can talk to the president. And I've talked with them. And basically I have access to every meeting and every bit of information I need to get my hands on.

However, the Los Angeles Times reported on April 27:

Before taking the job, Snow -- who was a speechwriter in the George H.W. Bush administration -- sought and was given “walk-in” privileges in the Oval Office and the chief of staff's office, according to a veteran Republican advisor who asked not to be named because his conversation with Snow was confidential. That would make Snow one of the few officials with unscheduled access to the president and Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten.

The arrangement could be helpful as Snow, 50, attempts to build trust with a White House press corps that had an adversarial relationship with his predecessor and as he tries to help Bush recover from low public approval ratings.