Politico has obtained a copy of Scott McClellan’s book proposal, and besides noting the “softer” tone of the pitch on the Bush administration, there are a number of differences between how McClellan ultimately takes on the media in the book.
McClellan says in the proposal, “the press was under some fire from the left for not pressing the White House hard enough on our claims in the lead-up to the war” — a major criticism by McClellan as well in the book. But in the proposal, McClellan follows that charge with, “They defend their reporting as fair because both sides are covered. But, how fair can it be when it is within the context of the liberal slant of the reporting?”
He also hints at a chapter devoted to former White House correspondent David Gregory, who he sparred with at times in the briefing room. “I will take a look at notable personalities in the White House Briefing Room, including David Gregory and Helen Thomas. I anticipate an entire chapter about the former,” he wrote in the original proposal.
And how did he regard Keith Olbermann, who has referred to his book as the “Rosetta Stone for understanding the last seven years of American history,” in the original proposal?
McClellan writes of, “the influence of activist liberal reporters, like Keith Olbermann, Nation Editor David Corn, and Washington Post blogger Dan Froomkin, and activist liberal media personalities like Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Bill Maher and Arianna Huffington.”
• Related: PRNewser writes about CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen, who uses the “Shoot the Messenger” segment to take on the PR industry and Scott McClellan.