Inside the White House Press Corps: Chip Reid

Since re-joining the White House beat on the eve of Barack Obama‘s inauguration, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid has distinguished himself as one of the toughest questioners in the Brady Briefing Room.

In this edition of Inside the White House Press Corps, Chip speaks frankly about the role of the Press Secretary, compares the Obama White House to the Bush administration, and much more.

In part 1 of our interview, Chip talks about being a good reporter, why he’s harder on Robert Gibbs than he might otherwise be, and what the Bush and Obama administrations have in common.

Transcript:

I’m Chip Reid, I’m with CBS News and i’ve been here at the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration. I also covered the Clinton White House on and off but did not cover George W. Bush at all, so it’s back to the future for me.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD WHITE HOUSE REPORTER?

Persistence. You work long hours..uh..eager to make contact with anyone and everyone who knows anything about what goes on here; old friends, new friends, people who used to work here. Everybody you can be in touch with at various departments. You know, having covered the hill for a long time, and worked on the hill for a long time before that, I’ve got a lot of friends up there. You really don’t just cover the White House, you cover Washington, so someone who has a lot of experience covering all the different branches really helps. But more than anything else, it’s just persistence.

CAN YOU THINK OF SOMEONE BESIDES YOURSELF WHO REALLY EMBODIES A WHITE HOUSE REPORTER?

Back when I was covering Clinton, I thought that…my gosh, the name escapes me…but there were a couple print reporters with the New York Times back then, and they were constantly working it. Constantly working the story, and I kind of used them as role models. You don’t just cover what the White House is giving you; you’re always looking for some other angle on this. If you’re going to sit here and get spoon fed by the White House, then you’re going to feel really stupid.

YOU TEND TO SORT OF PROBE A LITTLE HARDER, SOMETIMES YOU TAG-TEAM WITH HELEN, THERE.

Yeah, Helen and I do tag-team questioning sometimes. She loves to jump in if I’m not getting an answer to a question, and I try to do the same with her. I think it really helps in this briefing room for people to jump in and help each other and make Robert Gibbs realize that a question he may be treating as absurd or unfair is not, and I think it helps to show some unity in the room.

WHAT ONE THING WOULD YOU DO TO IMPROVE THE BRIEFING PROCESS

More openness, obviously. I understand that Roebrt’s got a job to do, and Mike McCurry had a job to do, and Dee Dee had a job to do, and all the people I’ve seen here and fought with here have a job to do. They work for the president and their job is to protect the president, but their job is also to inform the American people through us and by answering our questions. I understand the tension for them–that protecting the President comes first–but informing the Aerican people is also part of their job. They work for the American people, too. And we’re trying to get information for them–for our viewers and readers.

I may be saying something that’s going to be laughed at behind those closed doors, but more openness is what it’s all about. And it shouldn’t be a briefing where at the end, we walk back to our office and say “Well that was a waste of time.” And it can be deeply frustrating that no matter how hard we probe, sometimes very little comes out in these briefings. Some days, I would be better off working the phones for that hour than being in here.

I NOTICE VERY OFTEN WE END UP ASKING THE SAME QUESTION 8 or 9 TIMES WITHA LITTLE VARIATION TO PULL EVERYHTING OUT. DO YOU THINK IF I ASKED ROBERT OR BILL THAT PROTECTING THE PRES WOULD COME FIRST?

That’s a good question. I’d like to hear their response, but certainly that’s what their job is. Robert’s in an interesting position, and I think it’s one reason people get a little more frustrated with him; because Robert knows so much. All of the other press secretaries I’ve worked with were not in the tiniest little circle, but Robert is. Robert knows what’s going on here. And I think that’s where people push him especially hard. It’s why I do. Because I know he knows. So I’m trying to get in that inner circle more than he wants us to get. He’s in the little meetings, in the big meetings and everything else. He’s in the inner circle, which was not true of Bill McCurry, it was not true of Danny Meyers or Bill Lockhart or any of the people I worked with in the Clinton years, but Robert Gibbs is right in there.

DOES THAT TENSION CARRY OVER INTO YOUR PERSONAL INTERACTIONS WITH ROBERT GIBBS?

I actually like the guy a lot. I think he’s really dedicated to protecting his boss, which I can understand. There’s a lot of loyalty in this White House; it’s a little more like the Bush White House than the Clinton White House.

That was one of the nice things about covering the Clinton White House; people would talk to you out of school more than they do here. It was a different operation, wider open. Clinton didn’t have–I’m not sure if it was the loyalty, that was part of it. But Clinton didn’t have the control.

Partly because Obama is a meticulously organized guy, and he wants information to come out in a meticulously organized way, but there’s also an intense loyalty here–kind of like there was with George W. Bush–which is why you’ve got to go to so many other sources to get the information.

Next: Part 2 –

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.