Chris Matthews did a fine job infuriating the Hillary Clinton campaign. Now colleague Andrea Mitchell is doing her part to stink things up with Barack Obama. Not that there's anything wrong with a reporter actually, um, reporting.
Mitchell, who booted Lee Cowan out of the way to trail Obama to the Middle East and Europe this week, made a satellite stop by Hardball last night — and in soundbite-able brevity, slammed Obama for engaging in reporter-free public relations stunts as he makes his way through Iraq and Afghanistan. (And then Matthews had to ask about black people.)
Says Mitchell:
Let me say something about his message management. He didn’t have reporters with him. He didn’t have a press pool. He didn’t do a press conference while he was on the ground either on Afghanistan or Iraq. What you’re seeing is not reporters brought in, you’re seeing selected pictures taken by the military, questioned by the military and what some would call fake interviews because they’re not interviews with a journalist so there’s a real press issue here. Politically it’s smart as can be, but we’ve not seen a Presidential candidate do this in my recollection ever before.
I don’t think journalism is the prime thing that we recruit them and pay them for.
To which Matthews followed up with a question about why viewers were seeing so many black faces surrounding Obama. Were they there because there are so many blacks in the military? Or because they just love Barack Obama and wanted to see him during his visit? Andrea doesn't know, because she wasn't there! For the record, neither was Matthews' common sense.
(Video here.)
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I saw the news and asked the same thing! I see footage all of the time and NEVER saw so many African-Americans in the military being shown. Although I have family in Iraq and Afghanistan, I never see African Americans depicted in the news in this war. Thanks for showing the true demographic. This is a visit to discuss international affairs and I am excited that Obama is NOT spending so much time with the Press. The Press gets enough time with the candidates. Think positive and stop putting a "spin" on everything. I am not impressed with the news lately and finding that if they keep up this type of reporting, news as we know it will not last. God Bless Tim - true reporter and reporting.
I live in Las Vegas and all we see is McCain ads touting how Hispanics move the earth…Hispanic and Latino this or that…no mention of blacks…ever, like whites and hispanics are the only two races in America - not fair. But that's the way it is, just like the gov. will award an Hispanic biz a contract before a Black biz. This is a fact - even in the workplace!
This article gives very interesting informations, which the public does not know. I knew already that Obama nearly never gives interviews to foreign reporters but that the american reporters obviously have such a hard time too with him is new to me. What I already knew before is that Barack has to be one of the biggest champion in time management world wide. As a real Obama fan I am just hoping that the way how he seems to handle the reporters is relaited to his time management and that he just does not want to take himself too important, because the campaign should be just about what his movement wants to achieve. Naive? Maybe I am.
I,for one,am glad he is not giving reporters that much time. If he did reporters would be screaming that his trip is just a big press conference. He is there to find out,first hand,what the situation is in the Mid-East,Israel and Palestine-not to cheese for the reporters all day. Go Obama!
Dana # 2,
You see an ad in Nevada talking to hispanics and not blacks and you are surprised. Let me educate you in something. There are not that many blacks living in Nevada and if they were they are already dead set on voting for Obama. They are not changing their mind even if he is caught on tape having sex with a deer. So why should McCain spend money targeting a non-existent demographic that would not vote for him unless he turns black between now and November?