Big Journalism’s Mary Chastain has done a fine job of chronicling the media’s response to (and refusal to report on) Fast and Furious. Fed up with the media attention, Eric Holder today lashed out at the Daily Caller for daring to ask him about the scandal, replete with finger-pointing.
Embattled Attorney General Eric Holder today demanded The Daily Caller stop publishing articles about the growing calls in Congress for his resignation because of the failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking program.
As Holder’s aide was escorting the attorney general offstage following his remarks Tuesday afternoon at the White House, a Daily Caller reporter introduced himself and shook Holder’s hand. The reporter asked him for a response to the growing chorus of federal legislators demanding his resignation.
Holder stepped towards the exit, then turned around, stepped back toward the reporter, and sternly said, “You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.”
Audio and full story here.
The press is behind it? The Daily Caller reporter? Holder behaves as if this reporter walked guns across the border himself, only to return to the office and pen salacious stories about Holder’s knowledge and sanction of it.
This is similar to the way in which VP Joe Biden recently lashed out at Jason Mattera.
This administration is embattled and sees as its enemy the citizen and new(ish) media that does the job the old, bygone press refuses to do: ask tough questions of elected (and unelected) officials and be dissatisfied with rehearsed, mean-nothing form answers.
This behavior only signals that they’re more nervous about 2012 than they’re letting on.
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