The Now-Infamous Purge: “The Journalistic Equivalent Of Redistributing The Wealth” – Papers Involved React – Video
Tweet
First, let’s reprise Drudge, then below, the papers respond.
And keep in mind, this is hardly the first of Obama’s purges, his sending off to Siberia, of media that is in any way critical of him. Given that he’s right, why shouldn’t he be a dictator? Why shouldn’t he do as all of his socialist dictator models have done?
NY POST, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, WASHINGTON TIMES TOLD TO GET OUT… ALL 3 ENDORSED MCCAIN
The Obama campaign has decided to heave out three newspapers from its plane for the final days of its blitz across battleground states — and all three endorsed Sen. John McCain for president!
The NY POST, WASHINGTON TIMES and DALLAS MORNING NEWS have all been told to move out by Sunday to make room for network bigwigs — and possibly for the inclusion of reporters from two black magazines, ESSENCE and JET, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
Despite pleas from top editors of the three newspapers that have covered the campaign for months at extraordinary cost, the Obama campaign says their reporters — and possibly others — will have to vacate their coveted seats so more power players can document the final days of Sen. Barack Obama’s historic campaign to become the first black American president.
MORE
Some told the DRUDGE REPORT that the reporters are being ousted to bring on documentary film-makers to record the final days; others expect to see on board more sympathetic members of the media, including the NY TIMES’ Maureen Dowd, who once complained that she was barred from McCain’s Straight Talk Express airplane.
After a week of quiet but desperate behind-the-scenes negotiations, the reporters of the three papers heard last night that they were definitely off for the final swing. They are already planning how to cover the final days by flying commercial or driving from event to event.
Washington Times kicked off Obama plane
Tom Ramstack – (WaTimes)
DEVELOPING STORY:
The Washington Times, N.Y. Post and Dallas Morning News — three newspapers that recently endorsed John McCain — have been kicked off Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s plane in the final days of his campaign.
The Obama campaign informed The Washington Times Thursday evening of its decision, which came two days after The Times editorial page endorsed Senator John McCain over Mr. Obama. The Times editorial page runs completely independent of the news department.
“This feels like the journalistic equivalent of redistributing the wealth. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars covering Senator Obama’s campaign, traveling on his plane, and taking our turn in the reporter’s pool, only to have our seat given away to someone else in the last days of the campaign,” said Washington Times Executive Editor John Solomon. News organizations typically pay campaigns for the cost of traveling on the candidate’s planes.
The Washington Times endorsed Mr. McCain on Tuesday.
“I hope the candidate that promises to unite America isn’t using a litmus test to determine who gets to cover his campaign,” Mr. Solomon said.
The Obama campaign confirmed that The Dallas Morning News and The New York Post were also kicked off the campaign for the final stretch.
“The Times won’t be deterred by the Obama decision from continuing to cover the campaign fairly and fully for the final days,” Mr. Solomon said. “Its reporters will fly commercial and drive to keep its coverage of Obama complete.”
Dallas Morning News reporter Todd J. Gillman also was excluded from the Obama campaign plane after an Oct. 18 editorial in the newspaper endorsed Mr. McCain.
“We were informed last week there wouldn’t be room,” said Bob Mong Jr., editor of The Dallas Morning News. “We protested, we continue to protest. We believe that a paper of our size and stature ought to be on the plane. We noticed that they allowed some friendlier media on the plane.”
Mr. Mong said he could not prove the Obama campaign acted in reprisal for the endorsement of Mr. McCain.
OBAMA CAMPAIGN OUSTS NEWSPAPERS FROM PLANE
ALL THREE PAPERS ENDORSED MCCAIN
With reporting by Andy Soltis.
Barack Obama’s campaign is kicking reporters from The New York Post and two other newspapers off his plane in the final days of the campaign.
All three papers had endorsed John McCain.
The Obama campaign said the decision was made to make room for other news organizations and had absolutely nothing to do with the three papers’ roles in the race.
Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan said, “We are happy to be on the outside looking in. It’s what makes The New York Post special. We are not in the news business to be liked.”
The Obama campaign said reporters from The Post, the Dallas Morning News and the Washington Times had been ousted as of Sunday.
The Washington Times editorial page endorsed McCain on Tuesday and was notified Thursday night that there was no longer room for it on the Obama plane.
“This feels like the journalistic equivalent of redistributing the wealth,” Washington Times executive editor John Solomon said.
“I hope the candidate that promises to unite America isn’t using a litmus test to determine who gets to cover his campaign,” he added.
Obama’s chief communications officer Anita Dunn said demand for seats on the plane during the final campaign weekend had far exceeded supply and forced the Democratic nominees aides to make hard and unpleasant for all concerned decisions.
The Dallas Morning News and the Obama campaign
Ryan J. Rusak
By now you may have seen the Drudge Report item indicating that the DMN and two other papers who endorsed John McCain are being booted off the Obama campaign. Here are the facts as we know them.
It’s true that our reporter, Todd J. Gillman, has been told that there’s no space for him after Saturday. Obama aides told the DMN last Saturday that the paper would lose its seat on the plane on Wednesday. Within a few hours, that moved to Friday. And by midweek, traveling press secretary Jen Psaki had told us that Saturday night’s final flight would be the last leg available. We protested then and continue to do so now, arguing that a paper of the DMN’s size and stature should be on-board.
But we don’t have evidence that the newspaper’s endorsement of Sen. McCain had any bearing on the campaign’s decision to boot us from the plane. No one from the campaign ever mentioned it to Todd. (And for the record, he as a reporter, and I as the editor in charge of political coverage, had absolutely no input or knowledge of the endorsement. That’s handled by a different department on a different floor. I didn’t even know about the editorial board’s choice until I read it in the paper a couple of Sundays ago.)
We think the Obama campaign’s decision is to some degree more a function of limited seats, and while we’re a large regional newspaper, we’re not national and we’re not in a swing state. We’ve been on the road with them at key moments, but we’ve not been along for the entire ride, like, say, The New York Times and The Associated Press.
For what it’s worth, we’ve had the same trouble with the McCain campaign. One of our reporters dropped off earlier this week when space became an issue, and we’re only getting back on with McCain tomorrow for the final weekend because they, unlike the Obama campaign, are adding a second plane.
That said, we’ve protested loudly and frequently with the Obama campaign. While we understand their decision, TDMN is one of the biggest papers in the South and Southwest, and over the years and in this campaign, we’ve demonstrated a strong commitment to campaign coverage. We believe very passionately in covering campaigns completely and aggressively, in being our readers’ eyes and ears on the scene as much as possible. We let the campaign know in early October that we wanted to travel along for the duration of the campaign. We still hope they change their minds.
Plus, we’re the only Southern or Southwestern paper that’s been on board constantly through October, and if we get booted, there won’t be any outside of New York, LA, Chicago, Washington and Boston.
The real problem is that the campaign does not want to add a second plane. Here’s how this works: The campaign makes travel arrangements and bills journalists for the costs. Your share of the cost is based on the total cost being divvyed up among the number of journalists traveling. So if there’s too many journalists for one plane but not quite enough for two, someone’s not going to make the cut.
And it does seem true that the campaign is allowing for more friendly media. But that should come as no surprise – Sen. Obama hasn’t done a press conference in more than a month, but he’s given “exclusive” interviews to Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow and Mario Lopez. (Don’t know this media titan? He’s the host of “Extra,” an entertainment news show, and a former star of “Saved By The Bell.”) This should tell you something – Sen. Obama is sitting on a lead and doesn’t want to risk aggressive questions by unbiased political reporters.
But for many readers, a lot of this is inside baseball. Here’s what you need to know – over the next five days, The Dallas Morning News will bring you complete coverage of the campaign. Todd is a dedicated guy who can function pretty well on little sleep and a whiz at travel arrangements, so he’ll hopscotch along behind the campaign if that’s what it takes. But no matter what, we’ll have robust news and analysis of the final stretch of this historic campaign.
UPDATE: We’ve asked the Obama campaign to clarify why we will soon no longer have a seat on their plane. Campaign spokeswoman Linda Douglass told our Todd Gillman that “we just had to make some last-minute decisions” because the candidate’s wife, Michelle, is coming on board, meaning more space for her staff and the Secret Service.
“We had to make some very hard decisions that have absolutely nothing to do with your news organization, which is a terrific, professional news organization,” Douglass said.
So why didn’t they add another plane to accommodate more reporters? Douglass said that slows the campaign down and would have meant one less stop per day.
The News’ recommendation of John McCain had nothing to do with our removal, Douglass insisted. “There are news organizations, as you look around you on the plane, whose editorial boards are never friendly to Senator Obama and whose coverage has been downright unfriendly, and they’re on the plane.” She didn’t name names, but still on board are Fox News, considered to lean to the right, and the Wall Street Journal, whose editorial board is strongly conservative.
And I should probably point out here something that slipped my mind: The DMN recommended Obama in the primary. And again: TODD, HIS REPORTING COLLEAUGES, AND HIS EDITORS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH SUCH RECOMMENDATIONS.
The campaign has also stressed that they’ve tried to be helpful to reporters who can’t travel with them, including by arranging ground travel and hotel rooms. And that’s true, though it doesn’t go to the logistical nightmare of trying to get in and out of airports commercially and flying into and out of small cities.
We’re not complaining; we’re big boys and girls. And there are benefits to being outside of the bubble, as they say, including more time to talk to real voters.
FOX News:
Three Reporters From McCain-Endorsing Newspapers Removed From Obama’s Plane
Reporters from three newspapers that endorsed John McCain have been told that they can’t travel aboard Barack Obama’s plane in the final days leading before Election Day.
Journalists from three major newspapers that endorsed John McCain — the Washington Times, the New York Post and the Dallas Morning News — have been booted from Barack Obama’s campaign plane for the final leg of the presidential race.
The Washington Times reported Friday that it was notified of the Obama campaign’s decision Thursday evening — even though the paper has covered Obama from the start.
Executive Editor John Solomon told FOXNews.com that the Obama campaign said it didn’t have enough seats on the plane, but “I don’t think the explanation makes sense to us.”
“We’ve been traveling since 2007 with him. … We’re a relevant newspaper — every day we break news,” Solomon said. “And to suddenly be kicked off the plane for people who haven’t covered it as aggressively or thoroughly as we are … it sort of feels unfair.”
He said the newspaper protested but was turned down again by the campaign.
“I can only hope that the candidate who describes himself as wanting to unite the nation doesn’t have some sort of litmus test for who he decides gets to cover the campaign,” Solomon said, noting that the Obama campaign’s decision came just two days after the paper endorsed McCain.
According to the Web site The Drudge Report, the three newspapers’ reporters were told to find alternative transportation by Sunday so that the plane could accommodate “network bigwigs” and reporters from two black magazines, Essence and Jet.
Also joining up with the Obama campaign are the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. According to the campaign, the decision to shuffle around reporters was made because they did not want to add a second plane.
“Unfortunately, demand for seats on the plane during this final weekend has far exceeded supply, and because of logistical issues we made the decision not to add a second plane,” Obama senior adviser Anita Dunn said in a written statement. “This means we’ve had to make hard and unpleasant for all concerned decisions about limiting some news organizations and in some cases not being in a position to offer space to news organizations altogether.”
Campaign aides said they are assisting other news outlets with hotel rooms and buses so they can still cover the race.
Dallas Morning News Editor Bob Mong told FOXNews.com that the “indication” from the Obama campaign was that they were kicked off the plane since they don’t represent a national outlet and they don’t represent a swing state.
“We argued that [considering] the size of the Morning News and stature, we obviously would want to be on board,” Mong said. “We’re obviously not happy about it, and continue to protest.”
He said, in fairness, that the McCain campaign recently pulled Morning News staff off the Republican’s plane when space became an issue — but he said the Morning News would be back on McCain’s plane again this weekend.
Obama is not the only candidate to play hardball with the press. McCain’s campaign has reportedly barred Time columnist Joe Klein and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who have been critical of the Republican candidate, from the Republican candidate’s plane.
 |
|