Senator, your people need to chill. Big time.
The Huffington Post reports today the Obama campaign is banning journalists who give Himself bad press:
Forty journalists, including such leading correspondents as Dan Balz of The Washington Post, will be aboard his plane for next week’s swing through Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England.
The campaign received 200 requests for press seats on the plane.
Among those for whom there was no room was Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent of The New Yorker. The campaign, which was furious about the magazine’s satirical cover this week, cited space constraints in turning him away.
The Senator from Illinois, you know, the “presumptive presidential…” blah, blah, blah, is starting to throw tantrums like President George “The Decider” Bush. Anyone remember Helen Thomas in exile? From Slate Magazine, 2003 (“Screw You, Mr. President“)”:
At his televised news conference last week, President George W. Bush deliberately snubbed several reporters he ordinarily calls upon, including journos from the Washington Post, Newsweek, and USA Today. But the most conspicuous recipient of the 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. freeze-out was longtime UPI reporter Helen Thomas, who has barbed and grilled every president since John F. Kennedy and almost always gets to ask a question. Bush pointedly ignored her.
The Huffington Post is spot on in its criticism:
Wow. So it’s gonna be like that, is it? Retribution for unfavorable coverage is a chilling thing to contemplate — literally, as in, it carries with it the very real risk of chilling bold, outspoken coverage. Whatever one thinks of the New Yorker cover — that it was clear satire that clearly lampooned ridiculous rumors, that it went way overboard, that it was a comedic misfire — a robust press can’t operate under threat of reprisal for unwelcome items.
We’re hoping this childish behavior is coming from Obama’s staffers as opposed to Obama himself. The word in Chicagoland is some staffers in Barack’s Loop campaign office are just downright rude – a bit taken by themselves and the access they currently enjoy. They’re giving Obama a bad reputation.
Barack Obama is not a hothouse plant. He’s being vetted for the most important job in this country, which happens to be a democracy. Obama has made it abundantly clear that spiteful and pretentious hoity-toity toward the press and the rest of us is beneath him. It should be beneath those close to him as well.