McCain aide: Reporters ‘have to earn’ special interview area seat on new ’straight talk’ airplane.
McCain aide: Reporters ‘have to earn’ special interview area seat on new ’straight talk’ airplane.
The Washington Post reports that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is now traveling in a new “Straight Talk Express” campaign airplane. It “features a special area” with “a couch and two captain’s chairs” where “McCain will conduct group interviews with the press.” But not all reporters covering McCain can enjoy this new lap of luxury. Top McCain aide Mark Salter said “‘only the good reporters’ would get to sit in the specially-configured section for interviews. ‘You’ll have to earn it,’ he said.” So how can these reporters “earn” a seat? Never challenge the Senator, as McCain biographer Matt Welch explained in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times:
[McCain is] very open to people. You can come on the bus, everything is great but if he knows or if his team knows that you have a hostile line of questioning or you have a long and well documented critique, they’re not going to talk to you. […]
As a human, he’s haunted by the notion of honesty and about honor and truth. He wishes that he could speak the truth all the time. He doesn’t. I don’t think he speaks the truth any more than any other politician really, no more, no less.
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Can you guess how they must “earn” it? My guess is blind devotion to McCain. Who says McCain isn’t George W. Bush?
McCain and all of the GOP and neocons just don’t get it. We are better than this - and them. They are toast in the general election short of Diebold stealing every vote or Bush declaring marshall law and locking up the other candidates - can you say dictator.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:17 pmYet, the MSM will continue to tout him as the “straight talk express, the maverick”, and whatever other pure BULLSHIT the masses are supposed to consume.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:19 pmThey have to promise they will not ask probing questions about McCain saying he didn’t love his country until he was in his thirties - about his defaulting on the real estate taxes for one of his seven residences - about Cindy McCain’s family business and their son, who lobbied against MADD - or about his countless reversals of opinion.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:19 pmI CAN’T WAIT UNTIL HE LOSES IN NOVEMBER. THE END OF THIS NIGHTMARE CAN’T END SOON ENOUGH.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:20 pm“But not all reporters covering McCain can enjoy this new lap of luxury”.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:22 pmApparently, a new form of lap dancing has emerged.
Gee, does this sound like someone else we ‘have known and loved’ for the past 7 1/2 years? Mr. Bubble-Boy his very own self.
And I wonder if Jeff Gannon gets to sit in the good seats?
June 30th, 2008 at 4:22 pmMugabe -McCain. Eliminate opposing “dialogue”.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:25 pmFrom being a war criminal in the US war of aggression against the people of Vietnam in the 1960s and the 1970s, to being a cheerleader for Bush’s wars of aggression against the people of Afghanistan and the people of Iraq, to songsinging, “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” Old John McContortionist is ready play King Bush the Third to loyal suckup reporters. What a Sir Prize…
June 30th, 2008 at 4:26 pmHow is it that we can even begin to point to “our” form of democracy and “freedom” as an example for the world to aspire to when we continue to look like a communist block country?
June 30th, 2008 at 4:27 pm…if he knows or if his team knows that you have a hostile line of questioning or you have a long and well documented critique, they’re not going to talk to you.
On the “Straight Talk Express”, you better not express any criticism.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:33 pmHopefully they have a spitoon for those who don’t swallow.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:34 pmSo all of the MSM will be able to sit and chit chat with the old man because they don`t challenge him in any way shape or form about his flipflopping and other issues.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:34 pmSo it’s official. McCain only wants to be surrounded by suck-ups. And we’re supposed to believe that he isn’t a Bush clone?
June 30th, 2008 at 4:35 pmearn = blind loyalty, i.e., drink the kool-aid
I’m baaaack.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:36 pmHad a nice, relaxful vacation. Back to work today, mostly catching up on backed up paperwork, and the onslaught of people.
christopher wiwi Says:
So all of the MSM will be able to sit and chit chat with the old man because they don`t challenge him in any way shape or form about his flipflopping and other issues.
Ya think Faux will have a permanent seat assigned up there?
June 30th, 2008 at 4:37 pmOh, puh-lease.
Just what America needs! 4 more years of the leg-humping, bootlicking press.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:38 pmWB Unka Ho! We missed U
June 30th, 2008 at 4:39 pmUncle Ho,
June 30th, 2008 at 4:39 pmNice to see you back. Hope it was a great vacation! Would like to do the same soon.
Just don’t let him pilot it, 5 planes and an aircraft carrier are enough to crash.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:42 pmSo by ‘Straight Talk’ they mean non-homosexual? He doesn’t speak the truth? I want honesty even in politicians, but how do you trust someone who not only doesn’t speak the truth, but admits to it? So what you’re saying is that McCain cannot be trusted. He wants to keep his ferocious temper under wraps as long as possible, so no tough questions. Someone like that isn’t fit for the Office of the Presidency.If he’s starting suppression of free press now, what’s it going to be like when he has power?
Lord, please help me to deal with the continued spiral toward idiocracy. God, please guide me to tolerate those who say, “I can’t speak the truth, trust me.”
God, please help us.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:43 pmFor all of Sen. McCain’s missed votes (while he rides the Straight Talk bus and plane), I’m dubbing him:
McSkip.
whoops. There goes my seat.
I understand those seats come engraved with the Fox News slogan.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:43 pmWelcome back uncle Ho!
June 30th, 2008 at 4:43 pmIt’s all about ACCESS, doncha know. These scummy reporters will be no better than a stenographer for Pravda. But they’ll do it cuz they like the bar-b-que and they don’t want to get Gramps mad at them. Well…that and their bosses. Their bosses want that access, too. What I don’t understand is that generating ‘heat,’ which is what these MSM typies want - isn’t it? - isn’t going to happen on the Snooze Fest Express. Sorry, Pappy, but YOU are the one that needs to earn our trust, and it ain’t gonna happen this way!
June 30th, 2008 at 4:47 pmto all; thanks for all the WBs. Didn’t think that I would be missed that much.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:48 pmAnd once a (laugh a minute) reporter dutifully scribes the wisdom of McCan’t, can we just approach it like a train wreck and simply look the other way. If we know the names of the people on the bus, we can totally discount anything they write.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:49 pmUncle Ho Says:
to all; thanks for all the WBs. Didn’t think that I would be missed that much.
Forget that; what did you brings us back from your vaca? Something good, I hope…
June 30th, 2008 at 4:53 pmFor some reason my thoughts run to a Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns ran for public office.
Lisa (who didn’t like the environmental record) was upset that she “got” to ask Mr. Burns a question. She was then handed a script for a question something like:
Mr Burns, your campaign is running like a runaway locomotive. How do you explain your success ?
June 30th, 2008 at 4:55 pmIn 2000, the press fell in love with the Governor from Texas aboard his campaign plane. He would playfully roll oranges down the aisle, and made up cutsy little nicknames for them all. For meals, they would have the choice of three different gourmet dinners.
Meanwhile, the poor saps on Al Gore’s plane had to listen to Gore drone on about critical issues and national policy, while munching on cold cut sandwiches.
This is how the media decided who should be president in 2000.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:57 pmDefending McCain’s leadership preparation, a moment ago Fox had a veterans group spokesperson on who says that McCain later commanded the largest Navy squadron after his POW experience. Yes, that would be a training wing in Florida. Isn’t that where his extra-marital affairs took place?
June 30th, 2008 at 4:58 pmStalin would be proud.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:59 pmleftcoast Says:
Isn’t that where his extra-marital affairs took place?
Well, Republicans prefer to say he redefined his family values.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:08 pmAs would Goebbels.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:09 pmThis ‘preferred seating’ is the same crap as G W Bush pulls at his so-called press conferences and other photo-ops. Only the well fed, well dressed, smiling faces with well rehearsed (and accepted) questions and remarks need apply.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:10 pmwho is the ELITIST now, media shills?
June 30th, 2008 at 5:17 pmGee, I wonder if he’ll have Helen Thomas in his “straight” talk area…
NOW we get to see the McSAME tactics as Bush/PNAC/War Criminals, deja vu all over again…
Except this time, only the 18 %ers are still drinkin’ the RapeubliNazi kool aid…
June 30th, 2008 at 5:21 pmThe Military Industrial Media does love it some Suck Talk Express.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:24 pmEarn as in, they need to bribe you with nothing but Positive Reporting on McSame, is that what you’re saying?
Now if Rogered up the arse were to type this it would be..
Ern asin…there need too brid yoo with nohing butt positave reporten on my hero, is thatwhat yoour sayin…
I swear, he must be a 12 year old with a 4th grade education.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:25 pmBJ’s or cash?
June 30th, 2008 at 5:37 pmucsbclassics53 Says:
who is the ELITIST now, media shills?
Nobody says McCain is an elitist. So, when he acts like an elitist, he is being a Maverick by going against the accepted wisdom that he is not an elitist.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:40 pmj swift Says:
BJ’s or cash?
YES
June 30th, 2008 at 5:40 pmj swift Says:
BJ’s or cash?
Viagra, BJs, and cash.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pmWell that certainly segues nicely into this post doesn’t it?
June 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pmhttp://www.tagg-lines.com/ 2008/ 06/ extinction-of-fourth-estate.html
I believe the expression is:
Ass, Gas or Grass - Nobody rides for free!
Welcome back to the 70’s, Grampy!
June 30th, 2008 at 5:43 pmIt’s also knowm as the softball section of the plane. Keep tossing those sweet lobs, so McCain can “straight talk” them out of the park!
June 30th, 2008 at 5:57 pmshoeless Says:
Nobody says McCain is an elitist. So, when he acts like an elitist, he is being a Maverick by going against the accepted wisdom that he is not an elitist.
Ahhh! more of McMaverickism…thanks shoeless, that made a LOT of sense…
June 30th, 2008 at 6:32 pmNow we need to learn from newspaper and magazine ombudsmen exactly which poodles are allowed in the special section, and hound ‘em every time they start giving McCain a tongue-bath.
June 30th, 2008 at 6:41 pmWow. McCain is the definition of “elitist”. Can’t wait for the MSM to attack him for his elitism!! Hmm… oh, wait. They never criticize McCain, I forgot. But we all know– McCain– the worst elitist politician anywhere! Earn your seat!! I pay no taxes on my house! I use my wife’s plane! I curse & defame my wife! I flip-flop on almost an hourly basis! But love me, please!
June 30th, 2008 at 7:42 pm#celtic cynic Says:
This ‘preferred seating’ is the same crap as G W Bush pulls at his so-called press conferences and other photo-ops. Only the well fed, well dressed, smiling faces with well rehearsed (and accepted) questions and remarks need apply.
It’s the same thing as what McBush is doing with his “town hall” meetings. They are invitation only and the crowd is fed the questions their handlers want them to ask McBush. That’s probably why Obama won’t agree to “town hall” meetings with McBush, because he won’t agree that they will be come one come all with questions being spontaneous.
BTW, why isn’t Obama hitting on McCain’s refusal to meet with him in Lincoln/Douglass type debates?
June 30th, 2008 at 8:04 pmOn McCain’s campaign website. He had a challenge for people (supporting hacks) to earn (bronie” points by going out hand dogging web sites and blogs. Sort of making his arguement for him and defending him on these sites.
They would earn points for doing it.
So for his adoring press very willing to please him. They can earn something for pleasing him the most.
Just think how McCain would work his 300 million dollar prize for a battery to fuel a car?
July 1st, 2008 at 2:01 am.
But does the McMedia get McDoh-Nutz…?
.
July 1st, 2008 at 2:15 amI served in Viet Nam as an infantryman in 1970. Can I be a war criminal too?
July 6th, 2008 at 8:33 amOnly the reporters who ask the questions that are easy and don’t make him look dumb.
The reporters that ask, “Why did you vote against insurance provided birth control, yet support insurance provided Viagra?”
Those reporters will be sitting on the sidelines….
July 21st, 2008 at 7:00 pmI hope every journalist who gets an interview is asked what exactly they did to “earn” a seat on those comfortable, reclining, decadent couches. Can we say ‘bordello journalism’ in a subtile fashion?
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:45 pm