A HuffPost reporter blasted the White House for what he called “a public smear on my name” after an official tried to deny his story about a Gaza reconstruction proposal by claiming it was “not true” and used “made up” quotes.
A top White House spokesman later attempted to make partial amends, saying that officials never meant to “cast aspersions on journalistic ethics.”
It did little to smooth things over, though. On Thursday, HuffPost continued to demand a “full retraction” of the original White House statement, while the reporter said he found the experience “jarring.”
“I’ve spent a decade covering foreign policy under three presidents,” Akbar Shahid Ahmed, HuffPost’s senior diplomatic correspondent, told The Washington Post. “And the White House is saying I’m a liar.”
In a statement, White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said, “We pride ourselves on maintaining a respectful and productive relationship with the press corps, whose role is vital to our democracy,” adding, “We have never accused a reporter of fabricating quotes.”
The dispute began last Friday evening when HuffPost published Ahmed’s report revealing what he characterized as a plan being circulated by senior Biden adviser Brett McGurk to achieve stability in postwar Gaza and the Middle East. The story cited multiple unnamed U.S. officials expressing skepticism of the plan, said to center on brokering diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, known in policy circles as normalization, and directing Saudi funds to rebuild Gaza infrastructure.
Ahmed said HuffPost published his story after he sought comment and was told by White House officials that they would not dispute the report on the record or on background.
But the following day, National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson wrote to Ahmed: “This story is not true. Quotes attributed to US officials are made up. It warrants no further comment.”
Ahmed and his HuffPost editors took the statement to mean the White House was accusing him of fabrication — a serious journalistic offense that has ended careers. Executive editor Whitney Snyder demanded a retraction and apology, and Ahmed defended his reporting on social media.
“Watson played no role in my interviews. My quotes are real,” he wrote. “Biden team again echoing Trump.”
Watson’s statement captured the attention of other journalists. MSNBC host Chris Hayes called the White House response “utterly embarrassing, gross and unprofessional.”
White House officials made private outreach to HuffPost but said the journalists declined to discuss the matter. By Sunday, officials were offering a more nuanced take on Watson’s response, telling Semafor that its issue was with a specific part of the HuffPost report, which referred to a “top-secret document” outlining McGurk’s plan.
Ahmed’s story had used quotation marks to highlight elements of the plan, mentioning a President Biden “victory tour” and a preliminary deal referred to as “the Jerusalem-Jeddah Pact.”
“Those quotes appear nowhere in any document that we have prepared and have never been stated by anyone at the National Security Council,” the White House told Semafor. “We stand by our comment.”
But HuffPost said the quoted phrases were never attributed to a document but instead represented a characterization by one of Ahmed’s unnamed sources of the document’s contents. The White House maintains no such document exists.
Plans for postwar Gaza have been discussed by U.S. officials and covered in other media reports in recent weeks. One day before the HuffPost story, the Times of Israel cited two U.S. officials and a senior Arab diplomat in a report about the proposed plan, with the latter expressing skepticism about normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. An Axios report published two days after also referred to the plan and the doubts about it circulating within the administration. In remarks at Davos on Tuesday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan addressed the challenges of establishing diplomatic ties and building “a political horizon towards two states.”
By Wednesday, the White House was publicly striking a more conciliatory tone.
“This wasn’t an attempt to question the journalism or to cast aspersions on journalistic ethics,” NSC chief spokesman John Kirby said in response to a reporter’s question at the daily press briefing. “I can see where some people might see that reaction and think we were trying to cast aspersions on journalistic ethics and procedure, and that was not the intent.” He continued to dispute the story’s description of the purported document outlining the peace plan proposal.
In a statement, HuffPost spokeswoman Lizzie Grams called Ahmed’s story “an example of the thorough, well-sourced and high-quality journalism that HuffPost is proud to produce,” adding that the company appreciates Kirby’s clarification — but that “we look forward to a full retraction of the NSC’s original statement.”
But Savett said the White House is standing by the gist of Watson’s comment pushing back on Ahmed’s story. “There is no McGurk Plan” for Gaza reconstruction or associated document, and the sources who claimed otherwise were wrong."
Ahmed — who has reported a number of stories about the U.S. response to the Israel-Gaza war, including an exclusive interview with State Department official Josh Paul, breaking the news of his October resignation over the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s military assault on Gaza — sees the White House response as “an attempt to quell critical reporting” on national security issues.
“If folks don’t stand up and see what this is …” he added, “we’re all at risk.”
"story" - Google News
January 20, 2024 at 05:25AM
https://ift.tt/7PUh1DX
HuffPost continues to press White House over 'smear' of Gaza story - The Washington Post
"story" - Google News
https://ift.tt/UERd9yH
https://ift.tt/XIpYyKU
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "HuffPost continues to press White House over 'smear' of Gaza story - The Washington Post"
Post a Comment