It was reported last week that O'Keefe was travelling this week to visit NASA centers, including a stop at JPL for a review of the MER mission to date. As I read that, it sounded like O'Keefe would be receiving a breifing on how the mission is going and meeting with mission personnel (as is happening with other projects at other centers). The news item did *not* say that O'Keefe was going to appear at a breifing for the press.
A bit confusing since I think both items included terms like "update" or "review" or something, but I don't think we had a missing Administrator.
I'd be curious to know who Blackwell's sources were and what they said. Maybe there is a real buzz at JPL about the tantalizing hints we've seen recently at Gusev, but nothing ready to disuss in public.
Space/Science » in reply to Low key press conference a real letdown
never said O'Keefe would be there