White House accuses NBC of misrepresentation

The White House today accused NBC news of twisting George Bush's remarks on Iran and suggested that the television network had absorbed the bias of two of its star pundits. The rare presidential condemnation of a news network comes days after Barack Obama lashed back at Bush for likening negotiations with US opponents in the Middle East to the appeasement of Hitler.

During an interview aired today on the network, NBC correspondent Richard Engel asked Bush whether the remarks were aimed at Obama. "You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently the political calendar has," Bush said. "People need to read the speech. You didn't get it exactly right, either. What I said is that we need to take the words of people seriously." But NBC cut the programme to show only the first sentence of Bush's response, adding an introduction that said the president got a "cold reception" from Arab leaders after making his Iran remarks in Israel.

Senior Bush aide Ed Gillespie, in a letter to the NBC news president, called the editing "deceitful," "misleading" and "irresponsible". "NBC's selective editing of the president's response is clearly intended to give viewers the impression that he agreed with Engel's characterisation of his remarks when he explicitly challenged it," Gillespie wrote.

Gillespie reached back two years for further criticism of NBC news, questioning the network's decision to begin referring to the conflict in Iraq as a "civil war". The decision was viewed as the harbinger of widespread opposition to the war in the American public. "As you know, both the United States government and the government of Iraq disputed your account at that time," Gillespie wrote to NBC.

The Bush aide also targeted the network for reporting last month that government economic indicators show the US "just short of" an official recession. Gillespie defended the White House economic policy and cited a US unemployment rate lower than the historical average. In fact, unemployment numbers reflect only workers who are actively seeking a job. Other economic data show that employment for men ages 25 to 54 is at its lowest rate since World War Two, suggesting that a growing number may be forced out of the job market entirely.

Conservatives in the US have long frowned on what they consider a liberal bias at NBC, singling out the network's cable TV pundit Keith Olbermann for his fiery tirades against the Bush administration. Olbermann has escalated his years-long feud with Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly in recent weeks, with O'Reilly accusing NBC of supporting the Iranian government. Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch has personally intervened to protect O'Reilly, the Washington Post reported today.

Gillespie appeared today to bring the White House into the row, personally referencing Olbermann and another NBC host in his letter. "I welcome your response … and hope it is one that reassures your broadcast network's viewers that blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC don't hold editorial sway over the NBC network news division," Gillespie wrote.

NBC news did not immediately return a request for comment on the White House letter.