As part of the plot, Olivia Pope, a crisis manager, asks one of her aides to tip off a popular cable news show host that Pope was seen leaving the hospital where the president is staying.

“You have to give me something, anything. Off the record at least,”  Kimberley Mitchells, the cable news host, says to Pope after tracking her down.

“He’s in remarkable shape,” Pope lies to Mitchells about President Grant. “But he’s not going to go public until the [gunshot] wound on his head is a little more healed, until the hair grows back.” Pope adds that the first lady “thinks he’s a little vain.”

Even if it was off the record, it’s a microscopic detail that today’s news media would latch onto and publish quicker than Pat Robertson can offend… well, anyone, assuming they’re able to hear him talk.

But no. Mitchells holds onto the story, waiting instead for the chance to interview the first lady about it.

Here’s how it would happen in real life… continued…

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