It is a little surprising to see the normally unfazable David Plouffe roll out such a big phat shotgun ahead of the spin room wars tonight, but this is one aimed right at the head of Schmidt and company, calling out their 'ace in the hole' ambassador and warning them essentially not to fuck with Gwen too much, otherwise they'll downgrade Tom Brokaw...
Speaking to reporters earlier today, Obama campaign manager suggested that Obama could raise doubts about NBC's Tom Brokaw, who is also set to moderate a debate, just as McCain's campaign has suggested PBS's Gwen Ifill shouldn't moderate tonights.
Plouffe noted that Tom Brokow has been in the paper recently talking about “his communication with the McCain campaign and their friendship."
"I assume they’ll apply the same standard to Tom Brokaw," he said.
We knew this. What's huge is now that Plouffe has brought this out, now the Press can digest it more, alot more hopefully. This faux outrage against Gwen Iffel is garbage; Tom Brokaw's practicing ambassadorship with the McCain campaign however is now documented and on record on National TV.
Background: GOP trying to set up Gwen Ifill
McCain:
“Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama — let's face it," McCain said on "Fox & Friends." "But I have to have confidence that Gwen Ifill will handle this as the professional journalist that she is."
"Life isn’t fair, as I mentioned earlier in the program," he added.
Orin Hatch:
"Watch out.
“Sarah Palin is being set up.
“The moderator of tonight's debate is in the tank for Obama -- this liberal PBS reporter is releasing a pro-Obama book . . . to debut on inauguration day.
and Debunking McCain/Hatch
Now, for Tom Brokaw's own clear bias, or at least, laxed journalistic standards and sloppy descriptions of relationship:
Move On Via Huff Post
MoveOn.org researched the matter, and found the polling numbers Brokaw was citing. They weren't in any recent poll conducted by NBC/WSJ. In fact, the recent NBC News/WSJ poll does not even include a question on "who's best equipped to be commander-in-chief." To get those 53-42 numbers, you have got to dial it back to the poll taken September 6-8 - significantly, the poll done after the Republican National Convention - to find those numbers sitting at question 14.
and the New York Times
Brokaw said he has also conducted some "shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks" between NBC and the McCain campaign.
His mission, he said, was to assure the candidate's aides that -- despite some negative on-air commentary by Mr. Olbermann in particular -- Mr. McCain could still get a fair shake from NBC News. Mr. Brokaw said he had been told by a senior McCain aide, whom he did not name, that the campaign had been reluctant to accept an NBC representative as one of the moderators of the three presidential debates -- until his name was invoked.
"One of the things I was told by this person was that they were so irritated, they said, 'If it's an NBC moderator, for any of these debates, we won't go,' " Mr. Brokaw said. "My name came up, and they said, 'Oh, hell, we have to do it, because it's going to be Brokaw.' "
Where is Keith in all of this?? Sounds to me like our favorite on air talent got some public lashing by Mr. Brokaw... I wonder where this power struggle of sorts leads... take the poll :)
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