McClellan: White House had media 'allies'

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WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan chided U.S. media for not pushing the Bush administration, saying Fox News was notably administration-friendly.

McClellan, discussing his blistering memoir of President George W. Bush and his administration on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," said: "(There) certainly are allies there that work at Fox News," citing the incident in which (Vice President Dick) Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a hunting companion.

"(Cheney) said, you already know why I picked Fox News to do this, because I want everybody else to have to cite Fox News when they do their report," McClellan said Thursday. It's just kind of the attitude of the vice president about things."

The vice president's attitude about media outlets and their role in reporting on the presidency has come through in other press settings, McClellan said.

He cited Cheney's one-word response -- "So?" -- when asked in March about a poll indicating most Americans say don't agree with the administration's view on the Iraq war.

McClellan was White House press secretary from July 2003 to April 2006.

He said disillusionment led him to write, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," scheduled to hit book shelves next week.