Saint McMaverick campaign screening questioners

Straight-talkin'! David Corn, via Duh! Weekly and the Noshit Sherlock-Tribune:

Political reporters are wondering if McCain aides are vetting the journalists who ask questions during campaign conference calls for the media. The evidence suggests they are; the campaign won't say.

When a reporter calls in for a conference call, he or she is asked by an operator to provide his or her name and media outlet. Then when it comes time for questions, there is a long pause -- long enough for someone in the campaign to select whom should be called on. This has caused several journalists who have participated in these calls to wonder: is the McCain campaign screening reporters, and, if so, on what basis? A reporter for a progressive media outlet says that he has tried at least half a dozen times to ask a question on a McCain conference call and has had never been selected.

The easy suspicion is that McCain aides are playing favorites and are not as enthusiastic about confronting tough questions as their boss. [Is it] merely a coincidence that the only questioners had been rightwing bloggers who had served up softballs?

To which rightwing bloggers responded, "Soft balls? Heck, they were pretty darn hard at that point!"