Network Reporters Get Very Different Receptions

Jonathan Martin at Politico has a tale of two reporters:

Carl Cameron and Ed Henry are both top-flight reporters.

But they work for networks which are viewed in, shall we say, differing lights by Republican activists.

So when Fox's Cameron and CNN's Henry took to opposing risers today at a McCain rally in Woodbridge, Virginia, their receptions were starkly different.

"CNN sucks!," yelled one voter at Henry. "Communists go home," shouted another"

At one point, Henry was hit with a flying pack of chewing gum.

Toward the end of McCain's speech -- which a handful of especially passionate activists ignored to hurl insults at Henry and other reporters -- a chant went up: "We want Fox, we want Fox."

Across the outdoor courtyard where the rally was held, they had it.

Cameron was swarmed after the event by a few dozen people, many of whom beseiged the correspondent for autographs, pictures and handshakes.

Back across the way, Henry wrapped up his work for the day more or less alone.

Which beats getting pelted with projectiles.

Of course, if both had anything to say about it they'd probably just as soon be neither cheered nor jeered.

But that world has long since passed.

Thank you, Mr. Agnew.

The problem isn't Mr. Agnews, Jonathan, it's the direction that most network reporting has gone - far left. CNN and the other alphabet networks (and Politico for that matter) long ago gave up any pretense of objectivity. Fox hasn't. When you hear Carl Cameron or any of the other Fox reporters give a story, you get both sides of the story without any spin in any one particular direction. That's what the people at the McCain event were expressing with their derision of CNN and their adulation of Cameron.

Don't forget, Carl was the guy who broke the Bush DUI story right before the 2000 election. If he was just a partisan shill for the GOP he never would have let that story out.