White House toll-free mishap

If you're a journalist and you feel like a little foreign policy, you ring up the toll-free number the White House gives you, so you can have a chat with high-profile Obama administration officials live from the G20 meetings in London.

But sometimes when you call in, instead of joining a foreign policy discussion, you get asked to enter your credit card number if you "feel like getting nasty". Hmm. That was probably a mis-dial. Redial. Nope.

It's what the White House listed in their press release as the number to call for an "on-the-record briefing call with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor Jim Jones to discuss the NATO summit." I'm thinking the soft-voiced female recording on the other end of the line was not Hillary Clinton.

Ok let's try the international call-in number. Ok, here we go for real this time. Let's just hope the transcript the White House has promised to distribute is not x-rated.

Hours after the original press release with the incorrect number was put out, the White House sent a corrected version. But the conference call was already under way. Even later, a release was sent out noting, "If you are having trouble dialing into the call, please try this number as an alternative," and listed the international line.

When asked for comment about this mishap, Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton told Fox, "A corrected phone number on a press release is probably one of the stupider things Fox has covered lately."