On Monday night, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly blasted the Hillary Clinton campaign for denying Daily Mail reporter David Martosko access to her campaign appearance in New Hampshire.
Speaking to Martosko himself, Kelly mocked the campaign for its “conflicting” explanations for him being unable to cover Clinton’s event and insisted that her campaign doesn’t “get to control” who reports on her candidacy with Martosko suggesting that such actions are “the kind of thing we see in other countries that we don’t want to emulate.”
Martokso explained that after he wrote some critical statements about Clinton’s campaign relaunch on Saturday he was denied access to two subsequent campaign events:
I arrived in Manchester last night after midnight and was told then like seven hours before I was supposed to show up for pool duty that they wanted a different person representing the pool for the campaign all day Monday. The pool in general is a very tight-knit organization. It is very loose but it’s a tight-knit group of professionals and to a man and woman they all said, no. The Clinton campaign does not get to choose who covers them. And that’s really the controversy today.
In response, Kelly mocked the Clinton campaign’s excuse for denying Martosko access because he’s “foreign press. And you responded by saying, there’s lots of foreign press and they’ve acted as pool before.”
The Daily Mail reporter insisted that the line being peddled by Clinton was because they don’t want to admit they don’t like the reporting by his publication:
That’s a red herring argument. I think the real reason is between dinner time yesterday, when they e-mailed me a confirmation saying you’re the pool reporter, and here’s where it go, and midnight when they changed their mind, they looked at our reporting and the Daily Mail is a very, sort of dogged, thorough reporting organization. And we don’t tend to show up and do what we’re told. We dig deep for stories and we find interesting stories, that our readers, that massive audience wants to read.
Martosko went one step further and argued that he was “embarrassed as a journalist to see how many journalists reported on Saturday only what the Clinton campaign wanted them to. But we have a duty to do more than that. And I think the Clinton campaign at this point doesn’t have a lot of tolerance for reporters who, you know, stray outside the lines.”
See relevant transcript below.
Fox News’ The Kelly File
June 15, 2015
MEGYN KELLY: David Martosko is the U.S. political editor for the Daily Mail and winner of the 2012 Edward R. Murrow award for writing and he is the reporter who was barred. David, thank you very much for being here. Just so the audience knows, you were the pool reporter for the day. And that’s what we have to do when the Clinton camp or any camp won’t let us all go. We select one and that person is responsible for reporting for the group and that’s the way it is always done. Not so for you. This morning when you tried to cover her event, what did they tell you?
DAVID MARTOSKO: Well, you know, I got there when I was told to get there. Quarter to 8:00 in the morning, I showed up in the parking lot and told them who I was and they said, “No, you can’t come.” Just for context, I arrived in Manchester last night after midnight and was told then like seven hours before I was supposed to show up for pool duty that they wanted a different person representing the pool for the campaign all day Monday.
The pool in general is a very tight-knit organization. It is very loose but it’s a tight-knit group of professionals and to a man and woman they all said, no. The Clinton campaign does not get to choose who covers them. And that’s really the controversy today.
KELLY: Correct. They don’t get to control that.
MARTOSKO: This is the kind of thing we see in other countries that we don’t want to emulate.
KELLY: They don’t get to control that. I mean, this is just one thing that she doesn’t get to control. She wants press covering her. That whole goal for politicians is to have the people covering them. And then we the press get this idea, but one of them is, who is going to go in there and represent us. And now the campaign, first they came out and they said, well, you’re foreign press. And you responded by saying, there’s lots of foreign press and they’ve acted as pool before.
MARTOSKO: That’s true. The Guardian, AFP, the French News Agency. You know, to say nothing of the fact that several other organizations are majority or partly owned by foreign interests. That’s a red herring argument. I think the real reason is between dinner time yesterday, when they e-mailed me a confirmation saying you’re the pool reporter, and here’s where it go, and midnight when they changed their mind, they looked at our reporting and the “Daily Mail” is a very, sort of dogged, thorough reporting organization. And we don’t tend to show up and do what we’re told. We dig deep for stories and we find interesting stories, that our readers, that massive audience wants to read.
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KELLY: What is your reaction to the reaction from the press pool? I mean, you know, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Financial Time[s], New York Daily News, Politico, Time, all joining -- Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, all joining in this statement tonight saying, “We have not yet had a clear explanation about why the pool reporter for today’s events was denied access. But any attempt by the campaign to dictate who is in the pool is unacceptable.” The pool is open to any print organization willing to take part. They stand shoulder to shoulder with you tonight to say to Hillary Clinton’s camp, no.
MARTOSKO: Well, they should, frankly. Every reporter from every news organization whether you like the Clintons or not should stand shoulder to shoulder with us. And, you know, it is really unfortunate that we have to be the story here. This is not about the Daily Mail or DailyMail.com, it’s not about me. It’s about trying to make sure that reporters had the freedom to go to these events and cover them.
You know, this happened twice today, by the way. I came right over here from an evening event where Mrs. Clinton was the keynote speaker at a Flag Day dinner held by the Manchester Democratic Party, I showed up again and said, I’m the designated pool reporter and I was told, “You need to leave.” I find that unacceptable and offensive and I think most of my journalistic colleagues do as well.
