repug hypocrisy knows no bounds

Ignoring McCain’s War Against The Press, Giuliani Criticizes Obama For Freezing Out Hostile Network

After right-wing Florida news anchor Barbara West conducted a “hostile” and “ham-handed” interview with Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) last week, the Obama-Biden campaign canceled an interview that Biden’s wife Jill was set to do with West’s network, WFTV. The campaign also “suggested that future interviews with WFTV were unlikely before Election Day.”

Since then, Fox News has latched onto the cancellation, implying that it means Obama and Biden are unwilling to face “tough and critical questions.” On Fox and Friends this morning, McCain surrogate Rudy Giuliani claimed that “it gives an indication of what an Obama administration would be like”:

QUESTION: And so do you think it’s correct for the Obama campaign to shut out that news outlet, then, and say you will no longer get access to the Obama campaign?

GIULIANI: No. I think it gives an indication of what an Obama administration would be like. I mean, as long as you drink their Kool-Aid, you’re fine. I mean, you’re going to be treated nicely. But if you should ask them an obvious question, I mean, it’s Barack Obama who used the expression spread the wealth. Joe the Plumber didn’t say that to him.

Giuliani’s feigned concern for the plight of the press in gaining access to presidential candidates is ironic given that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) efforts to restrict media access have been compared to those of the regimes in North Korea, Syria, and Sudan. In fact, during its ongoing war against the press, the McCain campaign has routinely punished journalists it views as hostile by cutting off their access:

– Last month, the McCain campaign barred New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd from flying on both the McCain and Palin press planes.

– Time Magazine’s Joe Klein revealed last week that he too had been barred from traveling with the McCain campaign, telling Politico’s Michael Calderone that the campaign began freezing him out after he asked McCain an uncomfortable question about foreign policy.

– During the Republican National Convention, McCain canceled an appearance on CNN’s Larry King Live after CNN’s Campbell Brown persistently asked flustered McCain flack Tucker Bounds about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s foreign policy experience and qualifications.

– When Newsweek wrote a cover story in May examining the hardball tactics conservatives might use in the general election, the McCain campaign “threatened to throw the magazine’s reporters off the campaign bus and airplane.”

The McCain campaign’s press punishment doesn’t end with just cutting off access. At one point, campaign staffers “even considered pulling out of one of the three presidential debates because it would be moderated by Tom Brokaw, a former NBC News anchorman.” Apparently Giuliani doesn’t believe that such belligerence towards the media gives any “indication” of what a McCain administration would be like.

(Think Progress)