The White House set up a special on-the-record meeting today between the incident commander overseeing the Gulf oil spill, Thad Allen, and a handful of columnists, according to Yahoo News' Michael Calderone.

“Among those on hand were the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne and Eugene Robinson, Wall Street Journal's Jerry Seib, and Newsweek's Howard Fineman," Calderone writes. “Robinson told Yahoo! News that he was invited by email Tuesday night to attend the meeting, which he found 'quite helpful' in getting direct answers to questions about the how the administration's dealing with the mess in the Gulf. He also acknowledged that that bringing in leading opinion makers--as the White House did before on issues like Afghanistan and health care reform--can be helpful to the administration in making it clearer what steps its taking."

The gathering is in addition to an Obama press conference set for Thursday afternoon, which has wrongly been labeled his first since July.

Calderone also clarified the fact that Obama has held pressers more recently, noting:

“CBS News Radio reporter Mark Knoller, the press corps unofficial record-keeper, agrees the July presser was the 'last formal, prime-time news White House news conference,' but points out that Obama did make a surprise appearance in the briefing room in February, and took six questions. 'I count that as a White House news conference,' Knoller said, noting that other 'news organizations seem to be ignoring that session so they can report he hasn't held a news conference since last July.'"

Calderone added: “Ann Compton, a long-time ABC News White House correspondent, also pointed out that Obama took some questions at the Nuclear Security Summit in April.”