As reported in Buzzflash, it would appear that the White House uses a lot of pressure to make sure that any quote used in the media is pre-approved and sometimes re-edited at the request of Ari Fleisher.
This update at poynter.org implies that this is an isolated issue, but if it has occuredonce, then chances are it has been at least attempted before.
This speaks to the overarching concern of the Bush Administration that only its interpretation of even its own comments reaches those fewpeople that are paying attention.
One of the effects of the sloppy and/or biased journalism in the United States is that more and more Americans (like myself) are going abroad for their news -- if only for variety.
Posted by Chris at March 18, 2003 04:28 PM