by Damozel | Looks as if McCain's long media honeymoon has ended with a bang and a whimper. Josh Marshall writes about the constrast between Then and Now:
A lot of Washington reporters have spent a decade loving John McCain. Just a few days ago a friend of mine who was once among the courted explained to me just how different and successful McCain was in the courtship. Off the cuff, frank, entirely accessible. Because of all that, a lot of these people got heavily invested in the maverick and straight-talker image. I'll be honest: back in 2000 and probably until 2002 I was pretty invested in it. (TPM)
Back in April, Ezra Klein remarked, "Of late, I've been talking a bit about the media's inability to report on policy... They know how to imply that Barack Obama has had bad friends, and Hillary Clinton tells lies, and John McCain -- well, they know how to doodle his initials inside a sparkly heart." (American Prospect; emphasis added)
But now it's gettin serious and the media obviously want their piece of the action. It was inevitable---or at least I hope it was---that if McCain won the nomination, the media would eventually cease their doodling and start sh*t-stirring for the purpose of whipping up a spectacle. Yeah, they're largely useless. Just not entirely.
CNN's Campbell Brown unquestionably did rough up McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds a bit.
John Araviso writes at AMERICAblog:
McCain's spokesman makes the preposterous claim that Sarah Palin is ready to lead our armed forces because she's "the commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard." And let's not forget, as Mrs. McCain reminded us, Alaska is close to Russia, so that means, um, it's not clear what it means.
Watch Campbell Brown hold his feet to the fire on this one::
Transcript at Crooks and Liars:
Anyway, Bounds couldn't name even one decision she'd made as commander in chief of the National Guard. (Think Progress) This is, of course, Campbell Brown's and CNN's fault. Of course it is. How unreasonable for a news reporter to expect McCain's people to be informed about Palin's credentials!
Right. McCain's response? He's cancelling a scheduled interview with Larry King. (Think Progress) Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face...
According to Wolf Blitzer, " the McCain campaign complained that Campbell Brown's grilling of Tucker Bounds over Sarah Palin's lack of foreign policy experience was "over the line." (TPM)
Seriously? On Planet McCranky, it's "over the line" for a journalist to insist on an answer about the prospective Vice President of the United States' foreign policy experience?
And that's not all:
The McCain campaign...is...angry about media coverage of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy, calling NBC’s reporting on it “irresponsible journalism.” Campaign staffers “even considered pulling out of one of the three presidential debates because it would be moderated by Tom Brokaw, a former NBC News anchorman.” When Newsweek wrote a cover story in May examining the hardball tactics conservatives might use in the general election, the McCain campaign “threatened to throw the magazine’s reporters off the campaign bus and airplane.” (Think Progress)
Perhaps, as Jason Linkins suggests, Brown seemed to be enjoying the discomfiture of Bounds a little too much. "Brown infuses the proceedings with that little extra dose of extra-special sadistic glee...Watch for yourself, and tell me Brown isn't enjoying this." (HuffPost)
At AMERICAblog, John Aravosis writes:
The McCain camp has benefited from years of media-love. McCain even called the media "his base." It's only the last week, really, that the media, across the board, was willing to ask McCain...hard questions....
McCain...[is] now trying to shift the story over to the "big bad media" beating up his wonderful vice presidential pick. It's the only way they know how to save themselves, shift the blame, shift the story....They're trying to scapegoat the media, and at the same time force networks like CNN to be nicer to McCain or he won't invite them to any more barbeques.
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