Speaking of Mark Halperin, the Politico‘s Michael Calderone notes that while Time‘s Joe Klein seems to have been banned from the McCain press plane for being too critical (“We don’t allow Daily Kos diarists on board either,” a McCain spokesperson says), “other Time magazine staffers, including Washington bureau chief Jay Carney, ” reporter Michael Scherer and Mark Halperin (the Page), have not had a problem with access.”
Blogger Matthew Yglesias observes:
You might think that if Time were a real news organization, it would stand up for Klein and say that if the McCain/Palin campaign isn’t going to let Klein on the plane, then they’re not going to send some other journalists to give them kinder coverage. Instead, though, Time operates in conventional MSM style. If you get good access, your stories get good placement. So if, like Scherer and Halperin, you decline to tell the truth about McCain, you get access to McCain and your career benefits. If you do tell the truth about McCain, you lose access to McCain and your career suffers. Which is a great way to run a magazine if you donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t care about informing your audience. Which, I guess, Time‘s owners and editors donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t care about.
