Yesterday, Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds appeared on CNN for an interview with Campbell Brown. Brown was tough on Bounds, refusing to let him spout typical campaign talking points. She repeatedly pressed him on Palin's foreign policy experience and qualifications, asking him to name one decision that she made as commander-in-chief of the Alaskan National Guard. Bounds was unable to do so. Today, CNN's Wolf Blitzer revealed that because of that tough interview, the McCain campaign has canceled the senator's appearance on Larry King Live tonight....
You have to know that a campaign's in trouble when they piss and moan about being asked tough but legitimate questions. I suppose this is what happens when not every media organization is willing to play by the rules laid out by the McCain campaign...which is "either toss us softballs or sit on the bench." It's the old "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" conumdrum. The McCainiacs want to be able to control and direct every aspect of any media coverage of their candidate...and they simply cannot stomach the idea that some media outlets won't play ball by their rules. In what they must be thinking is some sort of punishment, they're withholding access to John McCain...seemingly without realizing that an interview with McCain ain't exactly a prize...or particularly exciting.
Clearly, the McCainiacs realize that they can't compete on the issues, and that there candidate is about as exciting as vanilla ice cream. The only hope they have is to tightly maintain message discipline and to beat the media into submission. Most of the media has already happily fallen into line, providing McCain with the sort of fawning puff pieces his campaign expects. When someone dares to step outside the lines, though, you'd think that someone had consumed McCain's milkshake. CNN and the New York Times have occasionally upset McCain and his handlers by daring to asking a few difficult questions and/or having the audacity and the temerity to look past the propaganda. I'm not always a big fan of either outlet, but when last I checked, journalism is supposed to involve digging for the truth. Then again, when you work for the McCain campaign, the truth is whatever you decide paints your candidate in the softest and most flattering light.
The McCain campaign has repeatedly tried to intimidate the press. It is now 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."
I suppose that when you consider that the national media is an extensive of your propganda team and that their primary responsibility is to bring John McCain donuts, this is what you get.
If John McCain and his handlers can't deal with a few challenging questions, how in the Hell are we supposed to believe that they're going to be able to handle the rigors of day to day life in the White House? Perhaps if they weren't so heavily invested in massaging the propaganda, they'd be able to handle the tough questions. After all, how difficult is it to speak the truth?
