Tim,

Can you time stamp your updates? It would be interesting to know how much time passed between Salon's noting the absence of the slider and some idea of when it began working again.

Thanks,

-Rio

I'm not quite sure why an update was posted to this story that says the slider in Real Player appears for the briefing in question. It doesn't. And I've checked with several other people and they all confirm that.

As of Saturday, Novemebr 12 at 9:45 pm Central Time, the slider did not work (at least on my computer).

It is obviously an oversight of the WH staff... : )

Jeff Villard

Waco, TX

The part is at 5:44/5:45 and it is almost 20 seconds after McClellan says "No, I disagree with you" in response the statement about legality. The reporter spends that 20 seconds outlining what everybody knows (even the few who still watch Fox) that both Rove and Libby were involved in leaking Plame to the press. McClellan then says "that's accurate", there is no wiggle room, there is no mumbling, there is simple the utterance of "that's accurate". If you read the trascripts along with listening to the video, there is absolutely no way to put the words "I don't think" into that. It is an outright manipulation of what was said and it should not be tolerated at any level!

Some thoughts:

-Saying, "That's not accurate," doesn't make sense. It is in the public record that what the reporter said was completely accurate. Why deny it? (Except for the fact that it would be the first time the White House has admitted something happened that they previously said didn't happened (even though everyone else knows it happened)).

-Whenever someone at that podium misspeaks, revisions of the transcripts are commonly handled by adding an asterisk and saying, " * - I know I said 'this' but what I meant to say was 'this' ". Or at least, "* I know it sounded like I said this or maybe I did say that, but for the record what I meant to say was 'this'". The fact that this error is not being handled in the standard way when it is blatantly obvious from anyone who was there or watching the tape that he either misspoke (or accidentally admitted the already obvious truth) suggests that something calculated is going on.

-In any case, the best case scenario for him is that his credibility is shot worse than it was before. Not only do I believe (as I already did) that he would hide something from the press that is our right to know, but now I believe he would outright lie about it to protect the administration at the cost of our basic right to know what our government is doing and how it is doing it.

Dear Editor,

In the White House transcript, the following colloquy is reported to have taken place:

"Q Whether there's a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl

Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations.

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't think that's accurate."

Is Tim Grieve saying that that part of the reported transcript is materially at variance from the actual tape of the news conference?

Richard Snyder

Belvedere, CA

can you imagine the uproar from the Republicans if the Clinton White House had done this? It would be deafening. And the SCLM would have made it front page, lead story news, and it would remain at the top of the news cycle for weeks. Republicans in Congress, and their talking hand puppets on FOX News, would be screaming for impeachment.

I don't know which makes me more disgusted: 1) the act itself; 2) our lack of surprise at it; or 3) the fact that our news media doesn't seem to find this newsworthy.

But I'm disgusted all the same.

Have you checked the White House website lately?

Playing the video via Real Player lets you clearly hear

Scott McClellen say, "No, I disagree with you."

It's very, very clear. Perhaps as clear as it would be if someone

re-recorded Scott saying those words and inserted that audio

onto the video.

Its actual hard to make out what Scot is saying. He does say "accurate' but with some mumbling before, that could be construed either way.

Yes, for the tech savvy, you can get full Real Player control to watch it. But that's not the point. The question is has the White House made an effort to make it harder to discern what McLellan actually said? I don't know. I simply pointed out that for every other briefing I looked at on my PC's, you have full -- and immediate -- control over Real Player. It was only the Oct 31 briefing where this problem exists.

But what makes this whole little contretemps interesting is that if true, it's a mini-scandal that perfectly encapsulates (and plays into) one of the larger aspects of the entire Rove-Libby scandal. And that is that the cover-up is worse than the crime. If he had just let the sleeping transcript lie, without changing it, no mention would have been made whatsoever. David Gregory would still be pounding McLellan and that would be that. It hardly made the news when McLellan said what he said. But by tampering with the transcript and now, possibly trying to make access to the video of what was actually said harder to view, they keep compounding their mistakes.

It's like knucklehead central. And that is the story.

American Progress has the relevant chunk of video -- question and answer -- here: http://streaming.americanprogress.org/ThinkProgress/2005/mcclellan_accurate.320.240.mov.html

If you click on the video window, the controls should appear.

Everybody who has witnessed the accurate account of Scott McClellan's comments, you do realize the government knows who you are and is preparing to kill you, don't you?

for me, though I'm on a Macintosh...no idea about a windows system.

Perhaps this deserves an amendment to Tim's original post?