At Mock Briefing, Less Give-and-Take and More Sharing

Gregory, wearing a natty purple tie, would not stand for this. "I think what Terry Hunt said is wrong and actionable," he deadpanned. "People think people are playing to the cameras. I can't control what Tony does."

Snow changed the subject, but Knoller soon brought the talk back to his showboat colleagues' hectoring of White House briefers. "I'm not there to debate them," he said.

"I see it a little bit differently," Gregory said, to laughter. "I'm just trying to push him to what I think would be more candor than he's prepared to offer."

The talk of candor must have moved Snow to offer up some. "There will be times when I tap-dance around something because it would be best answered off the record," he admitted.

The confessions continued. "The best thing I like about being on radio is the anonymity," Knoller said. "It means that if you're thumbing through the adult magazines at Barnes & Noble, nobody's going to know who you are."

Awkward laughter followed. Snow quaffed some water and raised his eyebrows. "It's a joke!" Knoller insisted.

Next in the confessional was Stolberg, who spoke of a reader complaint. "Your story on thus-and-such today was lively and well written," she recalled the reader saying. "To see how you could add insight and depth to your coverage, check out Abramowitz in The Washington Post."

Stolberg was the final panelist to be questioned by Snow ("Thank you for saving the best for last," she told him), but she proved the liveliest. She retold an exchange between her daughters: "My younger daughter said, 'Mommy, have you met the president?' And the older one said, 'The president has met Mom.' "

She also had some controversial views on the dusty Texas town where Bush has his ranch. "You know what I think is fun about being a White House correspondent? Crawford!" she said. "We can go in shorts, and the press secretary comes in shorts," she added.

Others on the dais recoiled. Gregory arched his eyebrows at Newsweek's Richard Wolffe. "And it's only 400 degrees," the NBC man said.

"The best thing about Crawford," Knoller chimed in, "is you can go to work and you don't have to go through metal detectors."

"And it's only 400 degrees," Gregory repeated.