Steve Koff (pictured above) of The Plain Dealer
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As if President Obama’s bureaucratic gobbledygook over health care reform wasn’t confusing enough, even more confusion set in toward the end of the press conference when the president called on Steve Koff of The Plain Dealer.
A reporter stood up and began asking the president if the ``public option’’ of his health reform package would lead to reduced coverage and reduced benefits. It was a terrific question, the president provided a detailed long-winded answer, only problem was the reporter who asked the question wasn’t Steve Koff; in fact, The Plain Dealer’s Washington Bureau chief looks nothing like the reporter who asked the question.
Wednesday night’s unidentified reporter was actually Steven Thomma, McClatchy's chief political correspondent
The real Steve Koff was clear on the other side of the room puzzled, confused, he described it as a ``surreal experience’’ after hearing his name called only to see someone else firing off a question to the president.
By all rights, Koff could have started a lively commotion and interrupted the president that he was answering a question from the wrong reporter. Contacted on his cell phone, Koff told me he has too much respect for the White House and the office of the presidency; and so decided to sit down and hold his fire. `` I didn’t want to turn the White House Press conference into a food fight’’ Koff said.
It wasn’t until the president mentioned he would be visiting his hometown tomorrow (Cleveland) that The Plain Dealer Washington Bureau chief knew he needed to stand up at the appropriate time and alert the president he was the real Steve Koff.
When the president learned his error after calling on Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times for the final question of the night, (after Koff shouted he had been overlooked), Obama jokingly scolded Thomma for standing up, and proceeded to let The Plain Dealer writer ask his question after all; although due to time constraints, it was an abbreviated answer, but Koff was satisfied the president answered it fully, which was if the president was expecting an endorsement from the Cleveland Clinic during his visit to Northeast Ohio on Thursday. Obama assured Koff he wasn’t going to the Cleveland Clinic to earn their endorsement; he merely considered their health institution a role model.
So what exactly caused all this confusion?
According to Thomma, he had heard the president wrong in what roughly sounded like his last name; he assumed, wrongly it turns out, it was him, and took the microphone from the young aide kneeling next to him, before hearing the president say the words ``of The Cleveland Plain Dealer.’’
``I didn’t know anything was amiss, Thomma wrote through an email; until I asked a follow-up and he [President Obama] made a comment about visiting my home town on Thursday. I knew he was heading to Cleveland.’’
Conspiracy theorists might be interested to know Thomma’s hometown is Chicago, the same as the president’s. A spokesperson from the White House believes, however, the McClatchy reporter may be a Chicago native, but he hangs his hat in the nation’s capital, so it’s highly unlikely Thomma had any previous conversations with Obama in Chicago
In any event, Thomma has distinguished journalistic credentials, is highly thought of by his peers and colleagues in Washington and feels badly about the mix-up, so much so that he tried to hunt down Koff after the press conference to offer his apology, but The Plain Dealer reporter was nowhere to be found.
Koff has pretty much shrugged off the slip-up as an honest mistake. `` I know Thomma’s work and respect his professionalism.’’
Mistakes do happen. Still, you have to feel for Koff. Imagine, if you will, hearing your name called for the first time in your reporting career during a live presidential press conference, only to watch someone else stand up and steal your thunder.
Which leads to the question, honest mistake or not, did Mr. Thomma break any press conference ethics? After all, the president did mention he was visiting Cleveland, and Thomma never corrected him
When I put the question to the Director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, Alex Jones responded that ``it would have been gentlemanly of him [Thomma] to acknowledge the miscue, but I wouldn't say it was professional misconduct - as long as it doesn't become common for Mr. Thomma to mishear who is being called on. If it doesn't happen again, I would not think Mr. Thomma has hurt his chances. This is one of those situations when you are excused once, but not twice.’’
This story does have a happy ending. Koff and Thomma while not meeting face-to-face, have spoken with each other since the press conference, and the Cleveland reporter seems satisfied that it was a mistake on Thomma’s part and nothing more sinister than that.
In other words, no harm, no foul.
-Bill Lucey
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