-By Warner Todd Huston
Andrea Mitchell is mad at John McCain and Sarah Palin because the McCain camp excluded the press from Palin’s meetings with foreign officials this week. She is so upset that she as much as charged that John McCain’s treatment of the press is as bad as that of the dictatorial ruler in North Korea, Kim Jong Il.
On Tuesday’s Rachel Maddow show (MSNBC), Mitchell said that excluding the press when Palin met with foreign leaders was not “standard practice” and mentioned that in oppressive countries like Sudan and North Korea the press is often excluded. Mitchell also added that The State Department has a “standard practice” of making sure the press is included in meetings even in foreign countries. But Obama also excluded the press in his meetings with leaders in Europe this Summer, yet this fact didn’t even rate a mention by Mitchell tonight.