Unauthorized & Independent: Koffler Debuts ‘White House Dossier’
Ex-Roll Call White House scribe Keith Koffler has finally surfaced after quitting his job in January. Today he launches www.whitehousedossier.com, a site that promises to give readers a different slice of West Wing reportage.
The site, run solely by Koffler, has been in the works for six to seven months. The idea was born out of his own frustration with not being able to write the kind of hard news analytical satire that he wanted to write. “I’d submit stuff like that and people would practically keel over with a heart attack,” Koffler told FishbowlDC Wednesday morning. “I did try, I don’t know [that I'd submit] with quite as much sharpness and humor. I really didn’t get anywhere.”
Koffler said editors felt that type of writing would be “too provocative.” It wasn’t just one publication, he said. “They were concerned it would be too controversial and turn readers off. To some extent, I understood. Most of these publications are straight news publications. That’s their racket. Obviously I was hoping more people would be able to take risks and do things differently.”
He’s now taking that risk. “The idea is to basically try to do some of the traditional accountability that journalism stands for, but to do it with a sense of humor in an analytical way that I couldn’t do with a mainstream newspaper,” he said. “In the business, publications are under a lot of financial pressure, I think there were a lot of editors who really needed reporters to put up a lot of copy on the web. after awhile I felt I was spitting out information without being able to really write as intelligently as I wanted, to take the type of time you need to hold the powerful accountable, which is what journalism is supposed to be.”
On the site, he introduces himself under a sketched picture of himself: “I am veteran White House reporter Keith Koffler. White House Dossier is the only 24/7, independent, and totally unauthorized White House blog.”
Koffler gives readers a taste of his alternative writing: “Now that Obama has a record as president, chroniclers of the White House, including me, will soon be offering up the usual dumb analysis about how the president compares to this or that sublime or scumbag predecessor,” he writes. In this launch piece, he compares First Lady Michelle Obama to Nancy Reagan: “Nancy had her ‘Just Say No’ campaign, and of course she got all sorts of crap for it. …And now there’s Michelle Obama with her Just Say No to Sitting Your Fat Asses on the Couch campaign, also known as the Let’s Move initiative. The effort also promotes health eating.”
One of the site’s categories honors VP Biden:
Big %&!#ING Deal Posts
You’ll notice Google ads on the site. “I don’t control what they put on there,” Koffler explained. “Advertisers on the site will not be those I cover down the road.” There’s a store where you can buy things – Koffler gets a cut of that. Amazon is on there – Koffler gets a cut of that, too.
Will Koffler succeed? “The real answer is, I don’t know,” he said. “It’s basically a new business. My wife asked this last night and has many times. It’s a risk. I don’t think it’s going to make me rich.”
The rogue journalist plans to report from the White House but has not secured the traditional hard pass. “I will be able to get cleared in,” he said. “It’s a little bit unchartered territory.”
Visit the site here. Read what Koffler writes about White House Dossier on his site after the jump…
ABOUT
White House Dossier, written by veteran White House reporter Keith Koffler, is the only 24/7, totally independent, and fully unauthorized White House blog. It delivers an unique blend of White House news, commentary and analysis – with a frequent dose of humor and satire – to carry forward journalism’s traditional mission of holding the powerful to account. The blog focuses mainly on President Obama, his administration, and his antagonists.
Keith Koffler has 15 years of experience as a reporter for CongressDaily, National Journal magazine, and Roll Call. Since 1997, Keith has primarily reported from the White House, covering three presidents and learning as few have the intricacies of the West Wing and the behavior and motivations of its occupants.
While mainly stationed at the White House, Keith has also extensively covered Congress and Washington’s lobbyists.
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