Shorter Howard Kurtz: Well, ok, so none of the African American women who are reporters on the Michelle Obama beat have gotten interviews with her since the inauguration. And ok, so "no one raises questions when an Irish American male reporter covers a pol named Murphy." But all these African American women are still probably going too easy on Michelle Obama. Because she's black! And they're black! And she's a woman! And they're women!
As Adam Serwer says:
More importantly, you would never ever see a media critic like Kurtz questioning the ability of white men to cover other white men objectively, or for that matter the ability of white men to cover women or people of color, despite the fact that if newsroom coverage were to be affected, it would be by the prevailing cultural biases of the better represented population in the newsroom.
But why would Kurtz question white men? After all, he's a white man, and he's never had the appearance of being sympathetic to a white male candidate. Cold, clear-eyed assessment, that's him:
After McCain held a media barbecue at his cabin near Sedona, Columbia Journalism Review seems to have developed indigestion, especially since it was on the record but political questions were discouraged:
"Such ground rules must go down easier with a tour of the grounds and a plateful of McCain-made ribs. (While, apparently, 'objectivity prohibits a good reporter' like Reuters' Jeff Mason from telling readers how tasty McCain's ribs were, CBS's Dante Higgins 'is confident in reporting they were succulent and flavorful').
"In return for dropping 'political talk,' reporters got their candidate-cooked meal. And a tire swing. And Frank Sinatra tunes on the deck.
"And McCain, in return, got press coverage depicting a relaxed, confident, regular-like-you-and-me-but-also-very-much-in-charge guy holding court at what could well be, as so many reporters noted, the future Western White House. (Could rib-grilling be the new brush-clearing? Just as manly -- and sticks to reporters' ribs!)"
There might be a morsel of a complaint here if journalists didn't get much chance to ask McCain serious questions. But he's the most accessible presidential candidate in modern history. Hillary had one dinner with her press corps, but it was off the record. And my sources say she didn't cook.
In fact, Kurtz had a lot to say about McCain's accessibility to reporters...like Howard Kurtz.
In conclusion: It's unreasonable to suggest impropriety when John McCain has reporters over to his house and cooks for them. It is reasonable, however, to wonder if the beat reporters who slog along behind Michelle Obama waiting outside the closed doors of her events are favoring her because of shared race and gender.
That, my friends (McCain shout-out!), is Village logic.
