The McCain campaign is fighting mad about Andrea Mitchell’s comments about the candidate on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” and it’s asking NBC News President Steve Capus for a meeting.
In a letter sent Sunday, first reported by Politico.com, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis accused Ms. Mitchell of “a pattern … of simply repeating Obama campaign talking points” and objected strongly to a question she asked.
“We are extremely disappointed to see that the level of objectivity at NBC News has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain,” said the letter.
NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ms. Mitchell referred comments to NBC News officials.
Ms. Mitchell’s comments followed appearances by Sen. McCain and Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama Saturday night to answer questions from evangelical pastor Rick Warren at Orange County, Calif.’s Saddleback Church. Sen. Obama answered first and was followed by Sen. McCain.
The letter concerned Ms. Mitchell’s suggestion that Sen. McCain heard Sen. Obama’s remarks before making his appearance to answer questions. The letter said Sen. McCain was in a motorcade and then in a “green room” and hadn’t heard Sen. Obama speak.
Ms. Mitchell’s comment:
“The Obama people must feel that he didn’t do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared.”
Mr. Davis, in the letter to Mr. Capus, ripped Ms. Mitchell’s suggestion.
“Make no mistake: This is a serious charge. Andrea Mitchell is repeating, uncritically, a completely unsubstantiated Obama campaign claim that John McCain somehow cheated in last night’s forum at Saddleback Church,” he wrote.
“Instead of trying to substantiate this blatant falsehood, … Andrea Mitchell felt that she needed to repeat it on air to millions of ‘Meet the Press’ viewers with no indication that (1) There’s not one shred of evidence that it’s true; (2) In his official correspondence to both campaigns, Pastor Rick Warren provided both candidates with information regarding the topic areas to be covered, which Barack Obama acknowledged during the forum when asked about Pastor Warren’s idea of an emergency plan for orphans and Obama said, ‘I cheated a little bit. I actually looked at this idea ahead of time, and I think it is a great idea’; (3) John McCain actually requested that he and Barack Obama do the forum together on stage at the same time, making these kinds of after-the-fact complaints moot.
“This is irresponsible journalism and, sadly, indicative of the level of objectivity we have witnessed from NBC News this election cycle. We are concerned that your news division is following MSNBC’s lead in abandoning nonpartisan coverage of the presidential race. We would like to request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss our deep concerns about the news standards and level of objectivity at NBC.”
Read the complete post at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/tvweek/News/~3/368352307/mccain_campaign_complains_to_a.php
Posted
Mon, Aug 18 2008 2:53 PM
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