McCain Press Banned From Obama Plane
Friday, October 31, 2008 12:05 PM
By: Rick Pedraza
In what many are saying might be a disturbing sign of things to come if Sen. Barack Obama becomes the nation’s 44th president, the Democratic nominee’s campaign tossed several McCain-endorsing reporters from traveling on its plane.
Reporters from the Washington Times, New York Post and Dallas Morning News will be left stranded for the remainder of the race after being refused boarding passes by the Obama staff.
According to The Times, reporter Christina Bellatoni — who has been covering Obama since 2007 and has been traveling with him throughout the presidential campaign — has been told there no longer is room for her on the plane during the final days of the election.
The New York Post and Dallas Morning News, both of which have endorsed Republican rival John McCain for president and have written critical articles about Obama, also were given the boot, according to a Drudge report.
Washington Times Executive Editor John Solomon tells FOXNews.com that the reason he was given for his reporter being deplaned was “lack of space.”
In an email sent by Obama campaign Senior Advisor and Chief Communications Officer Anita Dunn, Solomon was informed that, "Unfortunately, demand for seats on the plane during this final weekend has far exceeded supply, and because of logistical issues we made the decision not to add a second plane. This means we've had to make hard and unpleasant for all concerned decisions about limiting some news organizations and in some cases not being in a position to offer space to news organizations altogether."
A stunned Solomon says the explanation makes no sense to him at all.
"We've been traveling since 2007 with [Obama],” Solomon tells FOXNews.com. “We're a relevant newspaper — every day we break news. To suddenly be kicked off the plane for people who haven't covered it as aggressively or thoroughly as we are ... it sort of feels unfair."
For its part, the Obama campaign tried to defend its decision by saying it respected the reporting of The Times, The Post and the Morning News, but simply can’t accommodate all comers on the final leg of the campaign’s home stretch. It also noted that it till allows some news media critical of Obama to continue traveling aboard the campaign plane, including Fox News.
"There are simply no more seats on Senator Obama’s plane," Dunn reiterates. "There are press seats available on Senator Biden’s plane for travel this final weekend and the Washington Times is encouraged to include our vice presidential nominee in your coverage plans for this final stretch."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton says the valuable seats taken from the ousted reporters have been filled by a film crew documenting the final days of the Obama campaign, and staff from Obama’s hometown papers, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, as well as Ebony and Jet magazines, also published in Chicago, Politico reports.
“This feels like the journalist equivalent of redistributing the wealth,” Solomon says. “We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars covering Senator Obama's campaign, traveling on his plane, and taking our turn in the reporter's pool, only to have our seat given away to someone else in the last days of the campaign.
"I can only hope that the candidate who describes himself as wanting to unite the nation doesn't have some sort of litmus test for who he decides gets to cover the campaign," Solomon says, noting that the decision to boot his reporter came just two days after The Times endorsed McCain.
Blocking access to members of the media critical of the junior senator from Illinois isn’t a first for the campaign. During Obama’s infamous foreign field trip to Europe and the Middle East this past summer, New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza — whose scathing article on Obama’s early days in Chicago politics resulted in the controversial magazine cover illustration satirically depicting Obama as a Muslim fist-bumping his militant wife Michelle — was barred from traveling on Obama’s plane.
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