by JD -
Well, we tried. Throughout this entire campaign season, dogged producer Tucker Ives has been trying to schedule Republican senate candidate Linda McMahon for our series on Where We Live called “Where We Vote.” We ask for one hour of the candidate’s time, in our studio, to answer questions from me and our listeners. We’d wanted to have her on during the primary against Chris Shays. Shays came on the show, she didn’t.
For weeks since then, we’ve tried again and again, and had our phone calls unreturned, and requests for dates unanswered. It’s a bit ironic, given the press release I got on September 19 with the heading “Will Murphy continue to stonewall and duck media questions for another 48 days?”
McMahon’s rival, Democrat Chris Murphy, will join us on October 3 (originally scheduled for tomorrow), and has also already been on the program once before, during the primary season. He’ll answer some tough questions that have been dogging his campaign, but also get to talk about policy issues and give voters a reason to elect him in November.
McMahon has appeared once before on “Where We Vote” - back in March of 2010 when she was running against Rob Simmons in another senate race. During that interview, McMahon suggested that I was asking too many questions about her company WWE. Obviously, questions about WWE were on the table again this campaign year, given the wrestling empire’s ongoing effort to scrub the internet of distasteful video “highlights” of past episodes of their “scripted entertainment.” And, for months, I’ve been wanting to ask her about the lack of access to her campaign by the press, and the feud that developed with newspaper editors over their characterization of WWE’s product.
And of course, we’d be talking about what has become the highlight issue in this campaign for Senate. No, not jobs or the economy, but as Colin McEnroe puts it, the burning question of “who’s the bigger deadbeat?” We’d ask questions about the creditors McMahon is only now paying back from her bankruptcy in the 1970s.
We’ve said it before: If you have the money to pay for your message, I suppose you can afford to avoid interviews on “free” media like “Where We Vote.”
If Linda McMahon still wants to join us, and there’s someone from the campaign reading this, we’ve got some open dates. Get in touch with Tucker. You know where to reach him.
Truly a shame that a candidate for U.S. Senate won’t submit to an interview, (and this is not an editorial comment of any kind) but…
“For months, I’ve been wanting to ask her about the lack of access to her campaign by the press.”
Linda, we’d like to ask you, on our news show, why you refuse the press access to your campaign. We’d like you to grant us access to ask why you won’t grant any access.
Zen koan time!
This is exactly why she is where she is….no one knows anything about her…she does not know how to debate or interview and cannot control the questions or cannot think on the fly and she wants to keep it that way…the voters should really be aware of this.
I’d also like someone to ask her why she won’t agree to any debates in Fairfield County. I know the Murphy campaign is willing. Many of us don’t receive the Hartford TV stations down here, so voters won’t get to see the candidates in action. I sense this is precisely the point. McMahon can afford to throw money at the New York City metro ad market and Murphy can’t, so she obviously believes that this gives her an advantage. But combined with her avoidance of the press, it just makes her look like WWE programming – “scripted entertainment.”
Let’s also ask her about health care reforms. How can voters trust her to deal with health care issues when she refuses to provide health insurance to her wrestlers? Murphy, on the other hand, has been a key driver of the health care reform legislation that is providing millions more Americans with coverage, including many young people who are now permitted to remain on their parents’ health insurance policies.
Why would she sit for an hour long session that will deal with issues last and the WWE first? As a voter, I don’t have a single care about the WWE. I’ve never watched it, never enjoyed it. But plenty of other have and that has made Linda and her husband a very nice fortune. Good for them. What does that have to do with being a good U.S. senator? Nothing. The uuber liberal – Colin is your template for an interview? You can’t be serious, or perhaps you are which is another good reason not to waste her time.
The problem with the media elites today is that they think they are entitled; that people should come and kiss the ring and submit to questioning. The fourth estate has painted itself into a corner by pretending to be unbiased and thoughtful. It is anything but that and therein lies the problem with this interview.
The media thinks it is entitled? It’s the voters who are entitled – you know, the people she wants to vote for her? I don’t want to hear pre-recorded, campaign fabricated messages from Linda. I want to hear the woman answer questions from the people she wants to represent. I want to hear her answer questions from an interviewer who knows far more about politics than me. If that is a waste of her time, then why should I vote for her especially if I’m willing to take the time to listen and learn more about her? If she is asked some difficult or uncomfortable questions, well that will give her an opportunity to show us how tough, articulate and knowledgeable she is. I want a senator who can handle pressure and isn’t afraid to show the voters who she is without a script telling her what to say. It’s time for Linda to put the big girl pants on and step away from the scripted messages. This interview would be time well spent and help me, a voter, get to know her
This was the dumbest post I’ve read in forever .. what? A politician should not have to answer questions?
The problem with candidate elites today is that they think they are entitled; that people should come and kiss the ring and not make them submit to questioning. McMahon does not, and never will, represent the “little people”.
Really? No memory and no conscience? Character?…she has none…which really does not qualify her to question anyone else’s. Also, notice we are not talking about the issues and policy…that’s deliberate, she does not have the intellectual bandwidth to deal with policy and reporters.
Part of being a leader and/or a senator is to be able to think on one’s feet…she is totally scripted and totally controlled…why? Because she does not have that ability….she thinks that she can hide behind her blood money….WWE is fair game since it is financing her campaign(blood money!) Most people who support her either have a very bad case of amnesia or have a really weird set of morales or values.
In ignorance there is bliss!
Scripted? Sounds like Obama. Why is it not possible for state of CT voters to invest in Reading themselves and asking the current office holders to account? Don’t expect anyone to be the final decision that’s made, how about avoiding the slash and burn strategy and put some time into accountability for your own results.
Mr. Dankosky, why not do what you did with the gubernatorial race between Dannel Malloy and Ned Lamont: unilaterally announce that you’re holding a debate between Murphy and McMahon on such and such a day, and if McMahon doesn’t agree to participate, then go ahead and hold an empty seat debate and interview Chris Murphy for a full hour? Why the double standard? Just do the same thing you did back then.
And let’s be clear that the “deadbeat” questions are silly. Virtually every tax expert who’s opined on the issue has stated that Murphy’s mortgage is entirely above board. Why not ask them, instead, about foreign policy? Murphy took the courageous stand of challenging the Republican incumbent over her support for the Iraq War in 2006. And he stated that he would challenge Lieberman, largely over foreign policy as well, in this campaign before Lieberman decided to retire. Murphy has stated unequivocally his position for an early withdrawal from the now pointless Afghan War. McMahon? I strongly doubt she’s even thought about it, a bit like Romney who said not a single word about Afghanistan at the GOP convention.
Why would any candidate who wasn’t a Democrat/Liberal agree to come on your show and submit themselves to a one-sided attack on things that aren’t really the issues of concern to the voters?
Perhaps someday, after you’ve demonstrated and earned a reputation for unbiased, fair and objective reporting and journalism absent the ubiquitous NPR spin, you might find conservatives willing to have a conversation about real issues – not the tired liberal canards that form the foundation of your world views.
She hopes to keep this campaign in the gutter. No substance and no policy. Why? Because she has no idea of the issues, foreign or domestic….all that she can say is reduce taxes and regulation and everyone will get a job….been there done that it —it does not work—in fact that is what led to both crashes-in ’29 and ’08…oh, you think that this is also a media conspiracy to rewrite
history? Only that every historian and economist of every stripe, has acknowledged it. This campaign is not about media bias….it is about blood money earned from gratuitous sex and violence to try and buy an election (for a second time) and a deliberate attempt to not discuss the issues by creating distractions. Voters should understand what the candidates stand for….not whether they paid their bills on time(which she avoided to the tune of $1,000,000 bankruptcy).
Old news you say?… well McMahon brought up the character issue first, now she has to answer for her past.
Chris Murphy is the lowest of the low. He voted for the bank bailout then gets a better rate for his mortgage then someone with an 800 credit score. The problem is his credit was in the gutter. He was delinquent on both rent and mortgage payments before the new loan. Oh and by the wayu the bank that gave him the loan…they received $400 million in the bank bailout. That is the kind of deal that MADE Chris Dodd not run for re-election. Murphy should have bowed out when that became public.
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Why does the media think it’s the obligation of every candidate to meet with any reporter, any journalist, any time, any where? Then when they’re rejected, the media acts like a petulant small child who demands attention. We really don’t know the details of the communication. Please don’t ever fool yourself and say the media just has the public interest at heart.
Thanks for all the comments, folks. Not sure exactly where I say it’s an “obligation” at all. Just letting you know what happened.
If the media picked up on her views about changing and eventually doing away with Social Security, McMahon would be in big trouble!
Why would she want to go on a show that will spend 60 minutes trying to help Murphy and 60 minutes trying to trip her up. If you were at least somewhat fair to her two yearts ago then she would be on the show again.
Maybe Linda is waiting for governor Malloy to accept an invitation to state and church?
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