Reporter Says Obama/Biden Campaign Tried to Keep Him From Talking to Attendees at Canton, Ohio Rally
Updated below | Not only has the Obama administration failed to live up to its promise of "transparency," it appears the president's reelection campaign shares the same issue. Politico media reporter Dylan Byers noted this morning that "Joe Vardon, a reporter with the Columbus Dispatch, says campaign aides stopped him from speaking to voters at a rally featuring Vice President Joe Biden in Canton, Ohio, today."
"Reporters NOT ALLOWED to talk to voters at Biden/Canton event," Byers quoted a Vardon tweet, "Saddled up to two 'Scotts' — both white, mid-50s — campaign tapped me on shoulder, said I wasn't allowed." In an update subsequently filed a mere eight minutes later, Byers noted that "Amy Dudley, a spokeswoman for Vice President Biden, emails" the following:
This was a miscommunication on the ground. Any reporter is entirely free to speak with event attendees.
Really? You'd think one of the first things that campaign HQ would tell local operatives is not to tick off the press by forbidding them from, well, doing their job by barring them from asking questions to rally attendees at PUBLIC events.
Byers noted that Vardon says he has no similar complaints about the Romney/Ryan team:
Vardon noted that he was allowed to speak to voters at multiple events for Rep. Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate, last week.
Update (15:35): Perhaps it's understandable why Obama staffers don't want rally attendees talking to the press. Take Obama voter "Cinnamon," who told Dan Joseph of our sister site MRCTV last week that she thinks Romney would push the U.S. towards Chinese-style Communism and blow up the national debt:
