Per Politico, the late Tim Russert was one of several journalists who signed a June 6 letter to the Obama campaign complaining about stingy access to the candidate, about having been “misled” by aides who flew the press corps to Chicago without Obama, and threatening to withhold payment for that flight. (And this letter pre-dated the Washington Post‘s Anne Kornblut — the pool reporter trying to cover last night’s Obama fundraiser at Ethel Kennedy’s house — being stuck inside Kennedy’s pool house.)
Today the New York Times mentions in passing this letter (of which it is apparently not a signatory) in its piece, “Obama’s Campaign Tightens Control of Image and Access.” More from the Times:
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.Strategists for Mr. Obama, the country’s first black nominee, have made it clear that they believe they need to take extra steps to control his image and protect against attack. But such efforts at times appear to conflict with the candidate’s stated desire to be unusually transparent and open, and they have already occasionally put him at loggerheads with news organizations pushing for greater access to him now that he is the presumptive nominee.
