A reporter from DailyMail.com who has been critical of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was kicked off of his duty as print pool reporter for the campaign in New Hampshire Monday.
Reporter David Martosko said early Monday that he was told by Clinton staffer Meredith Thatcher that he was not approved for today’s pooled events, according to DailyMail.com.
Martosko asked Thatcher if he was being banned from getting onto either of the press pool vans and was told, “I’m afraid that’s right.” Thatcher said she “got an email saying the print pooler would be changed for today.”
Martosko then talked to another Clinton press aide, Nick Merrill, who offered a few reasons why Martosko was getting the boot. One was Martosko’s status as a non-U.S. reporter.
“We’ve been getting a lot of blowback from foreign outlets that want to be part of the pool and we need to rethink it all, maybe for a day, and just cool things off until we can have a discussion,” he said, according to DailyMail.com. Merrill also said there could be a problem because the Daily Mail is not yet part of the White House’s regular print pool.
But then later, Merrill seemed to flip-flop, and said the decision isn’t related to foreign press coverage, and instead said “we’re going to make a decision.”
A spokesperson for DailyMail.com said it was able to confirm that Martosko was denied access to Clinton’s event.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
While the reasons behind the decision were still murky, the Clinton campaign may have been reacting to some of the criticism Martosko has lobbed at Clinton over the last few days and weeks.
On Saturday, Martosko sent out a tweet saying most reporters covered her official campaign launch announcement by reporting “exactly, and only, what the campaign wanted them to.”
And in April, Martosko wrote a story saying Clinton had refused to answer questions about her role dealing with the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.
“Mrs. Clinton, when are you going to start talking to the press about Benghazi? Daily Mail Online asked her in the Washington Reagan National Airport terminal,” Martosko wrote. “Did you make mistakes?”
“The usually garrulous and broad-smiling Clinton stared straight ahead, continued walking alongside her Secret Service and local police escorts, and said nothing,” he wrote.
