The McCain campaign has a new ad out attacking Obama’s legislative record. It begins with a voice-over:
“On the biggest financial issue of the day,” the phantom voice declares, “Barack Obama would not say if he supported or opposed the government-backed rescue of insurance giant AIG.”
Well. The voice, it turns out, belongs to Fox News’s Major Garrett. And, this morning, Politico’s Michael Calderone reports, the network sent a cease-and-desist letter to the McCain campaign:
“We demand that you immediately remove Mr. Garrett’s voice from this ad. As Mr. Garrett is a non-partisan news correspondent covering the Obama campaign for Fox News, it is highly inappopriate [sic], among other things, of your campaign to use him in your ad.”
One could point out a strain of irony in the indignant tone of the letter, particularly given the fact that the line between “accountability journalism” and anti-Obama bias is a fine one in the Garrett comment in question. Still, though, kudos to Garrett et al for taking a stand against campaign stooge-ery.
Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.