WASHINGTON — As President Clinton rose to speak and the theme song for the movie "Titanic" boomed over speakers, radio and television journalists attending their annual banquet Thursday night knew immediately that ABC News was about to be roasted.
The White House and ABC have been feuding publicly since last week when "Titanic" star Leonardo DiCaprio met with Clinton for an upcoming Earth Day special.
Was the sit-down interview a spur-of-the-moment thing — as the network insists — or did it result from lengthy negotiations, as the White House contends? And just what role was DiCaprio performing for ABC News last Friday when he interviewed Clinton — journalist or viewer-drawing celeb?
Clinton joked that ABC has been waffling. The network doesn't know if DiCaprio did an "interview, a walk-through or a drive-by," he quipped.
"Don't you news people ever learn?" Clinton asked the more than 2,300 people at the Radio & Television Correspondents' Association dinner. "It isn't the mistake that kills you. It's the cover-up."
In the face of complaints from its own journalists, who think professional reporters should be interviewing the president, ABC still isn't saying if the footage will ever be broadcast.
"We think it's legitimate to use someone like DiCaprio, who is sincerely interested in this issue (the environment), in an appropriate manner on a news special," ABC spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said. "We aren't allowing what is going on in the press to influence how we produce this program."
But the footage, part of a special scheduled for on or about April 22, will be judged on its merits, she said, and it is possible that little or none of it will be used.
This is the second time in two weeks ABC News has received static.
After Diane Sawyer's interview with Elian Gonzalez aired on "Good Morning America" last week, the network was criticized for questioning on camera the 6-year-old Cuban boy. Apparently shifting gears in response, the network began referring to the encounter as "a supervised visit."
But efforts to differentiate "interview" from "visit" fell by the wayside this week while ABC and the White House discussed the finer points of "sit-down" and "walk-through."
All week, ABC has insisted that DiCaprio's assigned role was to take a walking tour with Clinton to spotlight environmental changes made to the White House.
"And, yes, as part of that, we were going to ask the president questions," Murphy said.
Then, at the last minute Friday, she said, the walk-through was canceled in lieu of the impromptu sit-down interview.
ABC staffers were outraged that the network gave the plum assignment to a movie actor. It didn't, said ABC News boss David Westin in a staff e-mail.
But DiCaprio spokesman Ken Sunshine said the actor arrived at the White House expecting to interview Clinton "walking or sitting" and came prepared with cards bearing questions.
And when asked during Thursday's press briefing to characterize the session, the White House's Lockhart expressed his certainty that "it was an interview. If there is another term . . . for that, I'm not aware of it."