RIP Tony Snow

Commentator and fomer White House press secretary Tony Snow has passed away following a long bout with cancer. By all accounts, Tony Snow was a fine man, liked by everyone who knew him (and lots, like me, who didn't).

Naturally, because he worked for the Bush administration, the press reports for his death run something like this..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080712/ap_en_tv/obit_snow

"With a quick-from-the-lip repartee, broadcaster's good looks and a relentlessly bright outlook — if not always a command of the facts — he became a popular figure around the country to the delight of his White House bosses."

The New York Times, thusly:

At the White House, he turned the daily press briefing into something of a one-man show, challenging reporters’ questions and delivering hard-hitting answers, even when he was occasionally short on the facts. ...During Mr. Bush’s 2006 re-election campaign, Mr. Snow raised eyebrows by using his celebrity to raise money for Republican candidates — something that by Mr. Snow’s own admission, other press secretaries had declined to do for fear of seeming too partisan

All class, AP, all class. Perhaps his lack of 'command of the facts' stems more from your preconcieved biased notions, eh?

And bravo to the Times for its 'command of the facts.' 12 corrections this morning, as the Wrigleyville blog notes, and another one tomorrow. You get the no-prize if you can spot the incorrect information in the above quotation.

Tony Snow deserved better than the partisan purile crap that the AP and NYT have dropped into his obits today. I anxiously await the denunciations from our own local intrepid press. Again, not holding my breath.