the kicker

Heckuva Job, Brownie

Perhaps you watched that now-infamous Campbell Brown interview of (McCain aide) Tucker Bounds and concluded that CNN’s Brown was doing her job. You know, asking questions. Pressing for specifics. (What decisions did Palin make as head of the Alaska National Guard?) Maria Comella, a spokesperson for the McCain campaign, saw things differently, explaining the campaign’s […]

September 3, 2008

Perhaps you watched that now-infamous Campbell Brown interview of (McCain aide) Tucker Bounds and concluded that CNN’s Brown was doing her job. You know, asking questions. Pressing for specifics. (What decisions did Palin make as head of the Alaska National Guard?) Maria Comella, a spokesperson for the McCain campaign, saw things differently, explaining the campaign’s decision to cancel McCain’s appearance on another CNN show as follows:

After a relentless refusal by certain on-air reporters to come to terms with John McCain’s selection of Alaska’s sitting governor as our party’s nominee for vice president, we decided John McCain’s time would be better served elsewhere.

Why? Why do you “relentlessly refuse” to “come to terms” with McCain’s choice of a running-mate, Campbell Brown? When will you learn to accept this choice and, you know, move on. (Psst, stop asking questions!)

Joe Klein, over at Time’s Swampland, is urging reporters to betray their instincts and buck up in the face of the McCain camp’s “war against the press:”

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is “a task from God.” The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.