W.H. (again) forces info on sanctioned briefing call to be attributed to unnamed sources

Oliver Darcy emails: The White House held a sanctioned briefing call over the weekend to relay info to reporters on the Trump legal team's strategy for the impeachment trial. But instead of holding it on record, deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley required reporters who wanted to use the info to attribute it to "people close to the legal team."  

The AP's Zeke Miller pushed back, asking, "Is there any way you can move this on the record, since it's awfully weird to have a call with 'people close to a legal team' when we're talking to the legal team?" Gidley responded, "The answer to that question is no." This is of course strange given that Trump has told the American people not to trust information attributed to unnamed sources... 
 

Grisham lashes out at 'righteous indignation'

Darcy continues: When I tweeted about this over the weekend, Grisham responded via Twitter. She wrote, in part, "I'm sorry you aren't happy w/ the way it was presented - but we were happy to give so many reported important info. today. Can we stop w the righteous indignation now?" 

I tweeted back, "Stephanie, genuine question: Why isn’t info provided by the White House on sanctioned briefing calls attributable on the record? The President has literally told Americans not to trust info cited to unnamed sources. I truly cannot understand this practice given Trump’s rhetoric." Grisham never replied. As I wrote earlier this week, I've never received an ON THE RECORD answer to this question...
 

Reporters should ask!

Darcy adds: It's become common for reporters to accept these bizarre ground rules without challenging them. But it's worth asking: Why aren't these sanctioned briefings on the record? As Axios' Alayna Treene tweeted, "My reporter colleagues and I also need to be better about pressing the White House, congressional staff offices, etc. about this during official briefing calls."
 

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

 -- Trump is averaging about nine false claims a day... (CNN)

 -- "A Very Stable Genius" by Philip Rucker