EPA Scandal May Be How Its Press Office Has Handled All The Scandals

"The Environmental Protection Agency is under unprecedented scrutiny, with an almost daily drip of news reports about regulatory rollbacks, questionable expenses by Administrator Scott Pruitt, and ethical scandals large and small, including one involving Pruitt’s use of staff personnel to search for his favorite skin moisturizer.

What’s a press office to do? In the EPA’s case, the answer has been to play offense.

Flouting normally polite Washington conventions, EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox has sometimes fought back in the most combative — and rudest — terms. “You have a great day, you’re a piece of trash,” he told a reporter from the Atlantic magazine last week after she sought comment for an article about the departure of an EPA employee.

Such an insult is unusual given that government public-affairs specialists typically try to work with, not against, the news media, even when they don’t like the reporters or the coverage."

Paul Farhi reports for the Washington Post June 14, 2018.

SEE ALSO:

"EPA: Want Pruitt To Talk? Offer Soft Questions And No Press" (ClimateWire)

"Reporter For Conservative Paper Says Pruitt’s EPA Put “Extreme Pressure” On Him To “Be Their Lickspittle”" (Media Matters)

"Attacks From Flacks Don’t Help The Administration’t Credibility Crisis" (Columbia Journalism Review)

"Scott Pruitt's EPA Has Cozy Relationship With Daily Caller and Washington Free Beacon" (Media Matters)

"As Pressure Over His Scandals Builds, Scott Pruitt Blacklists Reporters From EPA Announcement" (Media Matters)

"Scott Pruitt’s EPA Blacklists Reporters From Summit On Toxic Water Contaminants, Forcibly Removes Reporter From The Building" (Media Matters)

EPA Spokesman Called AP Journalist An ‘Anti-Trump Reporter’ (Washington Post)