Freedom of Speech: Endangered

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2004
Freedom of Speech: Endangered
32
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 9:09am

Press Not Allowed To Ask Biden Tough Questions!

Obama campaign cuts off WFTV after interview with Joe Bidenposted by halboedeker on Oct 24, 2008 11:12:15 AM



WFTV-Channel 9's Barbara West conducted a satellite interview with Sen. Joe Biden on Thursday. A friend says it's some of the best entertainment he's seen recently. What do you think?


West wondered about Sen. Barack Obama's comment, to Joe the Plumber, about spreading the wealth. She quoted Karl Marx and asked how Obama isn't being a Marxist with the "spreading the wealth" comment.


"Are you joking?" said Biden, who is Obama's running mate. "No," West said.


West later asked Biden about his comments that Obama could be tested early on as president. She wondered if the Delaware senator was saying America's days as the world's leading power were over.


"I don't know who's writing your questions," Biden shot back.


Biden so disliked West's line of questioning that the Obama campaign canceled a WFTV interview with Jill Biden, the candidate's wife.



"This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election," wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.


McGinnis said the Biden cancellation was "a result of her husband's experience yesterday during the satellite interview with Barbara West."


Here's a link to the interview: http://www.wftv.com/video/17790025/index.html.


WFTV news director Bob Jordan said, "When you get a shot to ask these candidates, you want to make the most of it. They usually give you five minutes."


Jordan said political campaigns in general pick and choose the stations they like. And stations often pose softball questions during the satellite interviews.


"Mr. Biden didn't like the questions," Jordan said. "We choose not to ask softball questions."


Jordan added, "I'm crying foul on this one."


What did you think of the interview?



Filed under: WFTV
Obama campaign cuts off WFTV after interview with Joe Bidenposted by halboedeker on Oct 24, 2008 11:12:15 AM



WFTV-Channel 9's Barbara West conducted a satellite interview with Sen. Joe Biden on Thursday. A friend says it's some of the best entertainment he's seen recently. What do you think?


West wondered about Sen. Barack Obama's comment, to Joe the Plumber, about spreading the wealth. She quoted Karl Marx and asked how Obama isn't being a Marxist with the "spreading the wealth" comment.


"Are you joking?" said Biden, who is Obama's running mate. "No," West said.


West later asked Biden about his comments that Obama could be tested early on as president. She wondered if the Delaware senator was saying America's days as the world's leading power were over.


"I don't know who's writing your questions," Biden shot back.


Biden so disliked West's line of questioning that the Obama campaign canceled a WFTV interview with Jill Biden, the candidate's wife.



"This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election," wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.


McGinnis said the Biden cancellation was "a result of her husband's experience yesterday during the satellite interview with Barbara West."


Here's a link to the interview: http://www.wftv.com/video/17790025/index.html.


WFTV news director Bob Jordan said, "When you get a shot to ask these candidates, you want to make the most of it. They usually give you five minutes."


Jordan said political campaigns in general pick and choose the stations they like. And stations often pose softball questions during the satellite interviews.


"Mr. Biden didn't like the questions," Jordan said. "We choose not to ask softball questions."


Jordan added, "I'm crying foul on this one."


What did you think of the interview?



Filed under: WFTV
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 1:56pm

I suppose you feel the same way about the McCain campaign sheltering Palin from the press, until the press agreed to show "deference" to her ?

Since when should politicians RELATIVES be forced to interview with every journalist who asks ?

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2008
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 2:10pm
rotfl

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 2:25pm

Hyperbole.

Does it help to post the exact same "cut and paste" TWICE? Were you equally incensed about the way that the McCain campaign controlled Sarah Palin's interviews with media? Whose freedoms of speech were constrained?

I personally feel that candidates can and should be grilled. If they can't stand the heat, the pressure cooker White House is not the place they should occupy. The chance to get an honest, unvarnished answer from those who want to be in positions of power for at least four years should NEVER be passed up. But I also object strenuously to those who frame questions in such a way that answers can be used as "gotcha" fodder. The old "have you stopped beating your wife?" question comes to mind as an example. Such interviewers aren't journalists, they're talking heads with an agenda, looking for ways to score points for themselves and their party. The whole picture will never be portrayed by them.

Gettingahandle


Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.


Facts stifle the will, hobble conviction.

Gettingahandle

Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2008
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 2:39pm

ITA


(looking on with amusement after watching Palin herself participate in a televised spoof re: the media's lack of access to her and attempts to control them)

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-04-2003
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 3:05pm

HUH??!!??!!


Freedom of speech means that people can generally say what they want (also, it means that they also have to

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-13-2008
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 4:09pm

You laugh... even now she is in parka and earmuffs, learning her mushers. Oh, wait... that is her preparing for her next interview.


My bad.


Full length fiction: worlds undone

"You have no power over my body..." ~ Anne Hutchinson

Community Leader
Registered: 09-14-1997
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 4:15pm
Uh, I think you confused the First Amendment with the Fifth Amendment. If, and I repeat, if there was a chance that Mrs. Biden was going to say something that would hurt the campaign, her not speaking would be invoking her 5th amendment right to not speak. Okay, so technically that is self incrimination, but the First amendment is a person's right to speak freely. Mrs. Biden still has that right.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-04-2003
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 4:27pm

<>


We'll bear that in mind when Palin avoids talking to the press.


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-30-2008
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 5:05pm
>>Not only do such acts
Avatar for songwright
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-28-1997
Sun, 10-26-2008 - 6:07pm

You know, this kind of loopy logic might mean that Karl Rove Endangered 'Free Speech' when he refused to answer those subpoenas......

~ SW

~ SW