Palin. Kirsten Powers, a Democrat, argues the McCain camp is right in denying
the "gotcha" press their sound bite blood thirst. Here's an excerpt:
The idea of the unbiased reporter has become positively quaint. In New
York's 2005 mayoral race, the media's candidate was Mike Bloomberg -
no true conservative, but hardly the most liberal option. In the '08
Democratic primaries, it was Barack Obama - despite the paper-thin
policy differences between him and Hillary Clinton. (If reporters wanted
the most liberal candidate, they'd have backed John Edwards.)
In the 2000 presidential race, they mocked Al Gore, echoing GOP
attacks against his integrity and painting him as a serial liar, and did
virtually no vetting of George W. Bush.
When you're the press secretary on the campaign running against the
media's darling, there's almost nothing you can do to fight the pack
mentality. Each time your candidate makes a mistake, reporters will
blow it out of proportion - even as they ignore or write off your opponent's
similar mistakes.
There's a perpetual double standard. It's the mentality that led the
media to demand that Clinton drop out of the race while she was
winning states and racking up the same number of votes overall as
Obama.
Your only option is to bypass the media pack and go directly to the
voters, through stumping and paid media.
I agree with Powers. Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating for Palin not to do
any press. I'm just saying it's smart to limit press access. Our constitution protects
freedom of the press. However, I think it has become a huge monster that no one
knows how to deal with. Should public officials do press interviews? Yes! Does
a politician need to be on television everyday answering tedious gotcha questions?
No. It's an insane standard.
I wonder if Powers thinks this election cycle is particularly vicious? I would
agree with her that the pack mentality of the media has always been there and
sometimes it even favors Republicans. But in this campaign year, news organizations
not only seem to be biased but they have been outright advocating for one team.
I think that is somewhat new. They're almost acting like bullies. If you don't do
what we tell you, I will destroy you on my television show or newspaper column!
Take this for an example:
Why is Campbell Brown, a journalist, telling McCain how to handle his Vice-President
pick?
Why should Palin do interviews everyday when the media is obviously out for blood
right now? It's actually smart to limit access. Even liberal fake news anchor, Jon
Stewart, is telling the news media to calm down: