No one releases a new type of toothpaste on the Friday before Memorial Day. It is what news editors and marketing reps consider a publicity black hole, a time when the nation’s attention turns from televisions and newspapers to filling swimming pools and driving to the beach. So it is no accident that the much delayed release of John McCain’s health records has been scheduled for tomorrow. The campaign is billing the event as an unprecedented, transparent look at McCain’s medical records since his 2000 diagnosis with type IIa melanoma. But the campaign is also clearly trying to carefully control how the information is distributed.
The actual medical records will be viewed by only a select few news organizations, and even fewer print reporters. According to a report in the New York Times, the pool that will view the actual medical records Friday morning will include reporters from the three national wire services, the Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg, as well as the major television networks, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox. Only two newspapers are scheduled to be allowed access, the Washington Post and the Arizona Republic. While prior McCain campaign pool events have included a spot for a newsmagazine reporter, no reporter from TIME, Newsweek or U.S. News will be allowed to view the records, the campaign confirmed Thursday morning. All print reporters traveling with the campaign will receive a pool report of the records review, which will be written by pool reporters.
The campaign has not explained how the pool was selected, and has so far rebuffed requests by a number of news organizations, including TIME, to expand the pool. It is not clear what impact, if any, the lack of more access will have on the way the medical documents are reported.
Friday’s medical release is also notable for what records will not be released. In late 1999, a select group of news organizations were able to view about 1,500 pages of medical records dating back McCain’s Navy service in Vietnam, which will not be reshown on Friday. Those records included psychological evaluations of McCain as far back as the 1970s. The evaluations generally showed McCain to be in good mental and physical health.
UPDATE: Jill Hazelbaker, the McCain campaign’s communications director, has emailed a response to this post, which can be read after the jump:
In 1999, the campaign also pooled the review of the physical documents – with a much smaller group. At the time, the review was hailed as both serious and thorough.
Recognizing that this is a transparency issue, the campaign made the decision to put extensive and detailed summaries on our website, as well as host a ninety minute conference call with the physicians who have treated McCain over the past eight years. In 1999, reporters did not have direct access to his doctors, nor were summaries of his health made public.
While we cannot satisfy all people all the time, we believe we are making Senator McCain’s medical history public in a thoughtful and substantive manner.