Tony Snow Apologizes to NBC’s David Gregory For Calling Him ‘Partisan’

Say whatever you want about White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, there’s no denying his class, integrity, and decency. In fact, few in Washington, D.C., come close.

A fine example of what kind of a man Snow is occurred during Thursday’s press gaggle when the Secretary took a moment to apologize to NBC’s David Gregory for suggesting last week that the correspondent was being partisan in the way he framed a question. As NewsBuster Matt Sheffield reported, Snow and Gregory had quite an exchange during the December 6 gaggle over the contents of the just released Iraq Study group report (video available here).

Well, a little over a week later, and after much discussion about this encounter, Snow wanted to make amends, and said the following before answering one of Gregory’s questions Thursday (video available here):

SNOW: Before I get to that, I want to address something else. Because you and I had a conversation last week that got a whole lot of play in a lot of places, where I used the term "partisan" in describing one of your questions.

And I've thought a lot about that, and that I was wrong. So I want to apologize and tell you I'm sorry for it.

GREGORY: Thank you.

SNOW: And the reason I do that is not only because it's the right thing, but because I want people in this room and also people who watch these to understand that the relations in this room are professional and collegial.

And if I expect you to do right by us, you have every right to expect that I'll do right by you.

So, at any event, I just want to say I'm sorry for that.

How refreshing. Now, try to imagine a member of the press being as gracious.