Is the Obama media crush over?

Lynn Sweet:

Hat tip to Ben Smith at The Politico LINK for obtaining a letter to the Obama campaign from six Washington Bureau Chiefs, including the NBC's late Tim Russert, complaining about being misled by the Obama campaign. The bottom line: reporters paying a lot of money to travel with Obama were misled about him being on the plane with them. "Each of our organizations is reviewing whether we will reimburse the campaign for last night's flight," the letter said.

Click below for the letter....

News organizations complain about access to Obama

The Times mentioned today a letter from Washington bureau chiefs of six leading news organizations to the Obama campaign, complaining about access about about being deceived by campaign aides.

I've obtained a copy of the letter, whose signatories include AP's Ron Fournier and the late Tim Russert of NBC. It was sent June 6, after Obama flew his press corps to Chicago and stayed behind to meet Clinton. The news organizations, in the letter, threaten to withhold payment for the flight.

More broadly, the organizations complain that Obama offers less access to the press even than President Bush, keeping even a single pool reporter out of his security bubble. He also answers relatively few questions, and his agreement to admit reporters to fundraisers remains partial: Last night, the pool reporter, the Washington Post's Anne Kornblut reported that she was confined to a Kennedy poolhouse while Obama talked to donors.

Here's the letter:

To: David Plouffe and Robert Gibbs

There are many ways in a campaign to control your message and conduct private meetings that do not involve deceiving the press corps. Last night, the press corps traveling with Senator Obama was misled, and was also flown to Chicago without the Senator. The Washington bureau chiefs of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, and the Associated Press strongly protest the events of last night.

...

The crush may no be over but some are wondering whether Obama respects them in the morning and worry that he is taking them for granted. They have reasons for concern, but don't expect them to break out of their codependent relationship.

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