The president of the National Press Club today defended the club's playing host to allegations against Barack Obama from a fringe figure, Larry Sinclair, whose claims have been widely ignored by the news media.It appears we haven't heard the last of Larry Sinclair.
"I'm not aware that we've ever turned anybody away for content," said Sylvia Smith, who is the Washington editor of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, adding that Sinclair's allegations — of sex and drug use by Obama — "don't seem very credible."
She said the Press Club, along with staging its own events, also rents space in its downtown Washington, D.C., headquarters to anyone willing to pay the fees.
"Would I pop my head in to the press conference? I doubt it. I have better things to do," she said of Sinclair's gathering.
A range of liberal blogs, including FireDogLake, DailyKos, TalkingPointsMemo, MyDD, and TaylorMarsh.com — the last a center for pro-Clinton, anti-Obama organizing in the primaries — are pressing the Press Club to cancel the event, which is scheduled for June 18, and circulating a petition with more than 7,000 signatures.
The activists complain that the use of the press club offers what one calls a "sheen of legitimacy" to a man who, among other crediblity questions, failed a polygraph test.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
National Press Club Defends Playing Host to Larry Sinclair
Politico reports:
