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'David Gregory' (born August 24, 1970) is currently the NBC News Chief White House Correspondent, a job he has held since February, 2001. He is occasionally a guest host on MSNBC's ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'' and ''Meet the Press'', in addition to appearing as a commentator on a variety of NBC and MSNBC news programs. He has been nicknamed "Stretch" by the President because of his height.

Contents

Journalism career

CIA leak case

Press secretary conflicts

Scott McClellan

Tony Snow

Recent articles

References

External links

Journalism career

Gregory, a Los Angeles native, began his journalism career at the age of 18 as a summer reporter for KGUN-TV in Tucson, Arizona. He also worked for NBC's flagship West Coast affiliate KCRA-TV in Sacramento. Gregory graduated from American University in 1992. He wrote for the school newspaper, ''The Eagle'', while there. He received a degree in International Studies from the School of International Service. Gregory is married to former federal prosecutor Beth Wilkinson, now general counsel at Fannie Mae. They have three children.
Gregory has been the substitute Co-Anchor of ''Weekend Today'' filling in for Lester Holt on that program since 2003 and has also filled in on NBC News ''Weekend Nightly News'' since 2005. Gregory has filled in for Matt Lauer on ''The Today Show'' from 2005 to the present. Gregory had been considered to replace Matt Lauer on ''The Today Show'' in 2007 when Lauer turns 50; however, Lauer has since signed a new contract with NBC. Gregory was also the Anchor of ''News Chat'', ''Crosstalk NBC'', and ''Newsfront'' on MSNBC from 1998 to 2000. Gregory also filled the Imus in the Morning time slot on MSNBC after the Don Imus controversy involving the Rutgers Basketball team while MSNBC searched for a permanent host. Gregory served as a guest host in the morning time slot for MSNBC (while also being simulcast on WFAN) for one week in May. The Morning Radio Program was known as ''Gregory Live''
Prior to his appointment as White House Correspondent, Gregory covered the Bush campaign and the Republican primaries for NBC in the 2000 election.
The conservative Media Research Center awarded him Best White House Correspondent for coverage of Bush's first 100 days.
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In 2005, Gregory shared an Emmy Award with his colleagues for the network's coverage of President Ronald Reagan's death and funeral the previous summer.

CIA leak case

During the trial of Scooter Libby on January 29, 2007, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, testifying under an immunity agreement, named Gregory as one of two reporters (with John Dickerson of ''Time'') to whom he revealed Valerie Plame's name and CIA identity on July 11, 2003, during a Presidential visit to Uganda.^[1] The alleged leak occurred three days before Plame's name was published by columnist Robert Novak, tipping off the CIA leak investigation. Gregory had not previously mentioned a possible connection to the leak investigation, which he has frequently covered for NBC.
Following Fleischer's testimony, ''Time'' reporter John Dickerson publicly disputed his account. Writing for Slate magazine in February 2006, nearly a year before Fleischer testified, Dickerson claimed that Fleischer urged him to look into who sent Joe Wilson to Niger but that he did not mention his wife, her name, nor her CIA identity.

Press secretary conflicts

Gregory's interaction with President George W. Bush's press secretaries has been contentious at times, garnering media attention in several instances. Conservative commentators have seized these opportunities to point out what they perceive as a left-wing bias on Gregory's part.^[2] Conservatives view his questions as being shallow and nit-picking.

Scott McClellan

At a White House press "gaggle" (an off-camera morning briefing) on February 13, 2006 two days after the accidental shooting of a Houston lawyer by U. S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Gregory confronted Scott McClellan, the White House Press Secretary, about the manner in which the press was notified about the incident. (By agreement with the Vice President, the incident was first reported by the ''Corpus Christi Caller-Times'' after the owner of the ranch on which the incident took place waited some 14 hours.) This led to the following exchange:
:MCCLELLAN: "Hold on. Cameras aren't on right now. You can do this later."
:GREGORY: "Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras. Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question."
:MCCLELLAN: "You don't have to yell."
:GREGORY: "I will yell. If you want to use that podium and try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that's wrong."
:MCCLELLAN: "Calm down, David."
On February 19, Gregory appeared on NBC News' ''Meet the Press'' and apologized for his behavior which he referred to as "unprofessional".

Tony Snow

On December 7, 2006, Gregory posed a question regarding the Iraq Study Group Report, asking how the President could view the report's content as anything but a "rejection of the President's policy". Snow then responded that Gregory was framing the question in a partisan manner and would not answer. Several media outlets, such as Fox News' ''The O'Reilly Factor'', used it as evidence that NBC's coverage was too hard on President Bush. Days later, Snow apologized to Gregory for his part in the incident. Gregory and Snow appear to be on good terms.

Recent articles

★ MSNBC: After Cheney's Shooting Incident, Time to Unload: Episode Triggers a Fusillade of Wisecracks, And a Withering Blast From White House Press, By Mark Leibovich Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 14, 2006; Page C01

★ Transcript of Q&A with Karl Rove, June 22, on "Hardball"

★ "U.S. justification for waging war on Saddam still haunts White House"

References

1. Ari Fleischer testimony liveblogging, January 29, 2007
2. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,235427,00.html

External links

★ Official MSNBC bio page

★ Shared blog of David Gregory and other members of the NBC Nightly News team

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