Fresh off her departure from CBS News, Sharyl Attkisson chimed in on the story of local CBS affiliate anchor Catherine Anaya who’s come under fire for saying that White House correspondents submit their questions to the press secretary before briefings. Anaya has since retracted the reporting and apologized for it.
Still, Attkisson, a veteran of the Washington beat tells Philadelphia radio station WPHT, “I wouldn’t be surprised if sometimes there is that sort of level of cooperation with some questions that want to be asked.” Attkisson says when she couldn’t get answers from the White House, she’d redirect her questions to CBS’ White House correspondent, who would then ask White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. Carney, she says, whould instruct the correspondent to ask the question at the White House briefing.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s sometimes more coordination,” she continued. “It’s almost as if we’re all in the same type of club, and we’re supposed to protect each other a little bit,” Attkisson continued, citing an example from a few years ago, when she got blowback for publicly sharing that a White House official screamed at her when she inquired about the “Fast and Furious” gun-walking scandal.
Attkisson also opened up about her resignation.
“I felt that I was no longer effective in that environment,” she said, explaining that she was free to cover whatever she wanted, but “nobody [at CBS] was interested in the stories.” The lack of interest showed, as her airtime drastically decreased in her last few years with CBS News.