Ditto to all you said, Philip. I covered Hillary on the trail
three times (Greensburg and Harrisburg, Pa., and Shepherdstown,
W.Va.) and she held press conferences two of those three times.
I've now covered John McCain on the trail three times (Wilkes-Barre
and York, Pa., and Lebanon, Ohio) and ZERO press conferences.
As anti-Republican as the political press corps may be, they
could scarcely outdo their bias against Hillary, especially at that
West Virginia event after she'd lost the North Carolina primary the
night before. A CBS reporter asked a question that could be fairly
summarized as, "Why don't you quit, you pathetic loser, and stop
hurting the Democratic Party?" It was completely hostile.
GOP candidates routinely entrust their press operations to
people who've never been reporters and who don't like reporters,
and then blame all their problems on media bias. There's no need to
name names here, Philip, but you've accurately described "campaign
staffers ordering journalists around, telling them where to go and
when." I don't think the people who contribute money to Republican
campaigns understand that they're paying the salaries of "media
relations" people who seem to go out of their way to alienate the
media, or else the contributors would be demanding refunds.
topics:
John McCain
