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Why Are Reporters Still Covering Palin Events?

posted by Dan Savage on October 17 at 7:42 AM

Dana Milbank at the Washington Post:

��� In cooperation with the Palin campaign, [the Secret Service has] started preventing reporters from leaving the press section to interview people in the crowd. This is a serious violation of their dutymdash;protecting the protecteemdash;and gets into assisting with the political aspirations of the candidate. It also often makes it impossible for reporters to get into the crowd to question the people who say vulgar things. So they prevent reporters from getting near the people doing the shouting, then claim itrsquo;s unfounded because the reporters canrsquo;t get close enough to identify the person.

This is crazymdash;Palin hasnrsquo;t held a single press conference, wonrsquo;t answer reportersrsquo; questions, insults the ldquo;media elitesrdquo; and ldquo;filtersrdquo; at her rallies, and her crowds have verbally attacked members of the media. And yet the media dutifully shows up at rallies and gives Palin the coverage she wants and needs, coverage that benefits the McCain/Palin campaign, and broadcasts clips of Palin delivering her stump speech. Why? Like I said on September 23hellip;

��� Maybe itrsquo;s time for the media to pull all reportersmdash;print and television, photographers and videographersmdash;off the McCain campaign. Entirely. Press coverage of a campaign is supposed to be a two-way street. The candidate wants to get his mug on television, he wants his rallies and speeches broadcast and written up, he wants to use the media to reach the voters. In exchange for allowing themselves to be used, the candidate is supposed to make himself available to reporters and anchors, answer questions, hold press conferences. The McCain campaign isnrsquo;t holding up its end of the deal. Itrsquo;s using the media to reach voters without making Palin and, increasingly, McCain available for questioning.

��� Why should the media play along? The media should pull reporters off the McCain campaign and refuse to cover rallies or speeches until McCain and Palin start holding press conferences. Period. You want to reach our viewers and readers? Start answering our questions. Donrsquo;t want to answer our questions? Wersquo;ll ignore you and your campaign.

UPDATE: More from Think Progress:

��� Constantly under the watchful eyes of security, the media wasnrsquo;t permitted to wander around inside Coachman Park to talk to Sarah Palin supporters. When reporters tried to leave the designated press area and head toward the bleachers where the crowd was seated, an escort would dart out of nowhere and confront him or her and say, ldquo;Can I help you?rdquo; and turn the person around.

��� When one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasnrsquo;t allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written. The campaign wanted to avoid that possibility Monday.

Okay, this is nuts. First, reporters should not allowed themselves to be ldquo;turned aroundrdquo; by anonymous ldquo;escorts.rdquo; Push the fuck past lsquo;em. And if the Secret Service or other law enforcement officers get involved, push past them too. Tell them yoursquo;re going to do your job, that yoursquo;re not going to sit in a pen, and tell themmdash;Palin ldquo;escorts,rdquo; Secret Service agents abusing their authoritymdash;that if they want to stop you theyrsquo;re going to arrest you. Then instead of video of Palin delivering her moronic stump speech, Americans can watch videotape of reporters being dragged from Palin rallies in handcuffs.

Those images will appeal to some Americansmdash;particularly the Americans that show at Palin ralliesmdash;but the overwhelming majority of Americans will be horrified, and it will make more Americans aware of how deeply un-American Palin, her supporters, and her rallies all are.



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