That's Correct

An Editor & Publisher article, White House Stands by 'Not Accurate' Quote in Dispute, reports that the White House has raised questions of "rewriting history" with its request to outside news agencies, Congressional Quarterly and Federal News Service, to change transcripts of a recent press briefing by Scott McClellan. Think Progress also discusses the incident.

As Editor & Publisher notes:

"Presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan's short answer to a question at his daily press briefing last week has prompted a dispute between the White House press office and two news organizations that offer transcripts of the events."

"A spokeswoman for McClellan's office told E&P late Wednesday that the White House is standing by its version of what he said."

"At the Oct. 31 briefing, David Gregory of NBC News stated the following question to McClellan about White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby: 'Whether there's a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations.'"

"The official White House transcript states that McClellan's response was 'I don't think that's accurate.'"

They are correct. The transcript is not accurate.

In a news clip amazingly reminiscent of the Daily Show, MSNBC reports on the controversy over those 5 little words. If you watch this video, A Moment of Truth, there is no doubt that McClellan said "That's accurate." MSNBC also interviews Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher, who smilingly said, after watching the video, that McClellan accidentally "Committed Truth." That is, he explained, "He had an open moment. He actually said something that was not filtered through the spin . . .something blundered out."

Now I'd say "That's accurate."