Mitt Romney Campaign Forbids Reporter From Asking About Todd Akin, Abortion
A Denver reporter granted a one-on-one interview with Mitt Romney Thursday said she was instructed not to ask him any questions about abortion or Rep. Todd Akin's (R-Mo.) controversial comments about victims of "legitimate rape."
Shaun Boyd, a reporter for Denver CBS affiliate KCNC, was one of four local reporters to speak with Romney, according to the newscast. She said on air that the Romney campaign had set pre-conditions before allowing her to interview the candidate.
"You know, I had about five minutes with him, and we got through a fair amount of material, actually, in that five minutes," Boyd said on-air. "The one stipulation to the interview was that I not ask him about abortion or Todd Akin -– he’s the Missouri Republican who created a firestorm after saying women’s bodies shut down in a legitimate rape to prevent pregnancy. I did ask him about health care, the female vote, and energy."
President Barack Obama's campaign has also been criticized over its handling of local interviews. According to reports, the president recently granted interviews with local TV stations designed to focus on sequestration.
Yet the Obama campaign insists it did not "dictate the topics" of questions that could be asked, as the Romney campaign appears to have done.
Team Romney suffers from the same weakness as do Palin, Bachmann, Santorum, Cain, and other gutless political lightweights:
ReplyDeleteMitt regards any reporter or interviewer who has the temerity to hold him accountable for his previously stated positions to be a bullying, biased member of a left-wing conspiracy, and he views any question for which he is unwilling or unable to provide an honest, substantive answer to be a "gotcha" question.
In short, Romney and his campaign staff feel that members of the news media should act as though they are working for his public relations department, only asking him the questions that he WANTS to be asked.
It's curious. Romney says that he is highly qualified to be POTUS based on his extensive experience as a "job creator" and fiscal manager while at Bain ... however we should not be allowed to analyze or critique said business experience, nor his ethics and values with respect to taxation policies.
Mitt to news media and Obama campaign:
"Don't discuss my personal finances, my business practices, my recent overseas trip, the socially conservative policies and legislative proposals of my running mate, and most of all, don't discuss my own policies and programs while Governor of Massachusetts."
Okay, let's talk about something totally benign ... "Mitt, how's Seamus? What? Don't talk about the dog either?"