Obama Turns Army Loose on Chicago's WGN

Barack Obama's camp deployed its devoted followers to flood the phone lines of Chicago's WGN-AM last night during an appearance by writer Stanley Kurtz, an Obama critic. A WGN producer tells the Tribune the campaign's push generated “the biggest response we've ever got” during the 2-hour segment with Kurtz, who recently penned a story linking Obama to a radical professor at the University of Illinois.

The campaign’s email blamed WGN for giving "a slimy character assassin" the chance to "rant on our public airwaves," and asked for a chance to rebut—though the show's producer claims the Obama campaign refused just such a request. The Obama camp has used similar tactics in the past, the Tribune notes, against stations running campaign ads the Democrat found distasteful. (More Barack Obama stories.)