Tony Snow Smackdown!

My favorite part of yesterday's press briefing:

Q "Yes, Tony, thank you. Two questions. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Congressman Maurice Hinchy of New York have just introduced companion bills called the 'Media Ownership Reform Act,' which are an attempt to revive the 'fairness doctrine' for TV and radio with no such government control proposed for newspapers, magazines or wire services. My question, does the President believe that we should revive the so-called 'fairness doctrine' which was repealed during the Reagan administration?"

MR. SNOW: "You know, Les, we'll take that up if it becomes a real issue."

Q: "Okay. President Kennedy's Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Bill Ruder, said, 'We had a massive strategy to use the 'fairness doctrine' to challenge and harass the right-wing broadcasters and hoped the challenge would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue.' And my question, do you remember that statement reported by The Washington Times on September 5, 1993?"

MR. SNOW: "No. Although I do have some memories of the Kennedy administration, that particular utterance does not rise to thought."

Q: "That was from an article headlined, 'Return of the Fairness Demon,' and the byline was, Tony Snow."

Snow immediately turned to another reporter amidst laughter from the gallery, embarrassed and chastised!