White House Disputes CNN Report

post from Daily Kos on 16 May 2008 12:20:05 PM. © Daily Kos

Yesterday George Bush used the 60th anniversary of the birth of Israel to attack Barack Obama, suggesting that he was an appeaser on par with Hitler apologists:

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

Democrats, including Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton, roundly condemned Bush's remarks and the White House responded:

Q: ...This is being seen in some quarters as a slam on Senator Obama. Is this in any way directed at Senator Obama?

MS. PERINO: It is not. And I would think that all of you who cover these issues and have for a long time have known that there are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with people that President Bush thinks we should not talk to. I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you -- that is not always true and it is not true in this case.

But according to CNN:

The president did not name Sen. Barack Obama or any other Democrat, but White House aides privately acknowledged to CNN that the remarks were aimed at the presidential candidate and others in his party.

So, CNN, what's it going to be? You have allowed unnamed White House sources to weigh in on this story, while the White House is publicly disputing your report. Will you challenge this double message? Are you an independent news organization, or are you a mouthpiece for putting out messages that the White House doesn't have the guts to do themselves?