Billy Long Fed Up With Breitbart Reporters and Local Press

The Busplunge blog is reporting tonight Billy Long was standoffish to local reporters in his home district after today's Tea Party in Joplin, Missouri. Jim Lee at Busplunge writes, "Reports are filtering in that following his remarks at the Joplin Tea Party, Rep. Long skirted past four local reporters set up to ask questions and quickly left the area."

All this comes just a day after Breitbart published a piece on Billy Long where one of their reporters asked Congressman Long's office for information about whether or not Long lived up to his campaign promise to Southwest Missouri voters and sold his fiduciary businesses--Billy Long Auctions and his 1/3 share in Murney Associates. Long's office would not provide any information to Breitbart about the status of his businesses, despite The Hill reporting earlier this week that Long still owns his auction houses.

Bret Funk responded to Breitbart's Bob McCarty, "Apologies Bob, we are initially focusing on our district press for media requests. Please keep us in mind in the future.” When another representative of Breitbart followed up with Funk, he received no reply from Funk or anyone from Long's office.

Considering local 7th District reporters waited for Long after his Tea Party speech to ask him questions, and he ignored the reporters and quickly left the area, something BBCW observed many times throughout the campaign season, Long doesn't appear focused on local reporters either.

As well, I continue to hear from my sources in the media who have requested for interviews from the Congressman that he is unwilling to find time for any interview time. With that said, an Ohio firm managed to get time with Long for a story they did on lobbying that was released on the same day that Funk said Long was just focusing on local reporters.