Politico's Juana Summers is reporting Rick Santorum told Glenn Beck the pro-Obama media is just trying to divide Republicans and avoid talking about Obama's negatives. In an hour-long interview, Beck and Santorum discussed how once again, CNN's John King brought up contraception at the latest debate.
"And then they ask the question, ‘Why are you always talking about contraception?’ I said, ‘Because that’s all you want to ask me about,’” Santorum said. “I mean, it is frustrating, and maybe at times last night you can get a little frustrated. But they are trying to spin a narrative. They don’t want to talk about Obama’s record of jobs. They don’t want to talk about his record of what he’s doing to destroy the fiscal situation in this country.”
“They don’t want to talk about his record of destroying every single alliance that we have in the world, and at the same time trying to appease every enemy in the world,” he added. “They don’t want to talk about any of that stuff. All that they want to talk about is things that they know divide, divide, divide.”
Politico's headline was "Rick Santorum's new punching bag: the press." Don't they ever consider that sounds self-pleading and defensive? Here in the press, we never punch the candidates or try to destroy them. (That's especially ridiculous with Politico after their Take Down Herman Cain With Anonymous Accusers campaign.) "We reporters just ask factual questions and try to stay out of deciding the race." Please.
Summers reported Santorum was also "bitter" about the press (and maybe their hunger for "gaffes" like the "Satan" speech) on the campaign trail:
During a policy speech here Friday, Santorum suggested that reporters should pay attention to the content of the speech, as opposed to just concentrating on the narrative they want to push. It was the latest in a bitter string of comments from Santorum about the growing band of reporters that shadow his every move on the campaign trail and the TV and Internet echo chamber that follows their lead.
“I shared my vision with you tonight because it’s probably the only time you’re going to hear it because most of the folks who are going to be reporting here aren’t going to write about it. They’re going to write about some controversial thing,” Santorum stated.
Minutes later, he hopped on a conference call with Arizona supporters and blasted the media again, this time over the content of nationally televised debates.
“There were 20 debates and we never had a question on the Second Amendment, and that was always really frustrating for me,” Santorum said. The media, he contended is “going after him” because he’s a “conservative across the board,” not just on economic issues.
Summers also suggested Santorum has frustrated reporters by not offering them an updated schedule so they can keep up, and he's limited his availability to questions:
In recent weeks, Santorum — who has traditionally taken informal questions from reporters, unlike other candidates — has clammed up. He has not held a media availability since Saturday, following a campaign speech to an Ohio Christian group, and when pressed with questions on the rope line, he occasionally answers, but often looks perturbed by reporters’ queries. [I've seen that myself as a reporter.]
But not everyone is getting the cold shoulder from Santorum.
Here in Lincoln Park, behind a dark blue curtain on the left side of the stage, the candidate embraced Time columnist Joe Klein, who recently penned a lengthy piece focusing on several of the Santorum children, including his 3½-year-old daughter Bella, who has a rare genetic condition.
Santorum, Klein told reporters, said the column had “moved him to tears.”
