Obama’s New Yorker Payback?
By Don | July 22, 2008
The Washington correspondent for the New Yorker was denied the opportunity to accompany Barack Obama on his overseas trip due to space contstraints though some see a more sinister motive.
From MediaBistro.
A line slipped in near the end of Mike Allen's Politico article about the media coverage of Barack Obama's overseas trip, is making some waves. Per Allen: "Among those for whom there was no room was Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent of The New Yorker. The campaign, which was furious about the magazine's satirical cover this week, cited space constraints in turning him away." (Hmm, sort of like the time John McCain neglected to invite the NYT to his health records viewing party.) Over at Eat the Press Rachel Sklar says the decision "sends a clear — and worrisome — signal from the Obama campaign: If we don't like it, man, will you know it." A decision, she points out, which merely reinforces a quote made in Lizza's (amazingly researched, though not terribly flattering) article : "[Obama] earned a reputation that "'you're not going to punk me, you're not going to roll me over, you're not going to jam me.'"
It should be noted The New Yorker was not the only one cut out of the "Trip of the Century"; 200 people applied and only 40 were allocated spots. That said, The New Yorker is hardly your average magazine. As Gawker's Ryan Tate points out,
Given the New Yorker's circulation, influence and often heroic coverage of not only politics but also the war in Iraq (George Packer), U.S. intelligence and covert military operations (Seymour Hersh, Steve Coll), American torture (Jane Mayer) and the inner workings of the Bush administration, it's hard to see the snub as anything other than payback.
Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. Bu the timing is awfully suspicious.
3 Comments | Post a Comment
LBJ, Blogger 1947? The Chosen One reminds me more of Tricky Dick. Except that his agents are actually very effective in their dirty tricks, unlike Nixon’s, who were relatively incompetent.
Obama scares the hell out of me.
Tara, I listened to a few hours of the LBJ tapes when they were broadcast on CNN radio, and it’s on that knowledge that I based my comment.
As to Nixon, you may be right, but I’ve heard far fewer of his private conversations.
Both of them were stinkers.
July 23 at 10:45 am | #1 | Link
There is no bit of chicanery too devious to be attributed to Obama. That’s even more frightening than his inexperience and immaturity.
As President, he would be as much of a behind-closed-doors shark as LBJ was. And if you’ve ever listened to LBJ’s taped phone conversations, you will realize that’s a very high hurdle.