Because of the gravity of the circumstances, and the need to keep the trip under wraps until Bush was well on his way back to the United States, a routine, smaller press pool was assembled for the Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad. CNN saw it as a slap in the face that they were not invited.
Kathryn Kross, CNN’s Washington bureau chief, told the Post that a two-person crew from her network was dismissed from the White House pool Wednesday, with the understanding that no further news would be made.
“We’re all for the president boosting the troops however the White House feels is appropriate,” she said, according to the newspaper. “But apparently the White House put together its own group of people to accompany the president on this trip, and we’re real interested to learn their reasons for doing that.”
Conspiracy? Not likely. The Washington Post was on hand to cover the event–with the AP, Reuters, Time and Newsweek–not exactly your bastions of conservatism.