Graham announces new policy for media’s access to famous notebooks

Those famous notebooks Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) uses to jot down the details of his daily life had been an open book, so to speak.

Graham had nothing to hide, reporters were curious about the kinds of things the presidential candidate would write down in these logs, so the campaign figured open access was a way to get the story out into the open, quell reporters’ curiosity, and move on to more important matters. Stories were written, excerpts were published, and jokes were made. Fine.

The problem was that reporters seemed unwilling to move on. Graham’s notebooks became the subject of ridicule and the campaign found it increasingly difficult to address the substantive issues of Graham’s candidacy without addressing questions about the darn notebooks. (At one point a Washington Post parody of the notebooks was read on the air by the Today Show’s Katie Couric who mistakenly thought the joke was real.) One story about the notebooks would beget three more and it was quickly growing tiresome for everyone but the political journalists.

So the campaign made a new announcement: You had your fun and now it’s over.

As of Tuesday, the Graham campaign decided that reporters will no longer have access to the notebooks.

I happen to agree with the campaign’s moves here. If I worked for Graham and a few months ago some reporters wanted to take a look at what the candidate was writing down, I’d have argued to allow open access to prove we have nothing to hide.

It was hard to anticipate, however, just how obnoxious the press would become about it, which is why I also agree with the change about closing access. No one at this point could reasonably argue that Graham was trying to hide something serious from reporters. He gave them an invitation, they abused it, so he’s rescinding the invitation.

It reminds me a bit of a parent who warns a child that if he or she can’t play nicely with a new toy then the toy will be taken away.

With any luck, this will end the notebook discussion. Graham does have an actual campaign platform that has nothing to do with jotting down the minutiae of his life.