At today's press briefing, White House spokesman, Scotty McClellan criticized reporters whose newspapers and magazines continued to refer to the president's Social Security reform proposals as constituting "personal property accounts", "personal accounts", "individual accounts" or "individual personal property savings accounts".
"We've been clear since day one about this", the president's spokesman said. "The president is not 'personalizing' Social Security, or 'individualizing' Social Security. We've said all along that the appropriate description of the president's initiative is 'privatization'."
"I would hope the press will finally start to report the president's proposals plainly and accurately," said McClellan.
On a related note, in a hastily arranged interview with the Fox News program, Fox and Friends, Republican U.S. Senators, Orrin Hatch (Utah), Mitch "Wild Thing" McConnell (Kentucky), and Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn) lambasted Democratic Senators' and press usage of the terms 'constitutional option' and 'majority option', in describing Republican efforts to end the filibustering of certain judicial nominees.
"What we are doing is invoking the 'nuclear option'," said the Senate trio. "The use of any other term to describe what we're doing is inaccurate and intended to be derogatory. We would hope the other side would refrain from continuing to try to mislead and manipulate the press and the American people."
According the producers of Fox and Friends, no Democratic response could be provided for in the time span allowed for the segment. The producers at Fox News don't regret the inconvenience.
"We know there are a lot of people who are trying to criticize the way we do news, to be like them", said Fox News Washington Bureau Chief, Brit Hume. "But we aren't going to listen to them or change who we interview. The Democrats are demons, and that's just that," said the fair and balanced anchor.
Still more criticism was levied at the editors and staff of Newsweek magazine by Fox News and Administration spokesman because of the journal's covering of the continuing wars and unrest in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There's no reason for Newsweek or anybody else for that matter, to continue to report on car bombings, prison interrogations, or military recruitment levels," said Fox News John Gibson, host of the show "The Big Story", who was joined by Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita. "That Koran story would have never even gotten out there if the press would just mind its own business and report only what the White House and the Republican Party provide it through its daily press releases."
"Some people should watch what they say", chimed in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who appeared briefly at the podium to sign autographs for the Fox News anchors and staff in attendance.
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