Hillary’s rocky relations with the press took a new turn on Monday when the Clinton campaign denied access to the reporter selected for the print “pool” accompanying the candidate in New Hampshire – the assigned writer providing details for print reporters.
The victim was David Martosko of the London Daily Mail, formerly an executive editor of the Daily Caller. It’s possible the Clinton campaign is having acid flashbacks of the British press from the days they put out a 500-page conspiracy memo-and-clip-package titled “The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce” about anti-Clinton stories in the British press making their way into American media.
Dylan Byers of Politico recounted what Martosko sent the other reporters in the pool:
"Your pooler showed up at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester on a rainy New Hampshire morning at 7:45 and was greeted in the parking lot by Meredith Thatcher, a press staffer with the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Thatcher told your pooler that he wasn’t the approved print pool reporter for today’s pooled events," Martosko reported in his first pool report.
"Asked to call her boss, Harrell Kirstein, she did so and then reported: 'So I'm afraid it's a no. You're not on the list.' She said [campaign press secretary] Nick Merrill should be phoned with questions," Martosko continued. "Asked if the print pooler was being prohibited from getting on either of the pool vans, Thatcher replied: 'I'm afraid that's right.' Asked why, she responded: 'All I know is what Harrell has told me. I got an email saying the print pooler would be changed for today. Sorry.'"
Denied a ride in the pool van, Martosko told Thatcher that he would drive to the first campaign stop in Rochester on his own, "in the hope that things would be sorted out during the 75-minute drive."
Clinton campaign spinner Nick Merrill asserted that the campaign’s position is that the Daily Mail does not qualify because it has not yet been added to the White House’s regular print pool – “something Martosko informed him was a timing issue, not a White House choice, since Francesca Chambers, the Mail's White House correspondent, has been vetted and has a hard pass.”
A hard pass your security clearance is complete and you don’t have to get a daily clearance at the gate. Merrill claimed it wasn’t a “foreign press” issue...maybe just a “too conservative” issue.
UPDATE: Martosko may have offended with this tweet after her Saturday speech:
It's truly astonishing how many journalists at the @Hillaryclinton speech today reported exactly, and only, what the campaign wanted them to
— David Martosko (@dmartosko) June 14, 2015
One can see how vindictive press aides may have failed to appreciate this.
