Monday, August 11, 2008

News-Leader reporter praised in L. A. Times article


When some local reporters receive the rare opportunity of interviewing a presidential candidate, they offer softball questions or end up serving as a cheerleader for the candidate.

Not the Springfield News-Leader's political reporter Chad Livengood, who was mentioned in an article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times:

Not all local interviewers are so unctuous. Take Chad Livengood, who encountered McCain at a June rally in Missouri.

The Springfield News-Leader statehouse reporter heard McCain tout his plan for a gas tax holiday, then concede afterward, in another one of those short interviews, that the proposal had very little chance of making it through Congress.

"He was promising it up on the stage, but behind the scenes he was admitting it wouldn't go anywhere," the 25-year-old reporter said.

So Livengood let his readers know about the discrepancy. And his story described how some economists doubted the tax cut would make a significant difference.

Sometimes campaigns dial for dummies and end up reaching sharpies.


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