Every once in a while, when President Bush or his advisers are particularly exercised by something a reporter writes or a Democrat says, the White House blasts an e-mail to hundreds of Washington opinion-makers under the headline “Setting the Record Straight.”

This week it sent out one that raised eyebrows.

Ed Gillespie, counselor to the president, publicized a letter he sent to the president of NBC News, Steve Capus, accusing the network of “deceitful editing” of an interview with Mr. Bush. The White House complained that NBC had distorted Mr. Bush’s response to a question about a speech widely interpreted as an attack on Senator Barack Obama.

That was unusual enough; most disputes with reporters are settled – or at least aired out – behind the scenes. But the real aim of the lengthy missive could be found in its very last line, in which Mr. Gillespie accused NBC of blurring the lines between its news division and “blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC.”

This was a go-for-the-jugular move. NBC, which shares offices and staff with its more opinionated cable sister, MSNBC, is particularly sensitive to such criticism, and Mr. Capus responded by saying the “reporting accurately reflects the interview” and that, in any event, viewers could see the entire unedited interview on the MSNBC Web site.

The White House cares about accurate reporting? Wha? When?