[Assam] Goyal the foil

[Ram Sarangapani]

Has anyone heard about this 'reporter' in the White House Press Corps. If
you haven't read on, very interesting. BTW, Goyal accompanied the President
on his India trip.
BTW: The India Globe is a desi rag out of DC (available only in that area).
Goyal is the owner/editor/reporter of the 'Globe'.

--Ram

July 27, 2005 (from typepad.com blog )
 The "Goyal Foil"

The job of the White House Press Secretary might be one of the least
forgiving jobs out there.  Every day he or she must avoid, tip-toe around
and deflect destructively prying questions from the White House press
corps.  In the past few years though, the press corps has backed off a bit
and has allowed non-answers and complete dodges to go unchallenged.  This is
unacceptable.  The job of the press corps is to get to the facts despite the
spin - not to get caught up in the spin.

When the CIA leak investigation blew up onto the front of the news cycle the
past few weeks, the White House press corps finally stood up for its right
to ask tough questions.  No more evasive and time-wasting "The President
believes strongly that all people want to live in
freedom<http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/07/20050726-2.html#F>"
nonsense which just avoids the meat of a question.

So how does a battered press secretary find
respite<http://tnr.com/etc.mhtml?pid=2736>from the new found courage
of reporters determined to do their job?

Has Raghubir Goyal ever had a bigger week? And has White House press
secretary Scott McClellan ever been more grateful for Goyal's presence? *Goyal
is the White House correspondent for the India Globe and the lifeline for
White House press secretaries during daily briefings since, no matter what
issue or scandal is preoccupying the rest of the press corps, Goyal is a
sure bet to ask a question about something else--namely India and Pakistan.
*During the days of the Enron scandal, for instance, when reporters were
pummeling then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer with questions about Ken
Lay and the administration's ties to the bankrupt company, Fleischer would
reliably catch his breath during the daily briefing by cutting off other
reporters and calling on Goyal, who would ask about the Indian home minister
or Pakistani fighter planes. "If you're in a jam, go to Goyal," Clinton
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart
*told*<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15642-2002Jan21.html>
*The Washington Post*'s Dana Milbank, who in turn famously termed press
secretaries' habit of using Goyal as a life raft the *"Goyal Foil."*

Last week, the Goyal Foil reached a level of effectiveness never before
seen. First, and not surprisingly, McClellan relied heavily on Goyal as a
respite from the rest of the White House press corps' questions about Karl
Rove and his involvement in leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie
Plame. When the press' pummeling got particularly brutal during one briefing
last week, McClellan immediately employed the Goyal Foil--and CNN, which had
been covering the briefing live, just as immediately went back to its
regular programming, as Goyal launched into a long question about Pakistan
and McClellan replied with a long answer about how "free nations are
peaceful societies."

When you're drowning, go to Goyal.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.assamnet.org/pipermail/assam-assamnet.org/attachments/20060303/0c6decca/attachment.htm>