Palin staff keep journalists locked inside press area to prevent them from writing ‘negative things.’
Palin staff keep journalists locked inside press area to prevent them from writing ‘negative things.’
During Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) speech in Florida this morning, campaign staffers kept the press locked out of the park and away from supporters attending the speech:
Constantly under the watchful eyes of security, the media wasn’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, “Can I help you?” and turn the person around.
When one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn’t allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written. The campaign wanted to avoid that possibility Monday.
Palin has still yet to give a single press conference since being tapped as Sen. John McCain’s running mate on August 29.
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Sounds more and more like something out of the Bush/Cheney/Rove book of how to win friends and control people.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:37 pmWhat the HELL is wrong with the reporters? Can't they just say "No, I don't need any help," and then go wherever they want? Is it that easy to herd them and "turn them around?" SHEESH!
The Palin Watch widget is counting up the time that Sarah Palin is stonewalling the press.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:37 pmWhen one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn’t allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written. The campaign wanted to avoid that possibility Monday.
Wow. So the rank-and-file campaign staff are just as delusional as Nancy Pfotenhauer is. Interesting.
But good luck with that, guys! I'm sure no reporter will write anything negative after this.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:38 pmPalin including her supporters want to talk directly to the American people. They dont need these elitist MSM filters filtering away all the incoherent bullshit and strip Palins lies bare naked
October 6th, 2008 at 8:39 pmWhen 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, “Can I help you?” and turn the person around.
Did they dart, or goose-step? Only state-approved news releases, please.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:39 pm*cough*soviet*cough*
It's Gomer Pylin!
Shazzayam!
October 6th, 2008 at 8:44 pmShe has learned well from dur chimpfurher, not really from the smirking chimp, but from the criminal cabal that is behind him.
US Politics will never be the same, because the economic/political interests that brought us an AWOL abusive alcoholic/cocaine "war pResident" via 2 stolen elections is going to find others waiting to take his place.
No, palin is not smart enough to organize this and certainly had no experience managing a national campaign and persona.
It is not really the folks in front of the camera that are stealing our democracy.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:47 pmWhy do the press even bother showing up? All that happens is that they give free publicity for McCain's talking points, with no real access to the candidate.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:48 pmi was going to mention something
about constitutional rights.
#
but what good would it do?
^
if you ask sarah about that they'd
just call it another "gotcha" question.
*
October 6th, 2008 at 8:49 pmGuido the Loving OBGYN - unfortunately, that is all they need from her now.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:54 pmNo access? Why not just stop covering her? C'mon, grow a pair! BOYCOTT THE BIMBO!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:04 pmI know that's a tempting thought, but then they'd have these sinister meetings in private, and we wouldn't know that her supporters are calling for assassination.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:07 pmThe media has brought this on themselves. They have stood where bush told them to stand and told only the stories that bush has told them they could tell.
Any who did not cooperate were shunned, ask Helen.
My question is, why is mccain so afraid of a bunch of cowed stenographers. None of them are real journalists any way and would ordinarily do mccains bidding willingly.
This seems to reflect the height of fear and insecurity in the mccain camp.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:09 pmBOYCOTT THE BIMBO!
Actually, I would prefer for the press to just start shouting questions and printing them along with the words, "she refused comment".
October 6th, 2008 at 9:09 pmWhen one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn’t allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written. The campaign wanted to avoid that possibility Monday.
Must have forgotten that McCain likes his campaign coverage with sprinkles on it.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:09 pmWell her "handlers" are the same people that were in the inner circle when Chimpy was (s)elected in 2000.
no wonder her tactics remind me of Bush.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:10 pmI think the press should ban her in their news coverage until they can actually ask her questions.
You know, do a McCain.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:13 pmI imagine that 90% of her crowds are Evangelicals turned out by fundamentalist churches. The campaign does not want reporters asking them about 'Intelligent Design', the Rapture, Etc.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:13 pmFailin' Palin's stupidity is contagious -- everyone who attends her pageants, er, rallies comes down with a case of the dumbs.
It is no longer sufficient to keep Failin' Palin away from the press. Now, even her brain-dead supporters are off-limits.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:15 pmI'm not surprised. I just tried to contact the McCain campaign to tell them how despicable they are and guess what? There is no contact link on their website. These people are Nazis. White supremacists. Bigots. Haters. I can't express how turned off I am by these people. Both of them are antagonistic, ignorant, irritating. Today, somebody shouted at a rally in New Mexico that Obama is a terrorist and McCain didn't take exception. I am embarrassed and so afraid that too many people think this way. I weep for my country that we are so small that somebody would stand up at a presidential rally and say such a thing.
I also heard today on Thom Hartmann that a congressman said in an interview that they were told if they didn't pass the bailout bill, the administration would declare marshall law. If that is the level of threats we face, we are in big trouble. Thanks, Pelosi, for giving Bush an excuse to do anything he wants. Only the threat of impeachment would have stopped the rape of this country. Or should I say the further rape. We were already in deep dooodoo and now it's much, much worse.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:17 pmSo we now know that:
1. One of the Palin supporters at her rally today said "kill him!" in response to her "palin' around with terrorists" rift about Obama.
2. They won't let the local press go near any of her supporters at all.
I figured it out! The KKK has now become the McCain/Palin campaign's GOTV organization!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:21 pmThe Empress has no clothes.
Who in the Corporate Media is brave enough to say so...?
October 6th, 2008 at 9:23 pmWhy in the name of God does the media even bother covering this campaign? No access, no interviews, probably no free coffee. Stop covering the campaign, and watch the access open wide up. No politician, not even McCain, wants to be ignored. Let Fox cover them.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:24 pmTo know, know, know her is to loathe, loathe, loathe her? (wink)
October 6th, 2008 at 9:30 pmWhen I read this just now, I though it said:
"Palin has still yet to give a single press conference since being tRapped as Sen. John McCain’s running mate on August 29."
October 6th, 2008 at 9:39 pmThis is what the Bushies have done for the past eight years and look how it has worked out for us. These people should be locked up in padded cells.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:41 pmI don't like Republicans. Heck, I don't even like anyone who LIKES a Republican.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:43 pmthese people obviously know that only frighteningly deluded people could be capeable of continuing to support sara palin, and they dont want the world to see what these people are actually like...
October 6th, 2008 at 10:00 pm>The Empress has no clothes.
The sad thing is, if she didnt, she'd probably get more votes..
October 6th, 2008 at 10:02 pmI doubt that Ford Motors would want the automotive press asking one of their leggy, teeth-bleached Car Show models about the new corporate strategy on hybrids, either.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:02 pmwho in the heck votes for a PILF, anyway?
October 6th, 2008 at 10:03 pmThe GOP should be called --Grand Old Sock Puppets!the GOSP.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:27 pm"negative things had been written"
You run for Vice-POTUS and don't expect to have "negative things" written about you? Or even prevent reporters talking with your supporters? Then again, I can see their view since the McCain/Palin crowd is narrowing down to such a bunch of wingnut losers whom they would not want to talk to raporters to as they exhibit their ignorance.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:57 pmOops-please forgive my typo's in #37
October 6th, 2008 at 11:00 pmAnybody following this and the lunacy that goes along with it, should make sure to see Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" on 10/6. He takes Palin apart with a verbal chainsaw and doesn't leave much. All of her fluff blows away in the wind. If she was for real , she wouldn't show her face tomorrow, but we know she isn't that smart.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:04 pmDoes this make her above reproach and therefore a Fuehrerline?
October 6th, 2008 at 11:04 pmWHY IS THE PRESS PUTTING UP WITH THAT BS? This IS still America, isn't it??
October 6th, 2008 at 11:08 pmWhat dispicable cretins these Rethuglicans are. This has all the smell of a Communist regime. And to think that McInsane and his bimbo running mate are accusing Obama of all sorts of crap. I would hope the press would grow a set and spit on them. Write what you want and realize you owe these creeps nothing but your contempt and shake off their dust as you go.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:12 pmWell Putin raised his ugly head, only in the form of Palin's minions restricting a free press.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:22 pmYou can wrap turd in a pretty package, but it's still turd. We have your number Sara, and the rose is off you, and the GOP bloom.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:39 pmIsn't this what they do in Communist countries? The turn the press around if they wonder into areas that the government doesn't want to show to the public?
October 6th, 2008 at 11:44 pmWhat a bunch of CHUMPS the press are. Leave her campaign and don't write about her. You have the ability to make her more irrelevant.
Too bad they can't resist the urge to be the first fly to land on that turd.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:44 pmvat694848, please don't spell her name without the H, you make this Sara really uncomfortable being associated with her!
How come the reporters don't just say - "no, sorry, you don't have the right to keep us out"? Don't they want a scoop?
Bunch of lily-livered cowards.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:23 amChicken $hit Sarah and her handlers are scared as hell of her making a huge blunder.......Once again it shows me that the press is BRASSLESS.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:31 amCan't have the press messing up the rallies, can we? What if someone felt like burning some books, or a couple of witches? Group-think can't bloom fully in the face of questions and things that remind people of normal life. To get a really effective, subservient, and angry mob going you need a LOT of CONTROL.
Curiosity kills the trance.
It's not easy to whip up a critical mass of the national hysteria necessary to make it plausible that McCain-Palin and their endless wars has a following sufficient to constitute a majority of Americans who are ready to kill anyone who wants a recount or a real and binding investigation of vote fraud when the election is called.
Look at it from THEIR point of view. The McCain-Palin campaign has some serious challenges. Of course, they can't have the press wandering around asking their followers (who may have signed a loyalty oath) questions that might make their followers ask questions about themselves.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:39 amSo my question is, why do the press still follow her around like puppy dogs. Why don't they just tell her if she won't talk to them, then they won't cover her. How humiliating it must be to tag along like a puppy and put in your place.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:54 am.
... Because nothing says "FREEDOM of SPEECH and the PRESS" like cages and barriers.
.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:15 am.
Q U E S T I O N:
How does one bar "Freedom of the press"?
>
October 7th, 2008 at 1:16 amHmmm. Negative things had been written... like the TRUTH?
October 7th, 2008 at 2:30 amWhy are the members of the press bleating and mewling and acting all helpless?
THEY ARE SHEEP!!!
The reporters could have left their area AS a group if they were individually afraid of some unnamed aide's diapproval. If they couldn't get near enough to question supporters or ask questions, they should simply have left. NO coverage. NO photo ops. NO grip & grins. Just walk away from an untenable situation.
Do any of them have pride in doing a job?
Reporting? Or sitting in a corral waiting to be fleeced!
Furthermore, those aides are hiding in anonymity. Pictures can be taken and they can be identified. Nametags and badges can be read. If they don't produce identification, don't listen to their blather.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:24 amChocolate Jesus Says:
these people obviously know that only frighteningly deluded people could be capeable of continuing to support sara palin, and they dont want the world to see what these people are actually like…
October 6th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
________
...or find out that they're all paid extras.
Just a theory, but it's totally plausible. It'd be like the Nanny Laughers. Only these are the Palin Clappers.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:45 amSo much for transparency. But then if you ever believed that McCain or Palin were ever truly for transparency I got some land in Florida that should interest you.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:07 amjoe cantwell Says:
i was going to mention something
about constitutional rights.
but what good would it do?
if you ask sarah about that they’d
just call it another “gotcha” question.
In Palin's world they're privileges, not rights.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:08 amSupression of information and spreading of propaganda that were total lies. Sounds familiar- didn't they do the same thing in Germany in the 1930's?
October 7th, 2008 at 9:56 amThe "liberal press" got a little "free speech zones" treatment. Shut out by Sarah? The press sure has its troubles digging up her dirt. I have a feeling they don't want that story anyway.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:09 amI'm waiting for the inevitable Palin sex tape to surface. Won't that be a hoot! Kind of like the Tommy Lee/Pamela Anderson tape from years ago.
What would be a good title for a Palin sex tape?
October 7th, 2008 at 11:20 amOne night in Sarah?
Or perhaps Sarah, Plain and Sprawled
October 7th, 2008 at 11:34 amFunny, isn't it, how the McManiacs want to demonize the press while using them to help spread their bile? I think it's time for the press to say goodbye to the McCain campaign by getting off the bus and departing the plane. Let McCain/Palin campaign in media silence. No news reports, no tv cameras.
As Dear Abby always said, nobody can take advantage of you without your permission.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:06 pmNow that the press is receiving the same treatment from politicians that non-republicans have been receiving from the Bush administration for the past eight years, maybe they'll start reporting on the demise of Amendment Number One, in this country.
As long as it was just protesters, or suspected non-bush-supporters who were being sequestered in out-of-the-way holding pens (or being arrested for trespassing in public places) nothing was reported about it. But, just as Bush has made younger people (who never cared about politics before) wake up and get involved; maybe reporters will start taking umbrage at the errosion of rights, now.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:47 pm