Last night I linked to an account by Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack. It seems McCormack was in New York reporting on the special election there. He asked some pointed questions of the liberal Republican congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava. Incredibly, Scozzafava’s campaign called the cops on him in response. Overnight, I recieved this response from Matt Burns, spokesman for the Scozzafava campaign:
Agree or not with Dede Scozzafava’s positions on some issues, she should still be afforded a basic level of respect. Asking tough questions is one thing, but acting like John McCormack did tonight shows a complete lack of decency. This self-described reporter repeatedly screamed questions while our candidate was doing what she is supposed to be doing: speaking with voters (remember, those who will decide this election?). And then this “reporter” followed the candidate to her car, continuing to carry on in a manner that would make the National Enquirer blush. That’s the truth, but maybe that doesn’t matter to your readers.
McCormack’s editor Bill Kristol has posted this defense of McCormack on The Weekly Standard’s blog:
This is ludicrous. Needless to say, the police found nothing amiss. Moreover, the fact is that John didn’t interrupt a conversation between Ms. Scozzafava and voters — she wasn’t talking to voters when John approached her. Nor did John “scream,” nor did he get “in the face” of the candidate — he was at least ten feet away from her in the parking lot, partly because a Scozzafava staffer interposed himself as John tried to ask substantive public policy questions of Ms. Scozzafava. The notion that John intended to “follow her home” is of course risible.
Let me emphasize: I have full confidence in the truth of John’s account. And I won’t allow a desperate campaign to try to tarnish the fine reputation John has built as a fair and accurate reporter — and, for that matter, a very decent and mild-mannered young man.
I am not close with McCormack, but I do know him socially and have witnessed him interact in numerous professional situations. The idea of McCormack screaming at anybody is an obviously absurd claim by a campaign desperate to do damage control. And if asking tough questions and following a subject to their car is a journalistic crime, you’re going to have to lock me up along with a lot of other reporters.