White House press evicted ... temporarily?

Reporters who cover the White House are being evicted this week from their dingy, depressing digs in what was once the West Wing swimming pool area, for what is set to be a months-long renovation.

While journalists have complained for years about the crowded, dirty conditions and the absence -- until actor Tom Hanks stepped in -- of a proper coffee machine, their chief fear is of not being allowed to return.

White House spokesman Tony Snow, asked to address that concern on Wednesday, played off the fact that the blue-curtained briefing room was built over the swimming pool last used by a US president when Lyndon Johnson was in office.

"I was thinking about bringing a bathing suit and seeing how many people would freak out. I'm so disappointed that I forgot," he joked. But "you'll be back," he promised into a pile of tape recorders and microphones on his podium.

Snow declined to say when reporters would be able to return from their exile in a nearby government building to the White House itself, saying: "The only thing worse than making predictions about diplomacy is construction."

"The reason this place is being overhauled, I believe it was about 400 degrees in here yesterday. I think the time has come -- what did we have, ceiling tiles fall last week that could have rendered some people lifeless?" he quipped.

Technically, the briefing room -- shown as a well-upholstered, clean facility in countless television shows and Hollywood movies -- will stay open though Friday. But reporters' chairs will be pulled up starting Thursday.

"We think it's time to fix the heating and the air conditioning and to remove carpet that in some cases is literally ratty or mousy or whatever, and deal with the business of refurbishing this so that you have a state-of-the-art facility that is as user-friendly as possible," he said.

Journalists have long complained about the unreliable electrical wiring, stained seats and carpeting, and the poor audio system, but they love being able to stroll up to the press secretary's office.

That is the only exercise for some reporters, who cannot leave the building because of the constant flow of news, prompting one to dub his tiny desk "my veal pen, where they keep me so I don't develop any unsightly muscle mass."

For a long time, the only available foodstuffs were from vending machines, including one dispensing a brownish substance identified as coffee.

But that changed in 2004, when actor Tom Hanks, horrified after a tour of the facility, bought the reporters a top-notch espresso machine.

Now, there is talk of a 21st-century briefing room with a state-of-the-art audio system, plasma television screens, air conditioning that works and wider seats.

But most reporters just want to be sure that they will be back, with the opportunity to check on the president's comings and goings and those of his guests, as well as occasionally corner Snow or other officials.

CBS radio reporter Mark Knoller, a White House veteran and the closest thing the press corps has to an official record keeper, recently joked about those anxieties in an e-mail to fellow correspondents.

"Now taking bets," he wrote. "We'll be back in the press room by: a) the mid-term elections, b) 'mission accomplished' in Iraq, c) the 2008 elections, d) the next millennium or e) never."

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US-politics-media

AFP 021710 GMT 08 06

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