The Year Politicians Railed at the Media

It's out of control. Two weeks ago, Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller of Alaska had his security guards handcuff a reporter; Democrat Charles Rangel of New York verbally undressed an MSNBC reporter on camera; Carl Paladino, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York almost came to blows with a New York Post reporter over coverage of the daughter he had in an extramarital affair; Tea Party candidates Sharron Angle of Nevada and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware regularly deny reporters access on the campaign trail—the list goes on. Although it appears to come mostly from the Republican side, much of the growth in negative perceptions about the news media has come from Democrats, according to the biennial Pew Research Center poll. Last year, for the first time ever, a majority of Democrats, 59 percent, said that reporting from news organizations is often inaccurate. That figure was 43 percent in 2007.