I don’t often quote Steve Benen in a positive manner, and he does mix in some PDS, but reading this brought a smile to my face:
When Palin says she wants news organizations to “do a little bit of work,” what that means is she wants media outlets to simply follow her bus, wherever it might go. And wouldn’t you know it, actual news organizations are doing just that.
Right now, as Palin’s bus travels to destinations unknown, it’s being followed by an informal caravan of 15 or so vehicles — including a CNN bus — filled with reporters and producers. They don’t know where they’re going, and they don’t know what they’ll do when they get to where they’re going, but Sarah Palin is in a bus, and so they remain in pursuit….
The whole thing is just painfully stupid. The former half-term governor of Alaska has effectively told news organizations, “Catch me if you can!” To which the media responds, “We’ll be right behind you!”
CBS News is complaining that national news organizations are being treated like papparazi:
Sarah Palin and her advisers are refusing to tell members of the media where she is going on her current bus tour – and the former Alaska governor seems to be enjoying the cat and mouse game that’s resulted.
“I don’t think I owe anything to the mainstream media … I want them to have to do a little bit of work on a tour like this, and that would include not necessarily telling them beforehand where every stop’s going to be,” she told fellow Fox News employee Greta Van Susteren in an interview from the bus.
Yet the reemergence of the GOP’s larger-than-life 2008 vice presidential candidate – who says she is strongly considering a run for president – is undeniably news. Which is why more than a dozen national news outlets have sent reporters and producers out to try and follow Palin.
Since Palin and her team won’t share where the potential candidate is headed, reporters and producers have little choice but to simply stay close to Palin’s bus. This has resulted in scenes of the Palin bus tooling down the highway followed by a caravan of 10 or 15 vehicles all trying to make sure they don’t lose sight of the Palin bus.
It adds up to a dangerous situation, says CBS News Producer Ryan Corsaro.
“I just hope to God that one of these young producers with a camera whose bosses are making them follow Sarah Palin as a potential Republican candidate don’t get in a car crash, because this is dangerous,” he said.
Is there anything more satisfying than watching Sarah Palin, who regularly is accused by the mainstream media of not having “gravitas” and much worse, turn the mainstream media into a circus act?
Thank you.
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