The Arizona news anchor who claimed this week that White House reporters give press secretary Jay Carney questions in advance changed her story yet again on Thursday night, this time clarifying her own experience with the administration.
Catherine Anaya became something of a hero on the right earlier this week when she went on air to talk about an “off-the-record” meeting she had with Carney at the White House and suggested that reporters who regularly cover his press briefings provide their questions to him beforehand.
Carney denied the claim, and Anaya eventually retracted the comment.
But the retraction was muddled Thursday when KPHO, the Phoenix station that employs her, put a statement online that was attributed to Anaya and then quickly deleted it.
In the original statement, Anaya said that she “was indeed asked to provide” her own question to the White House in advance of an interview she conducted on Wednesday with President Obama. She added that it was wrong to suggest reporters who regularly cover the White House do the same.
Scott Davis, a senior assignment editor at KPHO, told TPM in an email earlier on Thursday that the statement was “mistakenly” posted and was “incomplete and not ready to be released.”
By Thursday evening, a new statement was posted, with Anaya reiterating “two major mistakes” that she made.
“I reported an off the record conversation and what I reported was not accurate,” she said in the statement. “I took a conversation about the preparation for a press briefing and muddied it with my own experience of wanting to provide a question for the press briefing. I incorrectly applied the process to everyone. That was wrong and it was bad reporting.”
She then acknowledged an error that appeared in the original statement.
“The White House never asked for my questions in advance and never instructed me what to ask,” Anaya said. “I chose to provide one of my questions in advance of the press briefing because I wanted to make sure it would have broad appeal.”
“I did not attribute or report factually last night and for that I deeply apologize,” she added.
Here’s the full statement:
“Last night during my live reports from the White House I attempted to describe the highlights of the day. I was speaking off the cuff and unscripted and in the process I made two major mistakes: I reported an off the record conversation and what I reported was not accurate. I took a conversation about the preparation for a press briefing and muddied it with my own experience of wanting to provide a question for the press briefing. I incorrectly applied the process to everyone. That was wrong and it was bad reporting. But it was not intentional and I would never purposely report inaccurate information. The White House never asked for my questions in advance and never instructed me what to ask. I chose to provide one of my questions in advance of the press briefing because I wanted to make sure it would have broad appeal. I did not attribute or report factually last night and for that I deeply apologize. I pride myself on truth and objectivity. I sincerely regret any harm I’ve caused and I hope that you will continue to place your trust in the hardworking journalists who make up CBS 5 News.”
