Under pressure, Catherine Anaya walks-back news story

It was a sad day Thursday as the slow death march of American journalism continued. Not only was a seasoned TV reporter forced to walk back a legitimate news story but the story was coverage of local journalists visiting the White House for the day and what the White House Press Secretary said.

Catherine Anaya is still very youthful but she is a veteran local news reporter of 22 years having worked in Phoenix the whole time except for a four year stint in Los Angeles. She has won three local news Emmy’s and is the lead female anchor at Channel 5, the CBS Phoenix affiliate. Subsequently she was one of a handful of locally based reporters selected to attend an event which is commonly held by Presidents, giving local reporters a day at the White House and in this case, each reporter got a four- minute interview with President Obama. However the controversy surrounded Anaya’s on air report from Washington which aired on the Channel Five evening news. In it she stated that her day started with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney who explained how his job works. During this explanation she reported with great confidence and clarity:

“One of the things I found most interesting was that the reporters and correspondents, unless it's breaking news, they provide the questions to him in advance so he is already preparing for the answer and sometimes, in some cases I should say, he actually prepares that answer for them so that they can have that to work on their reports later on”

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This revelation, that reporters already have the answers to questions they ask, caused a major uproar in political reporting circles. The Rush Limbaugh show ran with the audio of the clip after which the host predicted that the political journalism elite would not and could not allow the story to stand. He accurately predicted that Anaya would be forced into retracting the story in some way and was proved correct within hours. Following a chorus of online denials by insiders, highlighted by Jay Carney’s own tweet “Briefings would be a lot easier if this were true! Rest assured, it is not”; the walk-back began. First the TV Station issued a denial in Anaya’s name which was quickly retracted, then Anya issued a final ‘correction’ later in the evening which went as follows: “It seems much had been inferred about my observations following my White House visit yesterday. First, I did not take notes during our coffee with Jay Carney because it was off the record. But when I referenced the meeting in my live reports I did say that it was a great opportunity to talk about the challenges of his day and how he has to be so well-versed on many topics each day. In my live report I also wanted to share my impression of my experience in getting a question answered during the briefing. I was indeed asked to provide my question in advance. Because my question was largely of local interest, I chose to save it for my interview with the President instead. My mistake was to lump that experience with my coffee meeting reference, inadvertently giving Mr. Carney credit for that when in fact it did not come from him. I regret giving anyone the impression that it was from conversation I had with Mr. Carney. I do not attend those briefings regularly and cannot speak directly to the process for non-visiting journalists. None of my observations stemmed from my off-the-record meeting with Jay Carney.” As I stated earlier this is a veteran, award winning TV journalist and anchor with vast experience in presenting things with clarity. Her initial report was clear and concise and it is as believable as the Crimean independence vote that she ‘muddled up’ different accounts. The fact the TV station first issued a correction that had to be withdrawn, only to re-issue a virtually identical statement later in the evening shows the pressure the reporter and station were under, from someone. All of this pressure from the political and media establishments in Washington to whitewash the fact that many reporters do field questions ahead of time and receive answers. It makes the whole White House Press Conference set-up rather disingenuous and, well, staged. Just ask former CBS Network journalist Sharyl Attkisson. Talking to Chris Stigall Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Philadelphia she said : “I wouldn’t surprised if sometimes there is that level of cooperation with some questions. If I need something answered from the White House and they won’t tell me, I’ll call our White House Correspondent. They’re friendlier with the White House Correspondents in general. So the White House Correspondent may ask Jay Carney or one of his folks about an issue and they will be told ‘ask that at the briefing and we’ll answer it.’ They want to answer it in front of everybody. They do know it’s coming and they’ll call on you. There’s that kind of coordination sometimes. I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s sometimes more coordination. I don’t think it’s everybody on every briefing, every day. I’m pretty sure it’s not. But I think people would be surprised at the level of cooperation reporters have in general with politicians.” Later in the interview Attkisson revealed she is writing a book that deals how stories are reported in the media. She said: “I’ve been wanting to write about the unseen influences on the media by coordinated, paid factions, whether they’re from political, corporate or other special interests, the tactics they use to manipulate the images we see, not just in the news but on Facebook, Wikipedia, or fake Twitter accounts. It’s become a way of life and I don’t think the public is aware of how much nearly everything you see today may be influenced, in some fashion, by a paid interest that wants you to think something.” Attkisson has had to stand tall in investigating White House corruption, having been subject to home espionage by what can only be presumed to be a faction of Team Obama. Ultimately she walked away from CBS earlier this month with her integrity intact. Then it was no surprise that at the time of writing a Google search revealed on its first page only one print media source (the New York Daily News) covering the story . Such is the power of the liberal media and it’s collusion with the Democratic Party. Anaya could have stood tall in this situation and insisted on sticking with her reporting of the news but she folded after being subject to exactly what pressures we don’t know. This is a Presidential administration that will turn the might of every government department against those who will not co-operate with them, an administration that is accelerating the death of true journalism in America.