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RUSH: So yesterday we had the local infobabe from Phoenix. Here name was Catherine Anaya, and she let the cat out of the bag in a huge way. She essentially said that when she talked to Jay Carney, Jay Carney said, “Oh, yeah, reporters give me questions in advance, I’m able to find the answers, and then I give them the answers in advance.” She reported this. A major hubbub resulted.

Wherein, I said on this program about 12:30, about halfway into the first hour, “I’m gonna predict by one o’clock Eastern time, maybe two o’clock, this woman’s mind will be made right. They will pressure her and pressure her, and she will say that she got it wrong, that she misunderstood. They are going to show her her career hanging in the balance on how she handles this, because they can’t let this stand.”

They cannot let it stand that there is this kind of not just cooperation, but coordination and collaboration between the Drive-Bys in the White House press corps and the Regime. They cannot let the idea they submit their questions in advance so that Carney knows what they are and is able to get the answers and make it look like he’s really brilliant, when he may not have the slightest clue unless he gets the questions in advance.


I wasn’t the only one, of course, that knew this was going to happen. There were maybe a couple of others. So let’s go back. Let’s review what she said the first time. This was Wednesday night in Phoenix, KPHO-TV, news at five, Eyeball News. Catherine Anaya is speaking with the co-anchor Adam Longo about her interview with Obama. It’s Local Media Day, a big day for these local affiliate people.

I mean, it is a big day. This is a day that’s a highlight of their career, and it could be a day that gives them a big career bounce. It is a huge thing, and you go up there, you get four minutes with Obama, you get an interview with Carney in the press office, it’s a huge deal. She was so excited. And her co-anchor said, “So you were there all day, Catherine. You started the day with key members of the president’s staff. Tell us about it.”

ANAYA: We started here shortly after eight o’clock with a coffee with press secretary Jay Carney, and this was off the record. He showed us a very long list of items that he has to be well versed on every single day. Um, and then he also mentioned that, um, a lot of times, unless it’s something breaking, the questions that the reporters actually asked were the correspondents’, they were provided him in advance. So then he knows what he’s going to be answering, and sometimes those correspondents and reporters also have those answers printed in front of them. Because, of course, it helps when they’re producing their reports for later on. So that was very interesting.

RUSH: Yeah! I’ll bet it was. Now, when you hear that, she didn’t get anything wrong. She didn’t make anything up. She’s too excited to get it wrong, folks. She wants to make an impression. She’s trying to impress these people. It’s the name of the game. And she was very specific. She did not get anything wrong. And she said it was “off the record,” a long list of items he has to be well versed on.

He mentioned a lot of times that, unless it’s breaking, the questions the reporters ask are provided to him in advance so that he knows what to say. As though, “That’s really cool! Man, I wish we could do that in Phoenix. That is really cool.” Well, it wasn’t gonna last. Ed Henry of Fox tweeted (paraphrased), “Hey, this not true. At least, it’s not true for me. I never submit questions in advance.”

The people at Politico did the same, but there wasn’t a lot of publicly expressed outrage by other Drive-Bys. And it was only a matter of time, ’cause they can’t let this stand. See, I believe her. I think it totally happens. This is why… I don’t want to repeat myself from yesterday, but, you know, Dylan Byers at The Politico is all upset that the media is upset that Michelle didn’t take any media with her to China.

I said, “They know you’re not gonna turn on ’em. They can do anything they want. They know they own you; they have you in the palms of their hands. You’ve already given away any independence that you might have thought you had. You’re on the team, they know you’re on the team, and they also know that no matter how much they disrespect you, you’re never gonna turn on ’em.

“He’s the first black president. He’s a leftist. He’s a leader of the Democrats. You hate the Republicans. You’re never gonna turn on Obama. You’re never gonna turn on Michelle. It doesn’t matter. So if she doesn’t want you hassling her while she’s with the ChiComs doing who knows what, tough toenails, ’cause you’re not going.”

What are you gonna do about it? Write a little piece and talk about how they’re not transparent? Big whoop! Think they care? So I have no doubt that Catherine Anaya was telling the truth. Well, now the UK Daily Mail, the headline: “‘My Mistake and I Own Up to It’: Phoenix Reporter Reverses Course, Says White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Doesn’t Get Daily Briefing Questions in Advance —

“The Phoenix reporter at the center of a quick-drying controversy admitted she got the whole thing wrong. Phoenix news anchor Catherine Anaya reported Wednesday night on KPHO-TV5 that in an ‘off the record’ meeting, Carney had told a handful of local TV reporters that White House correspondents often tell him before daily briefings what they’ll be asking…

“By mid-afternoon Anaya,” just shortly after I predicted it would happen, “fresh off a Washington-to-Phoenix flight, walked parts of her story back in an e-mail to MailOnline” in the UK. But she insisted that she herself was asked to submit a question in advance for Carney on Wednesday afternoon. ‘As a local journalist I had no issue providing my proposed question in advance,’ she told MailOnline, ‘because I wanted to make sure it was an appropriate question for a national briefing and I wanted to make sure it was appropriate for Mr. Carney.”

Do you…? I didn’t mind submitting my question in advance ’cause I wanted his approval. I wanted to make sure my question was appropriate. I wanted to make sure my question was asking him to comment on something that wouldn’t violate national security. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t asking him a tough question that might be embarrass him. I wanted his approval. Oh, my Lord! They’re probably taught this stuff now. Who knows? Anyway, we have Catherine Anaya now back on her own air in Phoenix, back on CBS 5 Eyeball News at 10 on KPHO-TV. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call a hostage video.

ANAYA: I was speaking off the cuff and unscripted, and in the process, I made two major mistakes. I reported an off-the-record conversation, and what I reported was not accurate. I took a conversation about the preparation for a press briefing, and I muddied it with my own experience of wanting to provide a question for the press briefing. I incorrectly applied the process to everyone. That was wrong, and it was bad reporting. The White House never asked for my questions in advance and never instructed me on what to ask. I did not attribute or report factually last night, and for that I deeply apologize.

RUSH: Man, did they make her walk it back! Wow. They made her basically say she is the most unqualified, incompetent reporter ever to set foot in the White House. She had to walk the plank! I mean, if I didn’t know better, there would be two Al-Qaeda guys standing next to her holding long knives. Man! So her excuse now is, she admits she submitted her question in advance ’cause she wanted Carney’s approval.

The mistake she made was thinking that that’s how everybody in the White House press corps does it. That’s right. She just assumed that’s what everybody did. So she retracted, and she apologized, and she admitted to being a horrible journalist. “The White House never asked for my questions in advance and never instructed me on what to ask. I did not attribute or report factually last night, and for that I deeply apologize.”

Man!

Oh, this is worse than what I thought they were gonna make her do. It’s just… I haven’t seen the video. All I have is the audio. I would love to get a body-language expert, watch it, and try to find the signals about her being tortured. (interruption) “Was there any torture used to secure this confession?” That’s a legitimate question. These people have seen torture, like at Abu Ghraib. Did they make her do anything? (interruption) Was she waterboarded?

Yeah, that’s a good question: Did they waterboard? Did they threatened her family? Anaya, did they threaten deportation? What did they do to get this confession? And then we move on to Sharyl Attkisson, now known as “the right’s favorite reporter at CBS.” Sharyl Attkisson, of course, resigned from CBS TV/CBS News, and she did an interview with talk radio in Philadelphia.

Responding to comments regarding Catherine Anaya, the Phoenix reporter, Sharyl Attkisson said, “I wouldn’t surprised if sometimes there is that level of cooperation with some questions. If I need something answered from the White House and they won’t tell me, I’ll call our White House correspondent. They’re friendlier with the White House correspondents in general.

“So the White House correspondent,” Bill Plante or whoever it is, “may ask Jay Carney or one of his folks about an issue and they will be told ‘ask that at the briefing and we’ll answer it.’ They want to answer it in front of everybody. They do know it’s coming and they’ll call on you. There’s that kind of coordination sometimes,” Sharyl Attkisson said. “I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s sometimes more coordination.

“I don’t think it’s everybody on every briefing, every day. I’m pretty sure it’s not. But I think people would be surprised at the level of cooperation reporters have in general with politicians.” Well, we wouldn’t be surprised here. I’ve thought this game has been rigged for a long, long time. We know that they’re not even reporters anymore. They’re not even journalists. They’re actors, or they are otherwise Democrats assigned to the journalism area. The journalism sector.

Some Democrats are assigned to a cabinet secretary. Some Democrats are assigned to congressional liaison or aide. Some Democrats are assigned to posts in the Regime. Other Democrats are assigned to journalism school and then the media. That’s how it works. Then they go back and forth, revolving doors. One day a reporter. The other day I heard Richard Stengel (I had the sound bite, didn’t get to ’em), the guy who used to run TIME Magazine is now working for John Kerry, spokesman.

I had a couple sound bites where he was just praising John Kerry like it was rock star, groupie kind of stuff. So there is no independence anymore between Democrats and the media. White House, Senate, House, it doesn’t matter. But, boy, did they make this babe talk the walk. Whoa! Can you imagine what they told her? Can you imagine how scared she must have been when they got through telling her what was gonna happen if she didn’t fix this?

“You like Phoenix? ‘Cause you may be spending the rest of your life there, and maybe not even in the media. You ever heard of Neenah-Oshkosh/Appleton, Wisconsin. You ever heard of that market? ‘Cause we may have a spot for you there.” Nothing wrong with that market, don’t misunderstand. I’m just picking a smaller market. Actually, they should be flattered that I know the Neenah-Oshkosh/Appleton market.

The reason I do is I was once offered a job there when I was leaving Pittsburgh. F. Chuck Todd. Everybody is dumping on CNN now. F. Chuck Todd on his MSNBC show yesterday said (summarized), “What is this? Every time I look at CNN, I see ‘BREAKING NEWS,’ and yet there’s nothing to report. When did nothing become ‘BREAKING NEWS?” I said, “Chuck, look at your own network.

“Have you ever looked at your own crawl? They’re starting now to eat each other over this Malaysian jet story. Oh, by the way, the automobile transport ship finally got to the area where they had those two pieces of wreckage, and they can’t find anything. And you know why? Some wizard of smart… I actually have it in the Stack here. I’m not kidding on this, folks. I’ve never thought of this.

They said, “We might not find it. The debris, the wreckage might sink.” Imagine that. I had not considered that. I thought the stuff would float on until our rescue people got there, and then sink. Apparently a UK satellite outfit spotted this wreckage within 48 hours of the crash, and I don’t know if they told anybody — or maybe they told Malaysia, and Malaysia sat on it. Now the sat-com people say, “Hey, it’s not our problem.

“What you do with our data is up to you. It’s not our job. We find the data. We saw what we thought could have been wreckage, and we told people. We’re done.” “You mean you don’t care?” “It’s not our job. It’s Malaysia’s job. We provide you with the data. What you do with it is your business.” I mean, they’re turning cannibal out there, all these people. ‘Cause there’s nothing to report, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT


RUSH: Snerdley, I was just told you have a crush on Savannah Guthrie. Do you have a crush on Savannah Guthrie? (interruption) The Today Show. I thought it was a CNN babe you once had a crush on until you actually listened to her for… (interruption) Yeah. It’s not. Anyway, Savannah Guthrie, longtime NBC, White House correspondent and went over to MSNBC to do a show with F. Chuck Todd. She married, yeah. I think they got married.

She’s four months pregnant. She got married to Michael Feldman, a Clinton-Gore political operative. She married a guy. She’s NBC infobabe on the Today Show. She married this guy, the founder of a Democrat PR lobbying firm. He is a founding partner, managing director of the Glover Park Group, which is the communications firm started in 2001 by Dee Dee Myers and Joe Lockhart.

Now, there’s my, just another element of proof. So here you have an anchor, a news reader, a host on the Today show marrying a Democrat strategerist. It’s just that whole town is incestuous that way. And, by the way…No, I don’t care. I’m just pointing it out. You can marry who you want. Especially now. In fact, we’re getting to the point you can marry what you want before too long. We’ve got the actual audio of Sharyl Attkisson on our Philadelphia radio affiliate coming up.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I promised the Sharyl Attkisson audio, and I just didn’t get to it, so here it is. She appeared on our affiliate in Philadelphia this morning, 1210 WPHT, Chris Stigall, and they were talking about this controversy with the Phoenix infobabe, who really let the cat out of the bag by admitting that White House correspondents submit their questions in advance to Jay Carney, and then they made her walk the plank last night when she got back home to Phoenix.

Oh, I mean, it was a hostage video like I haven’t seen in a long time. They made this woman walk the plank. They might have waterboarded her. They might have tortured her before she did this, ’cause she basically said, “You know what? I suck. I’m the worst reporter that ever has been. I did things that no qualified reporter would ever do.” That’s essentially what they made her say, and so Sharyl Attkisson — who is been called “the right’s favorite reporter at CBS,” ’cause she’s a real journalist there… She’s no longer there, by the way. She was on Philadelphia radio this morning and was asked about this whole notion of what reporters pre-submit their questions to Jay Carney.


ATTKISSON: I wouldn’t surprised if sometimes there is that level of cooperation with some questions. If I need something answered from the White House and they won’t tell me, I’ll call our White House correspondent. They’re friendlier with the White House correspondents in general. So the White House correspondent may ask Jay Carney or one of his folks about an issue and they will be told ‘ask that at the briefing and we’ll answer it.’ They want to answer it in front of everybody. They do know it’s coming and they’ll call on you. There’s that kind of coordination sometimes.

RUSH: And she went on to say that she thinks it happens a lot more than people know, a lot more than people realize. Not just at the White House, but with other politicians and their press conferences, too. Of course, we here have no doubt that the Phoenix infobabe was telling the truth. I’m not gonna play her again. We played her twice. But she was so bubbly and so enthusiastic. She was so happy. She was telling the truth.

She was happy to be there. It was such a great career opportunity to hang around the people at the pinnacle of her business, and it ended up so poorly for her. I actually feel very sorry for her, the way this went down. All she did was report what happens, and they made her basically go on TV in Phoenix and say that she’s the sorriest excuse for a journalist that’s been in a while.

They made her basically say she didn’t know how to do it and she did it really bad and that she apologized for it. I feel sorry for her, ’cause she was just reporting what she had been told. Now, it may have been told to her “off the record.” The point is this collaboration takes place; we know it does. Sharyl Attkisson is simply making the point that, okay, she’s a reporter. She got a question from the White House.

But she’s not the White House correspondent. She calls the press office and says, “It’s Sharyl Attkisson,” and they tell her to go pound sand. Say she calls and she has a question about Benghazi. Well, they’re not answering a question about Benghazi. So she said what she would do is call their White House correspondent and say, “Would you ask Carney or one of his people this question?”

And the White House correspondent — who has a better relationship with Carney than Sharyl Attkisson does — then says, “Hey, what do you think about this?” Carney then says, “You know what? Ask that at the briefing. You know, ask that, and I’ll answer that question.” So the White House correspondent at CBS has just been told that, if he will ask that question, he will be called on. A, ergo, collaboration.

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