Eric Boehlert: Reporters whine about Obama; ignore McCain attacks on the press

[babylonsister]

Reporters whine about Obama; ignore McCain attacks on the press

by Eric Boehlert


The Obama campaign hurt Adam Nagourney's feelings.

The New York Times' political reporter recently claimed to have felt the campaign's sting after he wrote a front-page piece on July 16, detailing recent polling that suggested the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama had not dramatically altered views about race in America.

In a New Republic article about the campaign's pushback against his July 16 piece, Nagourney said that the night the story was first posted online he received a terse email from an Obama rep who raised questions about the story. Nagourney responded to the email and thought that the matter had been settled. The next morning he was surprised to see that the Obama camp had released a lengthy, eight-point critique of his article. (The Obama team was not alone; the premise of the Times piece was widely criticized.)

Nagourney "really flipped out" when he saw the Obama release. "They attacked me like I'm a political opponent," the aggrieved reporter told The New Republic, which used the anecdote to kick off a rather breathless analysis of what the magazine claimed was Obama's increasingly rocky relationship with the press.

Headlined, "End of the Affair: Barack Obama and the press break up," the New Republic piece leaned heavily on the notion that reporters were angry with the Democratic candidate and ready to revolt; that Obama's press aides were "alienating" the media by providing "little to no access," being "total tightwads with information," and acting in an arrogant fashion.

And worse, as Nagourney lamented, the campaign treated a reporter like a political opponent.

Oh, brother.

Do I even have to make the obvious point here that Republican politicians, and Republican candidates, have been attacking journalists and treating them like political opponents for years now? (Most notably President Bush, whose contempt for the press has been widely advertised for years.

But over the years, why didn't reporters complain publicly -- why didn't they flip out, as Nagourney called it -- about the naked GOP attacks? I didn't hear many industry-wide cries of consternation then. Instead, it's only considered to be newsworthy, and to be a point of deep media concern, when a Democrat is accused of slighting the press.

more...

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200807290001?f=h_top

[DJ13]

1. The reporters "flip out" because they know they've been caught

.....carrying the water for their GOP masters.

Attacking Obama was supposed to be something they could do without confrontation, just as they got away with in 2000 and 2004.

They dont know how to react when the Democrats push back.

[Cha]

3. Yeah, I didn't even know this Obama response happened..

thanks, Eric Boehlert and babylonsister!

[Cha]

2. Poor nags...he can dish the shit but he should really

get the fuck outta the kitchen.

[catbyte]

4. Sheesh...

This reminds me of what I saw last week on MSNBC. Andrea Mitchell was whining about Obama's lack of attention to the press at the beginning of his trip or some such rot. One of the panelists really put her in her place saying something like, "I have news for the press--sometimes it isn't about you." I cracked up when I saw the look of shock & confusion on her face (Not about ME? EVERYTHING'S about ME!). She did shut up, though.

Cheers,

Diane

"Tales of the hunt will glorify the hunter until lions have their own historians." --African proverb

[ErinBerin84]

5. someone on DU yesterday was telling me that Obama "threw Nagourney under the bus"

bc it is apparently "unprecedented that a campaign do this before calling the reporter". Uh, ok. Fuck Nagourney. It was a memo. It shouldn't be an issue, if he is confident in his article, he should be able to provide a defense for the Obama campaign's response to it, and justify why he left out certain data in the poll that did not support his thesis.

[americanstranger]

6. Nagourney's piece was a fuckin' hit job.

He left out a lot of pertinent data from the poll he was referencing, in order to reinforce a shaky premise.

Nags is a whiny little bitch (pardon the expression, but it's a perfect fit). I hope the O campaign singles him out for further ridicule. He more than deserves it.

- as