Hillary Clinton’s relaunched campaign hasn’t led to better treatment for reporters, who were jilted by Clinton twice in the past two days, in ways that will continue to fuel arguments that the candidate is too secretive and hostile toward the press.
On Sunday, the pool reporter on duty was denied access to an exchange between the former first lady and residents of Burlington, Iowa.
“The pool was kept in the backyard, and did not get to see Clinton walk out of the event and greet a group of neighbors who were across the street,” wrote the Boston Globe’s Annie Linskey. “Neighbors later confirmed this occurred. Also, a local CBS news camera caught the exchange.”
“The pool threw a fit when she heard Clinton had left the house,” she added. “Your pooler got outside fast enough to see Clinton drive away.”
The Sunday night flap comes after months of media criticism for Clinton over her unwillingness to speak with the press.
The mood between Team Clinton and reporters darkened on Monday after campaign staffers barred the Daily Mail’s David Martosko from covering a campaign event that morning in New Hampshire. Martosko was the designated pool reporter.
Journalists usually negotiate the pool rotation, meaning media — not the candidate — decides who gets to cover certain events. But New Hampshire Clinton staffer Meredith Thatcher told Martosko that he was not approved for Monday’s events.
“All I know is … I got an email saying the print pooler would be changed for today. Sorry,” she said.
RELATED: Clinton boots critical reporter out of NH press pool events
Unsurprisingly, reporters took issue with Martosko being barred by Clinton’s team. “Memo to the Clinton campaign: pools control themselves,” Time’s Zeke Miller said on social media.
Martosko himself could not comment on the issue and instead referred the Washington Examiner to a Daily Mail spokesman.
“We can confirm that David Martosko, U.S. political editor, DailyMail.com was today denied access to Hillary Clinton’s campaign event and was prohibited from boarding a van that the Clinton campaign is using to transport pool reporters around New Hampshire,” the spokesman told the Examiner.
“We are seeking an explanation from the Clinton campaign as to why this occurred as Mr. Martosko was scheduled to be the designated print pool reporter in New Hampshire this morning,” he added.
Martosko was reportedly offered a raft of excuses as to why the campaign was blocking him from covering the Monday event in New Hampshire. One such excuse was that the Daily Mail is a foreign newspaper.
“We’ve been getting a lot of blowback from foreign outlets,” a campaign spokesperson reportedly told Martosko.
A Daily Mail spokesman told the Examiner, “DailyMail.com now has approximately 200 employees here in the US — in DC, New York and LA — as well as a team of reporters who travel the country telling American stories. Our U.S. homepage is edited in America for Americans.”
It’s more likely Martosko was given the runaround by Team Clinton due to his unflattering coverage of her presidential campaign, a Daily Mail source told the Examiner.
Martosko has reported previously that separate campaign stops in Iowa have featured carefully vetted Clinton supporters, as opposed to everyday Iowans. He also reported in April that the Clinton speaking tour van, dubbed the “Scooby” van, was clocked going 95 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour zone. He also reported that same month that nearly two million of Clinton’s Twitter followers were likely fake and that her campaign had been “buying” fake Facebook fans.
“It’s truly astonishing how many journalists at the @Hillaryclinton speech today reported exactly, and only, what the campaign wanted them to,” he tweeted on June 13.
Spokespersons for Clinton’s campaign did not respond to the Examiner’s requests for comment.
