The Question We Should Ask
This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.
Enough already.
Every couple of hours during Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East, some lucky network gets a sit down interview with the Illinois Senator. We breathlessly promote it. And put the word exclusive underneath it. And somehow try to divine from his few hours of contact with a given country or the U.S. military what he knows now that he didn't know before.
I can't help but, wonder if we would be expending similar resources and air time if John McCain was traveling abroad. The Obama folks have played this perfectly. Access to the senator has been highly restricted so the pictures that do come out are better than if he were surrounded by news cameras.
We're getting viral videos from soldiers. Or cool candids from the helicopter of Obama and David Petraeus over Baghdad. To their credit the reporters and anchors have been asking Obama the hard questions. But, the real question we should ask is did we get used.
By Harry Smith