Hillary Clinton's campaign on Monday showed its commitment to transparency and positive relations with the press by denying access to designated pool reporter David Martosko of the Daily Mail:
Clinton campaign bars designated print pooler, Daily Mail's David Martosko, from pooling events in NH today. No print pooler as of now.
— Peter Nicholas (@PeterNicholas3) June 15, 2015
Why? Apparently, it was because Martosko writes for a foreign newspaper:
@anitakumar01 @HillaryClinton Daily Mail is a member of the WH supplementary rotation — Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) June 15, 2015
The Clinton campaign's official explanation for its decision to ban Martosko, a former editor at the conservative Daily Caller, is not so much an explanation as it is a heaping pile of evasive gibberish:
Clinton camp statement on Daily Mail's @dmartosko denied access as pool reporter for event: cc @anitakumar01 pic.twitter.com/aOGAar1vVu
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) June 15, 2015
Martosko, for his part, has vowed to report from the New Hampshire event in spite of the ban, and appears to have already had his first run-in with security:
For those of you asking: What I've seen online re: today is accurate, and I intend to report here whether they want me to or not. — David Martosko (@dmartosko) June 15, 2015
Latest @HillaryClinton development: Sec. Service agent won't let me into the YMCA venue to go to the bathroom, says "Hit the woods."
— David Martosko (@dmartosko) June 15, 2015
The Clinton campaign's decision to ban media access and force a reporter to pee in the woods simply because he works for a foreign newspaper is deeply problematic and reveals a disgusting nativism that has no place in American politics today.
The campaign denied this, naturally, but appears to have given contradictory, gibberish explanations to Martosko, who told the Washington Post:
[Clinton spokesman Nick] Merrill then insisted that the decision had "nothing to do" with the campaign considering the Daily Mail foreign press. "We don’t consider you foreign press," he said.
It’s your pooler’s understanding that this was the only reason given last night when Nick sprung this on Ruby Cramer of Buzzfeed, who coordinates the pool.
Pool pointed out to Merrill that if the campaign is denying pool access to foreign press, but won’t take the position that the Daily Mail is foreign press, the position is untenable.
Then he said: "This isn’t about you. It’s about a larger –" and didn’t continue his sentence.