White House complains about Bush interview

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The White House routinely pushes back against news stories it does not agree with by issuing "Setting The Record Straight" press releases. But the one against NBC News stands out for its angry tone and its accusation that the news division deceptively and deceitfully edited the president's words.

It also came personally from Gillespie, one of the top figures in the White House and a veteran politico as former head of the Republican Party.

Gillespie brought up some other grievances, too, including NBC News coverage of the Iraq war and the nation's economic woes. The White House was not happy when NBC News decided to call the situation in Iraq a civil war and called attention to its decision.

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Gillespie said that NBC News has quietly stopped referring to a civil war in Iraq. "Will the network publicly declare that the civil war has ended, or that it was wrong to declare it in the first place?" he asked.

Capus said it was better to discuss the other issues "in a more appropriate forum."

Complaint sent to all
The White House didn't just send its letter of complaint to NBC. It sent it out to every reporter who receives White House press releases and posted it prominently on the White House Web site.

"I'm sure you don't want people to conclude that there is really no distinction between the 'news' as reported on NBC and the 'opinion' as reported on MSNBC, despite the increasing blurring of those lines," Gillespie said.

NBC News has angered Democrats this year, too. The Clinton campaign has been unhappy with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, along with NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert's declaration after last week's primaries that Obama was the Democratic nominee.

Clinton is running a campaign ad in Oregon, where there is a primary on Tuesday, in which the announcer says, "In Washington, they talk about who's up and who's down. In Oregon, we care about what's right and what's wrong." Pictures are shown of Russert, Matthews and Olbermann, with the only non-NBC personality depicted being George Stephanopoulos of ABC News.