Off the record at the White House? Then why announce it?

Email received yesterday from [email protected]:

 

Friends:

On Wednesday, May 23rd at 4:00 p.m. EDT, please join us for a budget update call with Robert Gordon, Executive Associate Director at the Office of Management and Budget. 

We ask that you share this invitation with your networks and affiliates.

Please RSVP here to join us, and please be sure to dial in 10 minutes early so that we are able to start the call on time.

Thank you,

The White House Office of Public Engagement

WHAT: White House Update Call

WHEN: Wednesday, May 23^rd 

Start Time: 4:00 p.m. EDT 

Dial In: (800) 230-1951              
Passcode Title: White House Update Call

This call is off the record and not for press purposes. (emphasis added - DS)

Link found here as well:
White House Update Call - May 23 | The White House.

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I fail to understand why "off the record", if Robert Gordon is offering any remarks at all. 

Sounds dumb to me. I may have subscribed to this "SustainableCommunities" but I may very well have placed on it because I have a blog. In any case, my reason for even being on the list is to -- in my own small way -- to act as "press," though in a very opinionated format.

Can someone (and I know it's not you but the White House) explain why they want to tell what I assujme is a large group of people but then not tell people? About sustainable communities? Is asking for "off the record" a way to generated more interest?

I can understand why privacy in government is reasonable, in different degrees, from pending military action and announcement of crop reports to policy-under-discussion but not approved. But in such cases one simply keeps it secret.

Any suggestions? 

Comments

[QwkDrw]

Just between us, and certainly 'off the record', I imagine that the White House may not want their Executive Associate Director to offer up candid but potentially damaging remarks 'on the record'.

The call's content might be scrubbbed of offending remarks by later releasing only selected advantageous portions -- if the original is kept 'off the record'

..

[David Sucher]

Yes, let's definitely keep it just between us so that no one can criticize us or take our remarks out of context. Certainly all p our adversaries will adhere to our guidelines.

The irony is that I don't think Mr. Gordon said much interesting much less controversial. He was acting as a cheerleader for a particular respective -- which I probably agree with -- bu that seems to me to be very much the job of the WH -- to further certain policies.

[Brenda]

Can anything be shared from this meeting that is not considered 'off the record'?