Mark this down as a first. Upon hearing that reporters would be barred from attending Palin's staged meetings with a few international heads of state, CNN actually pulled its television feed in protest. In so doing, they were actually allowed access to the event. I had no idea that these organizations had any spines whatsoever, and were happy to simply do whatever they were told:
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning, initially barred reporters from her first meetings with world leaders Tuesday, but reversed course after they protested.(...)
CNN, which was providing the television coverage for news organizations, decided to pull its TV crew from the first meeting, with Karzai, effectively denying Palin the high visibility she had sought. But after the campaign agreed to let CNN's producer in as well, the CNN camera crew joined the session.
According to the CNN producer who was let into Karzai's hotel suite with the photographers just before noon, Karzai was talking about his son. Palin was nodding, and asked what his name is. Karzai replied his name was Mirwais and explained that it means light of the house.
The media were escorted out after about 40 seconds.
Campaign aides subsequently announced that reporters would be allowed to accompany photographers into the later sessions with Uribe and Kissinger.
Wow, this is an actual hopeful sign that the press is getting sick of the way they are being treated by the McCain campaign, and by the abject cynicism of choosing a one-line photo-op as a Vice-President. There is a logical conclusion to how the press should continue to treat the McCain campaign:
Subject -- attacks on the New York Times. I'm sure there's a simple answer to this, and it's just eluding me: If the McCain campaign says, on the record and before the national press, that the New York Times is not a legitimate news organization, or a journalistic enterprise at all, but a political action committee working for Obama (and that is what Steve Schmidt said to reporters; listen to it...) then why does the Times have to treat the McCain crew as a "normal" campaign organization, rather than a bunch of rogue operators willing to say absolutely anything to gain power and lie to the nation once in office?
If you are constantly insulted and deligitimized by one campaign, why continue to cover that campaign at all? If someone is scoring points off you by insulting you, how can you respect yourself if you just keep doing what that person tells you to do? Stand up and show some respect for yourselves. CNN has taken the first positive step in that direction.
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