John McCain and Sarah Palin criticized the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday for withholding a video of a 2003 event in which Barack Obama, their Democratic rival, praised a Palestinian scholar.
“It must be nice for a candidate to have major news organizations looking after his best interests like that,” GOP vice presidential nominee Palin said in Bowling Green, Ohio.
“Maybe some politicians would love to have a pet newspaper of their very own. In this case, we have a newspaper willing to throw aside even the public’s right to know in order to protect a candidate that its own editorial board has endorsed,” Palin said.
Russ Stanton, editor of the Times, said: “The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it. The Times keeps it promises to sources.”
Contents of the video were described in a Times story in April on Obama’s friendships with Palestinian-Americans in Chicago.
The story said that Obama attended a farewell dinner for the Palestinian scholar, at which some speakers spoke angrily of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and of U.S. policy toward Israel.
It said that Obama spoke warmly at the dinner of the scholar, Rashid Khalidi, but that his comments focused on finding common ground.
