***Added: Fox News and CBS have announced they are joining the boycott.
Eric Holder’s attempt to save his job by repairing his image with the media through a series of off-the-record meetings with several news organizations is backfiring in a major way. While ABC News and Politico have agreed to attend, CNN, McClatchy, the Associated Press, New York Times, and Huffington Post have all made very public statements declaring they will boycott the meeting.
Last week, after news broke that holder had personally signed the application to obtain the warrant to seize Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal emails and phone records, the left-leaning Huffington Post called for Holder’s resignation.
It looks as though Holder has stumbled dramatically in his attempt at damage control. Rather than do the smart thing with a round-robin of contrite on-the-record interviews with these news outlets, Holder stupidly put them on the spot.
Summoning the media for publicly-announced off-the-record meetings is a terrible idea. It puts the media in the position of looking like they are playing some kind of insider’s game with the very man who, up till two weeks ago, was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to intimidate age-old news gathering methods.
Holder is in trouble, and his panic-moves are not helping.
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