Death Wish

Silva credited the White House with releasing an accurate transcript despite numerous "I" references. "But it's also a measure of how absurd the entire business of speaking as an SAO is."

Holly Bailey, a Newsweek correspondent, said she was "very surprised at how quickly the SAO laid out the ground rules," adding that "it was done so quickly that we didn't have a lot of chance to object." She said the trip was frustrating because reporters had no more than 20 minutes' access to the vice president on the nine-day trip.

Cheney's backgrounder took place as a federal jury is weighing perjury charges against his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, related to his role in telling reporters about covert CIA operative Valerie Plame without being identified. Libby testified that the vice president directed him to conduct the background discussions with Judith Miller, then a New York Times reporter.

Senior U.S. officials have been briefing reporters without their names attached since Henry A. Kissinger was engaged in Middle East shuttle diplomacy. Sometimes these officials appear in the White House briefing room. President Bush and several of his predecessors have conducted such background sessions with, for example, network anchors and friendly columnists.

Journalists have occasionally objected to the ground rules in these sessions, but for the most part they have become an accepted ritual.

Time magazine blogger Ana Marie Cox called the senior official's Air Force Two transcript "as blatant as birdshot in the face," adding: "The willingness of the press corps to go along with this not-even-trying level of deception is especially embarrassing."

Shades of 2000: The only Oscar winner to come out of the White House is not happy with his media coverage. Actually, not the coverage about him but about his issue, the Tennessean reports:

"'I believe that is one of the principal reasons why political leaders around the world have not yet taken action," Gore said. "There are many reasons, but one of the principal reasons in my view is more than half of the mainstream media have rejected the scientific consensus implicitly -- and I say 'rejected,' perhaps it's the wrong word. They have failed to report that it is the consensus and instead have chosen . . . balance as bias.

"I don't think that any of the editors or reporters responsible for one of these stories saying, 'It may be real, it may not be real,' is unethical. But I think they made the wrong choice, and I think the consequences are severe.

"I think if it is important to look at the pressures that made it more likely than not that mainstream journalists in the United States would convey a wholly inaccurate conclusion about the most important moral, ethical, spiritual and political issue humankind has ever faced."

And his contribution to greater journalistic understanding after delivering this speech?

"Gore would not answer any questions from the media after the event."