FOX News Channel managing editor and chief Washington correspondent Brit Hume and senior White House correspondent Jim Angle both accused The New York Times of misrepresenting in a headline the contents of a leaked internal memo from director of central intelligence Porter J. Goss. In fact, the Times' headline and article were accurate.

Hume opened the November 17 edition of Special Report with Brit Hume by blasting the Times: “Next on Special Report: CIA director Goss tells the agency to, quote, 'Back Bush.' Or did he? We'll take a look at what The New York Times says he said and what he did say.” Angle followed up moments later with a report on Goss's memo and another swipe at the Times:

ANGLE: The president's new director of central intelligence has his hands full. Officials say he wrote a memo to CIA staff to remind everyone in the intelligence community to stay out of politics. But a newspaper headline suggested the exact opposite, saying Porter Goss had told his staff to “Back Bush.” White House officials who have seen the memo say that is not what it said.

But the opening sentences of the November 17 Times article, which quote from the memo itself, prove that the headline -- “New C.I.A. Chief Tells Workers to Back Bush” -- accurately reflects the story (the headline on the Times' website differs slightly):

Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to “support the administration and its policies in our work,'' a copy of an internal memorandum shows.

”As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies," Mr. Goss said in the memorandum, which was circulated late on Monday.

The full text of Goss's memo is not publicly available, so Media Matters for America cannot verify if its overall theme was “stay out of politics,” as Angle asserted. But neither Hume nor Angle explained how the meaning of “support the administration and its policies” differs from the Times' paraphrase, “Back Bush.” - G.W.

*Correction: When this item was first published, it claimed that Hume and Angle had misquoted the Times headline, which, we wrote, actually said “New C.I.A. Chief Tells Workers to Back Administration Policies.” MMFA cited an image of the paper's November 17 “Late Edition,” and the online version of the story, both of which used that headline. MMFA has since learned that an earlier edition of the November 17 Times did use the headline that Hume and Angle quoted. Nonetheless, MMFA still maintains that the headline “New C.I.A. Chief Tells Workers to Back Bush” accurately reflects the excerpts of the memo quoted in the article.