In Defense of Andrea Mitchell

Matt Lewis | August 19, 2008 8:26 AM

As you probably heard, John McCain's campaign manager sent a tersely-worded missive to NBC News president Steve Capus, complaining about "unsubstantiated, partisan claims" made by NBC's

Andrea Mitchell regarding the "cone of silence."

Following is Mitchell's controversial comment from Sunday's "Meet the Press":

"The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because that — what they're putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama.... He seemed so well-prepared."

In my estimation, Mitchell acted appropriately. She merely reported that the Obama campaign was making accusations -- which was no doubt true. Analysts (and bloggers, for that matter) are paid to report the behind-the-scenes grumblings of campaigns. But reporting something does not mean you endorse it or believe it.

My guess is the McCain campaign has other reasons for picking this fight. But in regards to this specific incident, I can't see where Mitchell did anything inappropriate ...