Donald Trump’s controversial decision to strip press credentials for The Washington Post last week sparked a firestorm when it was announced – but it’s hardly the first time a presidential candidate battled with reporters over access.
In the last days of the 2008 campaign, the Barack Obama campaign found itself in a similar spat with three newspapers after kicking their reporters off the Democratic nominee’s press charter plane.
The newspapers getting the boot — the Dallas Morning News, Washington Times and New York Post — had all carried critical coverage of the Obama campaign. As the Los Angeles Times reported at the time, while the Obama camp claimed the decision was due to a lack of space on the plane, all three newspapers had recently published editorials endorsing Obama’s rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Several outlets and websites, including Mediaite and the Independent Journal Review, have noted the ongoing Trump-Post feud has echoes of this 2008 dust-up.
Still, Trump’s battle with The Washington Post and other outlets is more intense. While Obama’s decision was made under the pretense of a seating difficulty, Trump openly said he was stripping the Post’s credentials because of their coverage.
Trump previously has barred reporters from Politico and Buzzfeed, among others, from attending his events. He also frequently refers to the media as “dishonest” and once called an ABC News reporter “a sleaze.”
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As for The Washington Post, the Trump campaign specifically cited an online headline — which claimed Trump had suggested President Obama was “involved” with the Orlando terror attack, before being revised — as the last straw.
“We no longer feel compelled to work with a publication which has put its need for ‘clicks’ above journalistic integrity,” the campaign said in a statement last week.
Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron, in a statement, called the decision a “repudiation of the role of a free and independent press.”
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