Reporters Spar With McCain Press Aides Nicolle Wallace, Brooke Buchanan (VIDEO)

Clearly not all reporters are enamored with John McCain's press operation.

Early Wednesday, the Fox affiliate in St. Louis posted video of an awkward, testy exchange between several reporters and McCain's senior press aides -- Brooke Buchanan, the national press secretary, and Nicolle Wallace, the former White House communications director.

"I think there was an attempt by somebody in your staff to take a look at the shot, and I have never, ever had anybody at any organization..." a peeved station staffer told Wallace before being interrupted.

"Really? You've never done anything at the White House?" she replied. "I was at the White House for seven years and we looked at every shot." The staffer pushed back, "Not at our shots," while his colleague asked Wallace, "Which White House?" She refused to answer, saying it didn't matter. He replied, "Oh yes it does!" Wallace told him he looked "agitated."

Later, another reporter asked the McCain aides for their names. Buchanan responded, "Why does that matter?" and asked sharply, "Do we have a problem here, because if -- we may want to reschedule for another day..."

A compelling look at the sausage-making behind presidential candidate interviews.

Update: Some more details on the reporters in the video, from a reader: "The Fox (KTVI) reporter in the blue shirt with his back to the camera is Charles Jaco. The NBC (KSDK) reporter sitting next to him is Mike Owens. The last person standing up asking for names is Mike O'Connell from CBS (KMOV)."

Comments

[KristaJulieva]

The guy who says, "which White House," etc., is Charles Jaco. Look him on wikipedia or something, he's the real deal. This woman thought she could intimidate some hayseed local reporter and instead ran up against an experienced journalist who wasn't going to be told how-things­-are-done, because he knows.

[naturallight]

Can I have those 2:44 minutes of my life back please?

[josephj]

Looks like we may have another Administration with a Fascistic contempt for the free press.

[DwH]

No, we won't.

[preemptivelove]

NO WE WON'T

[gditty]

I must admitt, the McCain press aides are great at burying McCains repeated gaffes & mistatements.

[vat6948]

So much for the "Straight-­Talk-Expre­ss"? As the post said, it's not pretty watching sausages being made.

[hopeless277]

I don't see why McCain doesn't just hire some actors to play reporters and write his own questions. It's not like it would be reported if it came to light. Anyway, all reporters know that McCain is god and that to question god is to question Bush which will get you named an 'Enemy combanant' which gets you dissappeared. No foul here, just reporters getting their marching orders from the McCain gang.

[Bub]

actually if you go to the web site of Fox in St. Louis, you can watch the interview.

More disturbing is McCain's economic explanations for the sale of Anheuser-Busch to InBev of Belgium. He rightly blamed the sale on the cheap dollar, but then wrongly blamed the cheap dollar on the cost of oil, then wrongly advocated for tax cuts.

McCain doesn't see the obvious and direct tie between our deficits and the value of the dollar. The deficits being the result of tax cuts.

[sociocanuck]

"Which White House..."

It definitely matters. Doubt it even has to be said why.

[DerAmi]

Which Iraq war? It doesn't matter...

[M.S. Bellows, Jr. - Huffpost Blogger]

Sure it matters! It's either the one based on lies, on the one based on li....

Oh. Never mind.

[Axolotl]

no, it is witch white house?

[darthdarcy]

McCain has a lot to hide and issues to run away from his associations with so many different swindlers and scoundrels has got to be a big worry for them...!

[PublicEnemy]

I grew up in St. Louis and the reporter with his back to the camera is Charles Jaco. He is a well respected political reporter and is regarded as being fair minded . He does not take and crap from anyone and the McCain people barked up the wrong tree when they tried to take him on. The other reporter with the beard is Mike Owens and just like Jaco he does not take sh.t from anyone. I highly doubt the McCain people will want them in the room to interview him in the coming months.

[Bub]

It's been a couple of years since I lived in St. Louis, but I recognize the reporter as Charles Jako.

Here is what I remember about him:

He has quite an extensive resume. I believe he was once with CNN, and reported from the Middle East during the first Gulf War. He came to St. Louis to work at KMOX. His work intersects between Academia and Local St. Louis Media.

He is a very serious journalist. He would never engage in one-sided political pornography you see from cabal news shows. He has integrity.

The local Fox network hired him before the 2004 election to provide periodical political reporting and explanations as to how the process works and is unfolding to its viewers. In this regard he did very serious and rather dry work - but if you watched him, you knew what was going on.

From listening to his work at KMOX I know that he is left of center (he indicated that he was an advocate of a fair social contract - so I took that as being left of center, btw, so am I) but very serious and fair in his work. My guess is that he was probably trying to do cuttaways contrasting McCains flip flops and asking for explanations from the McCain people or McCain himself. It appears that they object to this sort of thing.

He is very serious, fair, methodical and perhaps even mechanical in going about and suring that he does his duties.

[lennix]

this will be on count down only nowere else

[venicesurfer]

of course, usually non newsworthy stuff ends up there.

[Actionmac]

don't be jealous because fake news has to create news to appear to be a news worthy channel.

[VOTER]

Pssst

Fixed Fox has been lying to you. The REAL NEWS is on Countdown.

[lotuslike]

You're right. Ironically, it involved a Fox affiliate reporter and I'm certain that It won't even appear on Faux Noise.

[Raymondf]

They just covered it.

[justfine]

McCain is getting just what he paid for..arrog­ant, inexperienced, lightweighters who think this is a way into the WH. I hope he has lots and lots of them. Journalists, even at FOX, will let their annoyance and anger at these kids seep into their coverage.

Perfect!

[2farnorth]

I think some people are missing the point, at least in my opinion. The campaign apparently would like to screen the video before it hits the air. Meaning if it doesn't come across in a light the campaign wants they would attempt to have it edited. Nothing really news worthy here. The pressure is mounting and both sides are trying to put their best face forward. I'm no fan of FOX but I'm actually satisfied by how they handled it. The right wing mouth piece refusing to give ground to the "right wing" candidate. Imagine that..

[SouthFloridaDem]

That wasn't Fox News (the network), it was a Fox afflliate station, a local station with local reporters. They really don't have anything to do with Fox News network -- obviously! They were actually doing real news! If it had been the Fox News network, they would have sat down with the McCain people and written a script.

[Actionmac]

not giving ground to a phony candidate by a phony news organizati­on...

BTW if you think CONTROLLING the media, as mcsame has shown he wants to do, is news worthy, mcbush has a job for you.

Bush did the same at rallies and interviews and you see what we ended up with.

[M.S. Bellows, Jr. - Huffpost Blogger]

And, of course, McC's campaign thinks they can screen it like that because it's a Fox station. They're forgetting that there's still some diff betw Fox News on cable, and the local affiliates that still try to be professional.

[PuppaX]

I don't get what was going on. The staffers wanted to approve the camera angle? Is that what they meant by shot?