Maybe not some bad advice, for once.


Spokesman dismisses British media

By ALEXANDER BURNS

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tried to quiet speculation 
about a possible falling out between President ...

... Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown by taking aim 
at one of his favorite targets: the British media.

"I think this is media generated," Gibbs told reporters on Air Force 
One. "Stop reading those London tabloids."

Gibbs faced a series of questions about accounts that the White House 
had rebuffed overtures from the British government, which reportedly 
asked for a bilateral meeting in New York during the United Nations 
General Assembly in New York this week. The White House spokesman argued 
that Obama and Brown had crossed paths repeatedly and their governments 
were in close communication.

"The notion that there remains anything other than a special 
relationship is silly and absurd," Gibbs said. "We're talking to them 
constantly. The notion that you can only do this in one meeting is absurd."

British publications drew attention to the lack of a one-on-one session 
between the two leaders, with the Guardian newspaper calling the lack of 
direct attention an "intense embarrassment" for Brown. The Daily 
Telegraph printed a column titled: "Barack Obama's churlishness is 
unforgivable."

Both reports drew attention in the American media after they were 
featured on the influential news aggregating site The Drudge Report.

Gibbs's rejection of these media accounts is only the most recent 
occasion on which the Obama spokesman has blasted the overseas media.

In May, when British papers claimed to possess suppressed photos of 
prisoner abuse in American facilities overseas, Gibbs ridiculed the U.K. 
press.

"If I wanted to read a writeup today of how Manchester United fared last 
night in the Champion’s League cup, I might open up a British 
newspaper," he said. "If I was looking for something that bordered on 
truthful news, I’m not entirely sure it’d be in the first pack of clips 
I’d pick up."

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