Host of Fox's media analysis show claimed "[w]e don't have any idea" what Biden said to AFL-CIO, but transcript is available

Jon Scott, host of Fox News' weekly media analysis program, Fox News Watch, claimed that Vice President Joe Biden's appearance at the AFL-CIO executive council meeting was “closed to the press,” adding, “We don't have any idea what he said there.” In fact, the White House released a transcript of Biden's AFL-CIO speech, and “a pool of print reporters” reportedly covered the speech at the request of the White House.

During the March 7 edition of Fox News Watch, Fox News' weekly media analysis program, host Jon Scott claimed that Vice President Joe Biden "[went] down to address this AFL-CIO convention in Miami Beach -- it's closed to the press. We don't have any idea what he said there." In fact, as Media Matters for America documented, the White House released a transcript of Biden's March 5 speech at the AFL-CIO's executive council meeting, and “a pool of print reporters” reportedly covered the speech at the request of the White House.

Later during the segment, Fox News contributor James Pinkerton stated, "[T]he Obamas are so eager to have transparency when it comes to [former Bush Justice Department official] John Yoo's memos about due process in the wake of 9-11 or [former Vice President] Dick Cheney's energy task force and, yet, they're quiet. They don't seem to mind at all to get left out of a meeting with the AFL-CIO." National Review editor Rich Lowry also claimed that "[t]he Obama people like nothing ... more than to have every Biden event closed to the press."

As Media Matters noted, Fox News' Glenn Beck claimed on March 5 that Biden met “in secret” with the AFL-CIO executive council, while Special Report host Bret Baier asserted that Biden's appearance at the labor federation's meeting “was anything but transparent.”

Fox News says of Fox News Watch: “Host Jon Scott and his panel of media analysts cover the coverage of the week's biggest stories.”

From the March 7 edition of Fox News Watch with Jon Scott:

SCOTT: Let's talk about something else. The Obama -- candidate Obama promised us an open administration, and yet the vice president goes down to address this AFL-CIO convention in Miami Beach -- it's closed to the press. We don't have any idea what he said there. Is that fair?

KIRSTEN POWERS (Fox News analyst): Well, reporters can find out what he said. They can talk to the people that were in the room. I -- you know, look, I don't know that transparency means you have to open every single meeting you have, but there are a lot of people that have complained, particularly, on the left about what they feel has been a lack of transparency throughout even this short time that he's been in power.

PINKERTON: And here the Obamas are so eager to have transparency when it comes to John Yoo's memos about due process in the wake of 9-11 or Dick Cheney's energy task force and, yet, they're quiet. They don't seem to mind at all to get left out of a meeting with the AFL-CIO.

POWERS: You really think they're on the same level -- a meeting with the AFL-CIO and memos about how you can torture people?

LOWRY: In all fairness, also, my understanding is that it's the AFL-CIO's policy that these executive sessions are closed to the press.

PINKERTON: But -- right, but the point is that reporters have really been saying, look, we want to know what's going on. Look, one of the hottest pieces of legislation in 2009 will be card check, or the EFCA, the Employee Free Choice Act -- whatever you want to call it -- and I guarantee Biden and the union leaders were talking about that a lot.

LOWRY: The Obama people like nothing less -- nothing more than to have every Biden event closed to the press: an ongoing, closed-to-the-press vice presidency.

SCOTT: There is that.