When FOX Attacks...

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Shortly before former counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke's testimony to the September 11th commission, "the White House violated its long-standing rules by authorizing Fox News to air remarks favorable to Bush that Clarke had made anonymously at an administration briefing in 2002. The White House press secretary read passages from the 2002 remarks at his televised briefing, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice... called reporters into her office to highlight the discrepancy. 'There are two very different stories here,' she said. 'These stories can't be reconciled.'" On Tuesday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan read from Clarke's January 2003 resignation letter and stated: "There was no mention of the grave concerns he claims to have had about the direction of the war on terrorism." As journalist Chris Albritton has noted, moreover, Fox News committed "a major journalistic no-no" by publicizing Clarke's off-the-record interview: "A news organization that was included in a briefing with the agreement that it was on background - that is, with no quotes and the briefer not be identified - approached a source's former employer and offered to give up apparently conflicting words that the employer could use against the source."