On Wednesday afternoon, Mike Allen, a White House correspondent for The Washington Post, was talking on his cellphone outside a school in Crawford, Tex., not far from President Bush's ranch, when an aide to the president motioned him toward the passenger seat of a rented Dodge pickup truck.
In a scene out of a Tom Clancy novel, Mr. Allen was then driven several blocks to what he later described as "a concealed parking lot" and told only that "someone wanted to talk" to him.
That person was Dan Bartlett, Mr. Bush's communications director, who came bearing a message: "The president's going to Baghdad."
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But several of the editors, news directors and producers responsible for directing coverage of the Bush administration said that they found aspects of the White House strategy to be deceptive, excessively secretive and disruptive of the relationship between writer and editor.
One editor objected , for example, to a briefing that Claire Buchan, a White House spokeswoman, gave to reporters in Crawford early Wednesday afternoon.
"The president will be spending Thanksgiving at his ranch here in Crawford." Ms. Buchan said. "If there are updates, additionally, to what he does on Thanksgiving, we'll try and keep you posted."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/28/international/middleeast/28MEDI.html?ex=1070600400&en=5fa95b4972e5ca31&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE