Campaign-Trail Reporters Sidelined

Do you know where the presidential campaign news is really coming from?

Reporters Sidelined

The flocks of campaign reporters who fly around the country with the presidential candidates have been more sidelined in the 2008 campaign than any in generations, sealed off from any meaningful access to either Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

On Air Obama, reporters gawk at him moving around up front, talking with aides or on a cell phone, but can only guess what he is saying or thinking. On Straight Talk Air, the flying McCain campaign, aides draw the curtains so that not even glimpses are possible.

Not only do the reporters have little interaction with the candidates, but increasingly they are having little impact on the broad campaign narratives and daily story lines that supply most voters with their impressions of the candidates.

If you believe that coverage of candidates lacks depth you are right. If you believe that the information coming through on candidates reads more like advertising sound bites than investigative journalism you are right. If you believe there are hard questions that need to be asked and answered then you are right.

Should candidates seeking our votes be this far away from the journalists who are assigned to cover their campaigns. These journalists are not there as "spokespersons" for candidate A or B's positions regurgitating news releases which is what they are being reduced to.

Why are they covering up their real words, thoughts and deeds behind curtains of secrecy? Do they trust themselves so little or is it really that we, the American people, are getting played.

Reporters say they barely see the candidates these days, let alone have the chance to ask pointed questions about policy and the direction of the campaigns.

A message to both of you....put away the script....and start talking with America...not at America. Does anyone else have a problem with candidates not exposing themselves to questioning? Smells like a cover-up to me....the sad part is, it is now business as usual in American politics.