What Media Double Standard?

Politics | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 10:19:02 am PDT

Earlier this week the networks threw a major tantrum when the McCain campaign tried to limit their access to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s meetings with foreign officials.

Today, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden met with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and completely excluded the press.

And not a peep from the mainstream media.

MILWAUKEE - Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden met with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Friday but didn’t let reporters in as the pair posed for photographers at the beginning of the session.

The decision to allow only photographers, and no reporters, into the meeting briefly at its start recalled a similar move by Biden’s Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, earlier this week. Some of the reporters that cover Palin’s vice presidential campaign protested and got the restriction dropped.

UPDATE at 9/26/08 2:42:05 pm:

ABC News says the AP report is wrong, and the press did get access to Biden’s meeting: Political Radar: Biden Meets With Saakashvili, Pledges American Support.

Biden and Saakashvili met privately for about 45 minutes, but, despite an Associated Press report to the contrary, members of Biden’s traveling press pool were in fact permitted in for a five-minute portion beforehand, giving reporters a chance to hear from the two long-time friends.