UPDATED: Breitbart TV: "Reporters Hammer Gibbs" on Lack of Transparency

Even Helen Thomas gets in the act.



In other news, pigs flew over downtown Chicago . . .

Update from CNS News: Penny Starr and Fred Lucas from followed up with Helen Thomas, who is now 89 years old and has "covered the White House during every presidency since John F. Kennedy's":

“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.

“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”

Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.

“When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said.

“I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”

Interesting that we don't hear similar complaints from the rest of the media. Starr and Lucas have transcribed the exchange between Gibbs, Thomas, and Chip Reid of CBS. Worth the read.