The United States Information Service here today disseminated a statement by Lincoln White, the chief press officer of the State Department, declaring that he had “nothing to do” with the barring of Milton Friedman, chief Washington correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, from a briefing on matters dealing with Arab refugee issue. Mr. Friedman was denied admission by Robert C. Strong, director of the State Department’s office for Near Eastern Affairs, who conducted the briefing.
The statement disseminated by the U.S. Information Service read:
“Cenator Hugh Scott, according to a wire service report (not emanating from JTA) stated that he had been told by the State Department that Milton Friedman was barred from the Department’s background briefing at the consent of Lincoln White.
“Whoever gave Senator Scott this information is misinformed, Mr. Friedman called me after the event. As I have already told Mr. Friedman, whom I have known for some 15 years and to whom I expressed my personal regret, I was not consulted in forming the list of those invited and had nothing to do with the background briefing in question.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
