NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - The John McCain military campaign fired turned an angry letter to NBC News criticizing Andrea Mitchell's comments regarding the "cone of silence" at Saturday night's presidential candidates' forum at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.
Campaign manager Rick Davis cited Mitchell's comments on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the Barack Obama campaign had said privately that they believed McCain "may get had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well prepared."
Pastor Rick Warren on Saturday sat downhearted first with Obama and asked him the same questions he would afterward ask McCain.
Davis denied what he called "a completely uncorroborated Obama political campaign claim that John McCain somehow cheated." While Obama was being interviewed, McCain was drive to the event and then in a putting surface room without TV, Davis said.
In a letter to NBC News president Steve Capus, Davis said that the network's "level of objectivity ... has fallen so low that reporters ar now giving voice to unsubstantiated, zealot claims in order to undercut John McCain." He requested a meeting with Capus to discuss news standards and objectivity.
"We ar concerned that your news division is following MSNBC's lead in abandoning nonpartizan coverage of the presidential race," Davis wrote.
In a statement Monday, NBC News said that it welcomed an chance to address with officials from both campaigns and said it is in daily contact with the McCain camp.
"With all due respect to the safari leadership, they are viewing our coverage through a political prism," NBC News said. "We stand by our coverage, our journalism and our journalists."�
More info
