Old Friends in the Media See a New Side of McCain

Is Sen John McCain (R-AZ) really dissing his base to appease his party's base? When Republicans gathered at Madison Square Garden to celebrate President Bush's second nomination four years ago, Senator John McCain gathered at a restaurant uptown with some of the biggest stars in journalism to celebrate his birthday. Among those mingling over cocktails and fine French food with Mr. McCain and his wife, Cindy, were Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Bob Schieffer, Maureen Dowd, Tim Russert — "our people," as an old campaign hand reminisced on Wednesday. Those there that night now feel as if they are living in some sort of alternate reality in the Xcel Energy Center. The convention has already included some of the most intense attacks against journalists by a campaign in memory, with Mr. McCain's aides accusing them of biased, sexist and generally unfair coverage of his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. In the first three days here, Mr. McCain's aides have sent out news releases criticizing individual reporters for their coverage. They have canceled an interview with Larry King of CNN to protest what they viewed as unfair questioning of a spokesman by Campbell Brown. They have dismissed as "fiction" an article in The New York Times about the process of vetting Gov Palin. And McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, has accused journalists here of pursuing a "mission to destroy" Ms. Palin with "a new level of viciousness." If there is one mission Sen McCain wants to accomplish at his convention, it is to galvanize conservative voters who have shown signs of depression this year. Traditionally, one surefire way to do that has been to attack the "elitist," mainstream news media. And McCain's campaign has made its anti-news-media message central to the convention program.