Ignoring reports that White House officials acknowledged that President Bush was referring to Sen. Barack Obama in his May 15 remarks to the Israeli Knesset about “appeas[ing]” “terrorists and radicals,” a May 21 Washington Times article uncritically quoted a memo sent to NBC News by Ed Gillespie, a counselor to the president, accusing NBC News of “deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured story line” that Bush was, in fact, referring to Obama. The Times also quoted Gillespie saying that he was “rejecting the notion that when the president reiterates a long-standing policy it can be characterized as a political attack on someone just because they disagree with the policy.” The Times did not point out that the “story line” that Bush was referring to Obama reportedly emanated from the White House itself. Nor did it note that comments reportedly made by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and published the same day as Bush's Knesset speech articulated a view that contrasts with the purported “long-standing policy” that Gillespie said the president was “reiterat[ing].”

In a May 18 interview, NBC Nightly News correspondent Richard Engel asked Bush whether he was referring to Obama, among others, when he said during a speech at the Israeli Knesset:

BUSH: Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

NBC aired an edited version of Engel's interview. In the memo to NBC News President Steve Capus, Gillespie asserted that “NBC's selective editing of the President's response is clearly intended to give viewers the impression that he agreed with Engel's characterization of his remarks when he explicitly challenged it.”

While the White House has officially denied that Bush was referring to Obama, at least two news organizations have reported that sources inside the administration acknowledged that the remarks referred or “applied to” Obama.

On May 15, CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry reported, “The president did not name Obama or any other Democrat, but White House aides privately acknowledged the remarks were aimed at the presidential candidate and others in his party.” Also, as washingtonpost.com columnist Dan Froomkin noted on May 16, The Boston Globe reported on the same day: “Bush did not mention the Democratic frontrunner by name and the White House officially denied that Bush was referring to Obama. But White House officials indicated that the criticism applied to Obama, who has said that as president he would rely on greater diplomacy to improve relations with unfriendly nations.”

Further, while reporting Gillespie's comments about the White House's “long-standing policy,” the Times article did not report that despite Bush's criticism of “some” who “seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals,” his own defense secretary has, like Obama, reportedly said that the United States needs to be willing to meet with Iran. As Media Matters for America documented, The Washington Post reported in a May 15 article that Gates said the United States should “construct a combination of incentives and pressure to engage Iran,” and quoted Gates as saying: “We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage ... and then sit down and talk with them.”

From The Washington Times on May 21:

Ari Fleischer, Mr. Bush's press secretary from 2001 to 2003, said attacking the media reaps political benefits, but that White House officials might also have a legitimate complaint, with NBC in particular.

“The conservatives always believe the press is against them,” Mr. Fleischer said. “There's been a growing sense of frustration at the White House with NBC, and it finally burst out.”

After the interview with NBC's Richard Engel aired, Mr. Gillespie said NBC manipulated the president's words to make it seem that Mr. Bush agreed with the premise of Mr. Engel's question about the president's speech last week in Israel.

Mr. Engel had asked whether Mr. Bush's comments about appeasing Iran were a slap at Sen. Barack Obama, the likely Democratic nominee for president.

In the memo, Mr. Gillespie said NBC's “deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured story line is utterly misleading and irresponsible,” and asked them to air the president's full answer.

NBC has stood by its editing and said the full interview is available online.

Mr. Gillespie told the Washington Times yesterday that he was “rejecting the notion that when the president reiterates a long-standing policy it can be characterized as a political attack on someone just because they disagree with the policy.”