Because it's worked so well?

More likely it's because right-wing media critics despise the press so much that they'll cheer any attempt by Republicans to delegitimize it. Even if it means Republicans lose elections, apparently.

Sharron Angle, of course, is the Tea Party candidate in Nevada who, after winning the GOP primary, quickly closed off access with mainstream reporters and mostly only made time for AM talkers and the friendly folks at Fox News. We've been writing about the anti-media trend for weeks now, and how Angle is clearly aping the strategy of Sarah Palin who has stiffed the press and been rewarded with more press coverage.

This week, the WashPost's Kurtz logged in with a story:

Since her primary victory in Nevada, Senate candidate Sharron Angle has spoken mainly with Fox News, sympathetic radio hosts, columnist George Will, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and, in an online video, Christian activist Ralph Reed. Angle told the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody last week that she's not “running from the media,” but that “the whole point of an interview is to use it, like they say 'earned media,' to earn something with it, and I'm not going to earn anything from people who are there to badger me and use my words to batter me with.”

Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft responded with the usual, hysterical rhetoric about the “lies” of the “state-run media” trying to do in Angle, and how she was super savvy and smart, as a statewide candidate, to generally refuse to answer reporters' questions on behalf of voters trying to learn more about her positions. (Brilliant!)

And at NewsBusters, Tim Graham was just kind of incoherent on the topic of journalism [emphasis added]:

Of course, any candidate for public office should expect to be pressed on their policies, campaign ads, public statements, and behavior. But any candidate also has the right to choose which interviews to do, based on the idea of winning their campaign.

Huh? And does that extend to press conferences as well Tim, where candidates should be allowed to pick and choose which reporters to call on based on which reporter and their would-be question would help the candidate win the campaign?

If that sounds like total nonsense, that's because it is. And (surprise!) it's not working for Angle in Nevada. Check out this recent headline from Las Vegas Review columnist Jon Ralston:

How the race has turned sour for Sharron Angle

The lead:

With Angle's hot air balloon leaking helium about as rapidly as oil left that Gulf well -- 45 days and counting and the GOP Senate nominee still has not plugged it -- the question is whether she can survive the fall to earth.

At least three polls I know of show Angle trailing Harry Reid, including Friday's Mason-Dixon survey that has the Senate majority leader ahead, 44-37, outside the margin of error. Even if you don't believe one of the polls, the trend is inescapable and the race's dynamic is fundamentally altered.

Still, the visceral hatred for the press on the right is so pronounced, it appears that given the choice between winning elections and trying to delegitimize the press, the haters would pick the doomed electoral strategy every time.