What's the deal with Republicans and follow-up questions?

If you saw that short documentary about Helen Thomas on HBO recently, you may have been struck by something she said about the current occupant of the White House: According to the grand dame of the Washington press corps, George W. Bush is the only president she has covered over the years who refuses to take follow-up questions from the press.

But now, it appears, he has company. CNN was informed late Tuesday by the John McCain campaign that the candidate's scheduled appearance on "Larry King Live" was off. Why? The campaign said CNN reporter Campbell Brown had crossed the line earlier that day in her interview with McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. But look at the tape yourself and it becomes clear that Brown is getting punished for nothing more than asking the follow-up.

This is a testy exchange, and it is definitely hampered by two things: a satellite bounce and Campbell Brown's theatrics. (The full interview gives a better sense of how technically challenging the interview was.)

Brown -- whose local-news career started nearby, in Topeka -- didn't invent dramatic televised interrogation, to be sure. Still, if she's going to do this kind of long-distance grilling on a regular basis, it would be nice if she could learn a little more subtlety. Maybe study some Ted Koppel "Nightline" tapes, or some Russert. But that's a minor criticism. Her chief sin here is that she persistently asked a question that was not getting answered. And for that, the McCain campaign punished her network, all the while claiming it's the victim.

Speaking from experience, I do not usually ask a great lead-off question (and that applies even when not interviewing aloof rock legends). I'd be lost if I was denied the opportunity to ask a follow-up or two.

Of course, CNN isn't entirely blameless in moving journalism away from follow-up questions. After all, its YouTube Debate series emphasized pretaped video questions from viewers, who obviously were not in a position to ask follow-ups. Yes, I agree with CNN's David Bohrman that a lot of people aren't qualified to ask one question, let alone two. But if the questions are vetted in advance (by Bohrman or some other pro), then it seems to me the questioner deserves the same privileges that Campbell Brown and yours truly and thousands of other journalists are given every day. Otherwise, this trend toward citizen journalism will be indistinguishable from citizen PR.