True North

It must be a slow news day at the Huffington Post.  Gabriel Beltrone “investigated” the McCain campaign’s press/blog conference calls, looking for evidence of bias.  Beltrone discovered that one particular blogger has had more than two questions answered in these calls … me.  Basically calling me a shill, Beltrone manages to use one question I asked as evidence, demonstrating that Beltrone doesn’t have a very good grasp of the issues:

The fact that most questions are asked by mainstream news outlets doesn’t suggest foul play on the part of either of the campaigns. The trend may be lamentable from a perspective that seeks to foster diversity but it is business as usual. What’s interesting — although not necessarily revealing — is that two people in particular manage to ask more questions than the others. Rodney Livingston of the Solar Powered News Network (SPNN) and Ed Morrissey of Hotair.com are the most frequent contributors on the Obama and McCain calls.

I find this rather interesting, since I miss most of the McCain conference calls. They have one or two a day, and I don’t have the time to attend them, precisely because they tend to be restatements of their press releases. I call in when I find the subject compelling or the surrogates newsworthy.

Morrissey’s questions, on the other hand, clearly exhibit his support for the McCain campaign. This isn’t shocking considering Morrissey blogs for Hotair.com, the pet project of prominent right-wing blogger and frequent FOX News commentator Michele Malkin.

Quite obviously, Beltrone has never bothered to read Michelle’s blog. I’d suggest that he go to her site and do a search on McCain, and get a better idea of the boss’s opinion about the Republican nominee. It’s amazing that Beltrone’s “investigation” managed to miss these details. I give Michelle credit for not skewering me publicly for supporting McCain.

Beyond that, I’ve made no pretense of objectivity in this race, and for that matter, neither has the HuffPo, which hosts columns from Barack Obama.  Isn’t that just a “restatement of the Obama campaign’s talking points”? What’s the headline here — Shocker! Blogger has point of view?

And Beltrone manages to expose his ignorance on his choice of examples of my bias:

And on a call to discuss McCain’s position on the Supreme Court ruling against the DC gun ban, Morrissey said:

“Senator Brownback, thank you for being on the call with us today. Slightly different topic here, you and Senator Pat Roberts sent a letter to the Senate as a whole regarding the insufficiency of Ft. Leavenworth as a replacement facility for Guantanamo Bay. Can you talk a little bit about that and what you’re hoping to do with this initiative?”

Well, who was it that suggested Leavenworth?  John McCain.  Which Republican ran on the insistence of closing Gitmo?  John McCain.  Note to Beltrone: I disagree with McCain on this point, and wanted to emphasize Brownback’s opposition to McCain’s plan.  Apparently, Beltrone doesn’t know how to do research or bother to understand the issues before deciding on “bias”.

Of course, had Beltrone bothered to contact me to get my thoughts on these issues, he wouldn’t have made this mistake.  Funny how his “investigation” never led him to my e-mail address, or even to the Hot Air tips address, to ask me even a single question.   I don’t bite, unless bitten, and I’d have been happy to discuss his “investigation”, but apparently he’s happier leaping to uninformed conclusions.

Cross-posted at Hot Air.