Reporters Get Flu Shots: The Cover-Up
The Globe and Mail has outed the WP's Dana Milbank as one of the " flu-shot three " -- the small group of quippy scribes who used Bush's trip to Canada as an opportunity to do some quasi-legal drug importation. Quite a scoop, especially since both AFP , who originally reported the story, and Milbank himself failed to identify the amateur doctors without borders. Milbank wrote about the hypochondriacal hijinks on Tuesday, noting that while in Canada, "A few [of the White House press corps] wandered out in a quest for the most desirable Canadian souvenir: flu shots." Talk about missing a story right under your nose!
Not that Milbank was shy at the time. According to the Globe and Mail, he totally killed in the filing center, tossing off one-liners like they were... cheap Canadian flu shots!
"It cost only $20 Canadian,” Mr. Milbank triumphantly announced to his fellow scribes... “That's something like 89 cents American.”
Then, Mr. Milbank seemed to have second thoughts, remembering that the Canadian vaccine he had just received had not been given the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's seal of approval. “Is it possible they injected me with a Canadian accent?”
Ha! As the paper notes, "It was the kind of banter that's endemic whenever a group of journalists wakes up at 4: 30 a.m. for a 90-minute flight to attend a news conference that occurs six hours after arrival."
Get your cheap flu shot here, eh? [Globe and Mail]
Little Excitement Expected From Trip [WP]
Reporters Sneak Flu Shots, Learn Valuable Lesson [Wonkette]
Bush reporters race to get flu shots [AFP/Yahoo]