Robert Foster, a first-term Mississippi state representative running for governor, declined to allow a female reporter to cover a campaign trip _ that is, unless she brought a male colleague with her.
Foster said in a tweet that the rejection resulted from a pledge he made to his wife that he would follow the "Billy Graham rule," to "avoid any situation that may evoke suspicion or compromise of our marriage."
Larrison Campbell, the Mississippi Today reporter denied access, wrote in an article Tuesday night that Foster's campaign manager told her a male colleague would need to accompany her on the 15-hour trip because the optics of a candidate alone with a woman could be used to insinuate an affair.
Campbell and her editor thought "the request was sexist and an unnecessary use of resources given this reporter's experience covering Mississippi politics." Campbell says the practice has unfair and untoward implications for her and other women.
"What you're saying here is that a woman is a sexual object first and a reporter second," Campbell told Foster on Thursday on CNN.
Foster has faced a sharp backlash for his action, and for his invocation of the so-called Billy Graham rule. So what exactly is this rule and what is the debate around it?
