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Friday: Spin Out
posted at 2007-10-26 23:46 | Last modified 2007-11-14 10:38
Foot, meet bullet
File under “What were they thinking?”: A UNC Journalism professor says communications staffers for presidential contender John Edwards tried to pressure the school to censor an unflattering story by one of its students.
The story’s not even that unflattering. Carla Babb's report simply points out that having a headquarters in the gated community of Southern Village doesn’t exactly square with milltown populism.
Anyway, Edwards’ staffers obviously found the story threatening enough that they threatened back. UNC Professor C.A. Tuggle says top staffers told him they’d pull the campaign press credentials for the whole J-school if the story wasn’t cut from the campus newscast and (somehow, although it’s not clear how UNC would do this) removed from YouTube, too.
Had the campaign been smart enough to leave it alone, the segment probably wouldn’t have made much of a splash. Now, it’s in the headlines of all the local newscasts. The NYTimes is calling. It even made Drudge. So much for spin control.
Here’s what I want to know: what part of this seemed like a good idea to anyone? There’s an old saying: “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel and tape by the mile.” That goes double for your home state’s top journalism school.
I bet we’ll be hearing a lot more about this during Edwards’ much-touted campus iChat Saturday. He's scheduled to speak at 2:10pm.
(HT: State Gov Radio, Dome)
More spin out
Don’t like the press corps? Make your own. That’s what FEMA did Tuesday at a press conference on the SoCal wildfires. The agency created its own “press pool” out of staffers who lobbed softball questions to Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson.
Al Kamen at the Washington Post wrote about it here. He told NPR's David Folkenflik today he’s never seen anything like it.
Update: FEMA issued an apology tonight.
And one more
Subprime, shmubprime. Anti-illegal immigration group ALIPAC says its boycott is the real reason for financial troubles at Bank of America. Well, obviously, right?
Speaking of finances...
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