The White House backpedaled Monday when asked about deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes’ admission that he relied on young, inexperienced reporters to create an “echo chamber” that helped move public opinion in favor of the nuclear deal with Iran.
Rhodes, in a New York Times magazine piece, boasted about how easy it is to manipulate young reporters to shape a favorable impression of the nuclear deal with Iran.
“All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus,” he said. “Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Rhodes didn’t intend the remarks as criticism of reporters as willing shills for the administration’s talking points.
“Based on the conversations I’ve had with Ben over the last few days, I assure your that’s not how it was intended,” Earnest said. “Based on the reaction, I’m confident he would say it differently if given the chance.”
Still, Earnest defended Rhodes dedication to working with the press “on a range of foreign policy issues.”
“All of you have had multiple opportunities to talk to Ben on a range of foreign policy issues, and I think all of you appreciate the commitment he has demonstrated to working with all of you to help inform your viewers and readers and I think that’s an indication to how seriously Ben takes this process,” Earnest said.
Earnest also flatly denied that any senior administration official has ever lied publicly about any aspect of the nuclear deal.
“It is our critics who either falsely or just wrongly suggested that Iran would never go along with the agreement – they have,” Earnest said. “[Critics] falsely or wrongly suggested that we would never be able to verify through the international community that Iran would abide by the agreement. They have.”
“So I recognize there is an attempt by those who either lied or got it wrong to try to re-litigate this fight,” Earnest said. “But the fact of the matter is, when you take a look at the concrete results of this agreement…we have succeeded in making the U.S. safer, Israel safer and our allies in the region safer because they are no longer able to obtain a nuclear weapon.”
Rhodes, in the same New York Times piece, admitted to leading journalists to believe a misleading timeline of U.S. negotiations with Iran to roll back its nuclear program.
Rhodes admitted to promoting a “narrative” that the nuclear negotiations began with the more moderate Hassan Rouhani was elected president of Iran in 2013, when, in fact, they actually began months earlier with the more hardline Islamic faction, before Rouhani’s election.
The distinction is important because the administration wanted the American public to believe they were working with a more trustful, more moderate part of the Iranian regime with Rouhani’s ascension, instead of the powerful Islamic faction responsible for funding terrorist groups like Hamas and other destabilizing activity in the region.
Fox News and reporters from other media have repeatedly questioned the administration’s timeline for the beginning of the Iran nuclear talks.
Fox News Correspondent James Rosen has accused the Obama administration of engaging in mass deception and outright lies in order to sell the nuclear deal.
“I can attest directly that the Obama administration in the person of then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, of whom I am very fond, Bill, flat-out lied to me in February 2013,” Rosen told host Bill O’Reilly Friday.
“I asked point blank, ‘Are there any direct talks going on between the U.S. and Iran of any kind?’ And she said no, at a point when those talks had been ongoing for eight months.”
Rosen argues that Rhodes also lied about the deal’s substance when he told CNN last year that the U.S. would have “anytime, anywhere” access to Iran’s nuclear facilities.
But later, when testifying to Congress and in other media interviews, Rhodes and Secretary of State John Kerry said they never used the term “anywhere, anytime” in their negotiations.
Asked directly whether Rhodes lied about “anywhere, anytime” access, Earnest said the deal provides for that type of limitless access to their designated “nuclear facilities” not to their entire territory.
“There are 24/7 access to verify their compliance with the agreement…to their nuclear facilities,” Earnest said.
