Transparency: Team Clinton mulling over strategies to limit media coverage to "pools"
If the intent of the "going small" campaign wasn't already obvious enough, MSNBC's Alex Seitz-Wald connects the last remaining dots. Team Hillary wants to run an "intimate" campaign in order to counter the impression that the former First Lady and Secretary of State feels overly entitled to voters' support and higher office, which means doing what other candidates regularly do as part of retail campaigning - smaller events, one-on-one interactions, especially in Iowa where voters expect that approach. Seitz-Wald reports that the campaign has already begun to strategize how that can keep the media from asking too many questions of Hillary Clinton, and that they may impose reporting "pools" - as the White House routinely uses for events.
Yes, that won't look arrogant or entitled at all:
Still, no one disputes that reporters will end up frustrated at times. Some events may be closed to the press, others may have limited access, and many may have access to only a select "pool" of reporters who represent each type of outlet on behalf of their colleagues.
To offset perceptions that's cutting off the press, Clinton may regularly take questions from reporters after events where some were denied access. Or she could prioritize local media and give a few minutes to the local TV affiliate or newspaper, like Obama did during the primary.
Also read:The format of the events could further inflame relations between the press Clinton, which she acknowledged are "complicated," but pooling coverage may be the only way to satisfy all sides. After all, Clinton wants reporters to cover her small events as much as they want to cover them. If a touching connection is made with an Iowa voter and there's no reporter around to Tweet it, does it make a sound?Yes, but Clinton wants reporters to cover the events the way she wants, and not ask questions that might otherwise put her on the spot. So which reporters will go along with those plans? The pool selection at the White House gets handled by the correspondents themselves. Something tells me that this will not be the case when it comes to Hillary Clinton's press pools. This approach leaves the campaign with a lot of leverage over the reporters assigned to cover her campaign. Ask a tough question once, and don't hold your breath waiting for another slot in the pool. Nice beat ya got there, kid. Shame if anything happened to it...
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