You know, I find it hard to be sympathetic to the media when I read stories like this:

Such is life spent trailing the Clinton juggernaut, where reporters can generally get close enough to watch but no further, as if separated from the candidate by an invisible sheet of glass.

National correspondents are increasingly frustrated by a lack of access to Clinton. They spend much of their time in rental cars chasing her from one event to the next, because the campaign usually provides no press bus or van. Life on the bus means journalists don’t have to worry about luggage or directions or getting left behind, since they are part of the official motorcade. News organizations foot the bill for such transportation, but campaigns have to staff and coordinate the buses — and deal with the constant presence of their chroniclers.

With rare exceptions — John McCain chats endlessly with reporters aboard his bus — leading presidential candidates take a wary approach to the press, doling out access in carefully limited increments. Journalists sometimes question whether it is worth the time and energy to trail politicians who rarely engage them. In this regard, Clinton differs only in her degree of discipline, honed during eight years of often testy media relations in her husband’s White House.

The reporter also complains about things like canceled events and bad directions as if they’re nothing more than distancing tactics - and they’re not. Working for a major campaign is like being in the aftermath of a tornado, and chaos is inevitable.

Having worked as a press secretary, I can tell you I went into the process with great respect for journalists - and, with few exceptions, left with none.

I can see whining about lack of access if reporters were consistent and even-handed with their treatment of candidates, but they’re just not. They want to pick winners and then take down everyone else. And the funny thing is, even if you agree with those choices, you still get a sick feeling in your stomach when you realize this is what the democratic process has become: An insiders’ game, played by those who control the public perception.

There’s very little acknowledgment that there are real issues at stake, things that affect people’s lives.

It’s not just the commercial media that’s the problem. It’s that a distracted and disengaged public has outsourced the entire system to those insiders, making their final vote contingent on snippets from TV ads.

So while I can sit here and bemoan a candidate’s decision not to make themselves available to the press, I know they’re only playing the game by the rules the media designed. No matter how much time and money you put in, no matter how good your ideas, all it takes is one tired moment, one little slip of the tongue, and it’s all over. No context, no perspective.

Just “Gotcha!”