"Gotcha" Journalism

Remember this?

The question was is it fair for health insurance companies to cover Viagra but not cover birth control pills.  It was asked by Maeve Reston, a reporter for the LA Times, on the McCain campaign bus.  Sen. McCain, clearly uncomfortable with the question squirms for a while before summoning the wherewithal to address the topic by saying he doesn't know how he feels or how he voted in the past, but will get back to Ms. Reston.

Reston writes about that exchange vis-a-vis the McCain campaign's now limited access of reporters to the candidate, in the LA Times today.  David Kurtz at Talking Points Memo is snarky about the sad "My Boyfriend Has Changed" tone to the piece but I thought it was a good explanation of why the press has lionized McCain previously, which I just never understood.

This passage is telling.

At the time of that July bus ride with McCain, there was broad disagreement among his staff about whether the endless hours of questions were helping his quest for the White House.

In the driveway of the airport motel on the evening of the Viagra question, McCain's aides made an argument that would shape their attitude over the next four months: If reporters were going to ask about issues that they deemed irrelevant to voters, why should the campaign give them access to the candidate at all?

Salter told me I had made the case for those who thought McCain should curtail his exposure to the press.

McCain aide Brooke Buchanan sarcastically asked whether contraception was next on my agenda. And Steve Duprey, the candidate's usually jovial traveling companion who often visited the press cabin bearing Twizzlers and chocolate, twisted my question into what I interpreted as an accusation of bias: "Are you going to ask Obama if he uses Viagra?"

I find this ridiculous.  That the question made McCain uncomfortable is beside the point.  It is a question that a good percentage of the voters would like an answer to and one a presidential candidate has an obligation to answer, discomfort aside.  McCain should have gotten over it.  He was a POW for God's sake!  This couldn't have been the hardest question he has had to answer.

Another interesting observation is the young vs. the old.  It's interesting that a young woman has no issue with asking the question, and an old man squirms.

Most notable is that the aide Buchanan conflates asking McCain about health care equity with asking if McCain uses Viagra.  This is a manipulation; one that the campaign no doubt used to limit press access of the apparently once garrulous McCain.  And dammit, further -- who are they to decide what is irrelevant to voters.  I'd like to hear his answer.  Just like I'd like to hear a coherent answer from Sarah Palin on just about anything.  But my ire at her pick is making me digress.

I hear a lot of disdain about "Gotcha" journalism.  It's my viewpoint that to avoid gotcha journalism, one has to remain consistent OR have a reasonable explanation for a change.  Pointing out inconsistencies in politicians is the job of the press, IMHO.