Green Jobs in the Red

Compare and contrast with how the Washington Post—no slouch when it comes to carrying water for the Obama White House—covered the same jobs-speech faceoff. Reporter David Nakamura noted correctly that the initial White House spin was that the Wednesday date for the speech had been “carefully selected,” with press secretary Jay Carney implying that Boehner’s request to move the speech to Thursday was about petty politics. In fact, the Post continued,

Behind the scenes, the White House was not as dismissively removed from the whole affair as Carney claimed it was. Administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, spread the word that White House Chief of Staff William Daley had called Boehner and run the details by him before Obama sent the letter. .  .  . Boehner’s office has said the speaker never cleared a precise time with the White House. Prominent Obama supporter, Democratic strategist James Carville, said Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the White House’s attempt to step on the [GOP presidential] debate had been wrong and “out of bounds.”

Would that the Times’s Washington correspondents attempted such straight reporting.