Campaign-trail reporters sidelined: Both campaigns shield candidates from traveling press

[DeepModem Mom]

Politico: Campaign-trail reporters sidelined
By MIKE ALLEN & CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 9/18/08

The flocks of campaign reporters who fly around the country with the presidential candidates have been more sidelined in the 2008 campaign than any in generations, sealed off from any meaningful access to either Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). On Air Obama, reporters gawk at him moving around up front, talking with aides or on a cell phone, but can only guess what he is saying or thinking. On Straight Talk Air, the flying McCain campaign, aides draw the curtains so that not even glimpses are possible.

Not only do the reporters have little interaction with the candidates, but increasingly they are having little impact on the broad campaign narratives and daily story lines that supply most voters with their impressions of the candidates. That's more often taking place in cable studios or on Web sites far removed from the ceaseless grind of the press bubble — in which reporters schlump on and off the plane, in and out of buses and gymnasiums-turned-filing centers, several times a day, dozens of times a week. A combination of technology and iron message discipline by heavily centralized campaigns has consigned these reporters – once the storied “boys on the bus” – largely to feeding off the public material available to almost anyone over the Web, with very little interaction with the next president of the United States.

McCain has not spoken to the press corps that follows him in five weeks, or invited national reporters onto his bus in more than two months. When reporters asked McCain’s traveling adviser, Steve Duprey, to bring the candidate back to talk to them, Duprey went up to the front of the plane and returned – WEARING A MCCAIN MASK. And Obama is available to the press corps in spurts – most recently, for an availability in Ohio eight days ago. He has had five press availabilities in the three weeks since the Democratic convention, several of them focused on Hurricane Gustav....

***

Officials of both campaigns said they had become exasperated with what they consider the petty controversies or insider minutia that is the obsession of the on-the-plane reporters, and didn’t want to take a chance of creating a story that would override the story they were trying to tell with their staged, scripted events.

Obama aides have said he has been willing to come back to the press cabin to chit-chat off the record, but the reporters have been reluctant to agree to that, since they aren’t able to get their questions answered on the record at other times in the day....

***

On Tuesday, reporters aboard Straight Talk Air tried to persuade the staff to bring the candidate back to talking to them chanting, “Bring Mac back! Bring Mac back!” Campaign aides up in the business seats smiled and then promptly closed the curtain between business and coach, where the press sits....

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=736F8A9B-18FE-70B2-A8BA6D16E621CC70

[Captain Hilts]

1. Reagan and Bush proved it works. Sad.

FDR: We invited the press to go swimming with us.
ER: Yes, we did. Not a pretty picture in the pool.

[CoffeeCat]

2. I think both camps are wrong...

I think it's wrong for both camps to shut out the press.

There has to be a middle ground--where you regularly talk with the press, without
providing them access to every thing you say.

Obama doesn't need to hide. I think he needs to increase his accessibility and
answer more questions. In my opinion, the more he speaks and the more than Americans
hear from Obama--that helps Obama.

McCain has a lot to hide. We all know he's an ass. Our stellar, affable, intelligent
candidate should not be implementing the same tactics as that old, awkward curmudgeon.

Plus, being more accessibly fosters a healthy relationship with the press, and that
could lead to better coverage.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Agree on all points! nt