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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Media's candidate quandary (Larry Sinclair to appear at National Press Club tomorrow?) THE Washington media is about to be consumed by a new debate over Barack Obama. The question is, to what extent should they air scandalous claims about the presumptive Democratic nominee when the man making them appears at a press conference at the National Press Club tomorrow? Larry Sinclair, of Minnesota, became famous — or rather, infamous — when he posted a YouTube video last year, alleging that he and Senator Obama used cocaine together and participated in homosexual acts in 1999. According to Mr Sinclair, the liaison occurred in the back of a "limo" during Senator Obama's time in the Illinois Senate. But beyond that, Mr Sinclair has been vague about dates and locations. Unsurprisingly, there is no proof of the allegations, and when Mr Sinclair offered to take a polygraph test last year, he failed it. It is also instructive that none of Senator Obama's opponents have embraced Mr Sinclair and his claims, despite 15 months of robust campaigning. But now Mr Sinclair has booked a conference room at the National Press Club, the premier venue for news conferences in Washington, and he plans to air the allegations again. The mainstream media is not sure how to treat Mr Sinclair's claims, but the move to host him at the press club has outraged liberal websites, which have moved well beyond reportage to activism. Firedoglake, edited by Jane Hamsher, has assembled an online petition signed by nearly 11,500 people and delivered it Monday to the club, urging it to check the facts of Mr Sinclair's story before giving him the stage. It accused the club of giving Mr Sinclair the "sheen of legitimacy" and warned that it was in breach of its own journalistic code of ethics. The National Press Club's president, Sylvia Smith, defended the event, saying: "I'm not aware that we've ever turned anybody away for content." Whether the press conference will be reported by the mainstream media remains to be seen, but it has again focused attention on the limits of free speech and the new breed of activist media that helps shape the campaign on both the left and right flanks of politics. It will certainly be debated fiercely on both the airwaves and in the bloggersphere.
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#2. To: christine (#0)
I just read he was put in cuffs by DC police after the speech for jumping bail
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