Les Kinsolving

Reporters for WorldNetDaily.com, TASS, USA Radio, Reuters TV and several other members of the media initially were denied an opportunity to participate in a White House briefing with presidential spokesman Tony Snow when Terence Hunt of The Associated Press ended the conference before the questions were finished.

Snow, however, relented and stayed on to answer questions, apologizing to Hunt for not ending the event when Hunt signaled the conclusion.

It's not the only time Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, has had difficulty with Snow.

WND reported this summer that Kinsolving opted out of the press briefings because of his treatment from Snow, who had interrupted him with criticism during a question in a briefing.

Today's events developed like this, according to a transcript from the White House itself:

Snow answered a question saying, "One last one, Martha, and then we'll get to the back of the room."

After responding to Martha's query about Gen. Petraeus and his report on Iraq, Snow recognized "Joni," who asked about the resignation of Prime Minister Abe. Then he said "No" to another question about a conversation between President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun."

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Hunt, representing AP which by tradition closes the news conference, said, "Thank you," even though eight reporters in the back rows were waving their hands in their attempts to be recognized.

It was too much for Kinsolving, who has worked with a dozen presidential press secretaries dating back to the 1970s.

"Tony, wait a minute. Come back – no, wait a minute. Tony, this is the last – ," he said.

According to the transcript, this conversation followed:

MR. SNOW: Is this a meltdown, Les? (Laughter.) Is this –

Q Let's go, everybody.

Q (From Kinsolving) Really, Tony, none of us in the back have had a chance. You've been in the front. This is your last briefing. You want to go out well.

MR. SNOW: Les, please, be as rude as you want. Go ahead. (Laughter.)

Q No, no.

Q (From USA Radio) Les is right, actually. There are a lot of us who would like to ask questions.

MR. SNOW: Okay, you know what? We will – this will be an open-ended commitment. (Laughter.)

Q Thank you very much.

MR. SNOW: So, Terry, I apologize.

Q (From Kinsolving) Thank you very much. I have two questions – and we will miss you. The New York Times announced that they consider it authoritarian to prosecute the Code Pink disruptors at the Petraeus hearing. The Washington Times notes that Code Pink does not simply want to be heard, it literally screams because it wants to force others to listen. With which –"

MR. SNOW: It screams because it wants others to listen? (Laughter.)

Q Which of these –

MR. SNOW: Does that sound familiar or what? (Laughter.)

Q It literally screams because it wants others – wants to force others to listen. With which of these two Times newspapers does the White House agree?

MR. SNOW: We're not commenting on Code Pink, fortunately for you, because we'd have to apply that same thing to you; they'd be leading you out in vinyl handcuffs.

Q (2nd question from Kinsolving) President Jimmy Carter told the Toronto Film Festival that –

MR. SNOW: Oh, come on, Les.

Q (From another reporter) Come on.

Q (From Kinsolving) Tony, I just want to get your comment – these people in the front had six and seven. (Laughter.)

MR. SNOW: They also asked questions that I give a rip about. Go ahead.

Q President Jimmy Carter told the Toronto Film Festival, "I was amazed and almost nauseated to see the encroachment by Israel on Palestinian land and the persecution of the Palestinians. The entire world now feels that America has let the Palestinians down." And my question: Surely the president can't agree with this public disparagement of our ally, Israel, can he?

MR. SNOW: Well, Les, I'm not getting in – especially Jimmy Carter at Toronto Film Festival.

Then there were about a dozen more questions from reporters, including USA Radio who asked:

"And I have a quick question on behalf of many of us neglected. Would you please consider suggesting to the president that he broaden his rare press conference questions to include more of us long-serving reporters whom he doesn't call on anymore?" was the question.

"Long serving or self serving? (Laughter.)," was Snow's response, according to the White House transcript.

Kinsolving said this was the only time he's ever shouted in the White House.

After last summer's disagreements, Kinsolving later returned to the briefings.

That came after Snow's aide told Kinsolving that "Tony is very fond of Les and holds him in high personal regard."

Kinsolving began covering the White House in 1973, the last year of the Nixon administration. He's a one-time nationally syndicated columnist for 250 newspapers, two of which, in San Francisco, nominated him for the Pulitzer Prize.

He was also one of only two reporters, in 1972, who exposed the Rev. Jim Jones, of the People's Temple, who had Kinsolving as No. 2 on his "hit list." But none of the rest of the major media would follow up on what Kinsolving reported in the San Francisco Examiner and Carolyn Pickering in the Indianapolis Star. Six years after this national media censorship, 914 people died at Jones' hand in Guyana.

In his current job as a talk-radio host in Baltimore, a commentator for other stations and as White House correspondent for WND, Kinsolving, as the only talk-radio host in the White House press corps, has often asked Snow tough questions. Some of the questions that have made the normally unflappable press secretary most angry have been about sending U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonzo Compean to prison.

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Kinsolving returning to presidential press briefings

Tony Snow's job: Unanswered questions

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Tony Snow's job: Unanswered questions

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Previous commentaries:

Character not wanted

Enough of the Snow jobs