Journalists Held Hostage by the Sarah Palin Bus Tour
06/01/2011 by Peter HartThe Sarah Palin hostage drama continues.
In case you haven't heard, Palin is taking a bus tour up the East Coast, visiting various sites of historic interest. Which naturally means that every media outlet is forced to follow along, covering this series of non-events as if they are of tremendous importance, asking the pertinent questions: Is she running for president? Has she launched a crafty non-campaign that appears much like a campaign, without really being a campaign?
On Sunday (5/29/11), CNN host Howard Kurtz wondered:
Is the press in danger of being bamboozled by somebody who, in the end, is probably not going to run?
To me, being bamboozled would imply that you're being tricked. Corporate media are doing something they've done plenty of times before: giving Sarah Palin far, far more attention than she deserves.
Salon's Justin Elliott had a great round-up of the faux-bewilderment of the press corps. He cites these anecdotes:
According to the AP:
By some counts, more than 200 journalists trooped alongside Palin in Philadelphia....
And from the Times:
The CNN Express bus, filled with producers, camera operators and on-air talent, sat in Gettysburg for hours Monday, not even sure she was coming.
Hopefully Palin will release the journalist/hostages soon, so that they can go out and do the sort of reporting they would prefer to do.
Tags: Howard Kurtz, Justin Elliott, Sarah Palin
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June 1st, 2011 at 3:50 pm
First it was Trump's nonsensical birtherism, then it was the Royal wedding, then the Palin trip. Now its a mean spirited prank by a hacker of Anthony Weiner's twitter account that CNN is turning into the the apocalypse. A CNN reporter was actually shouting at Weiner telling him that he should have the police invest their valuable time to investigate a relatively harmless twitter hack.
What about the debt ceiling? The patriot act? The Afghan war?
So much for American journalism.
June 1st, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Will she be visiting Manassas, Virginia?
It would seem a natural, being the site of the Battles of Bull Run, although I doubt any of the corpress would make the connection.
June 1st, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Ironic how Palin is able to gather so many journalists to cover here as she complains about how unfair the "lamestream media" is to her. Ironic and pathetic.
June 1st, 2011 at 7:43 pm
[...] http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/06/01/journalists-held-hostage-by-the-sarah-palin-bus-tour/ . [...]
June 1st, 2011 at 8:00 pm
[...] Journalists Held Hostage by the Sarah Palin Bus Tour [...]
June 1st, 2011 at 11:51 pm
[...] Howard Kurtz, Justin Elliott, Sarah Palin Posted in CNN, Election | Permalink | Trackback | [...]
June 2nd, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Gassy fecal matter floats to the top of corporate media attention. Stenographers to power are powerless to avert their gaze despite news story's failure to pass smell test.
June 3rd, 2011 at 2:05 pm
if they're actually hostages, they're suffering from stockholm syndrome
June 3rd, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Hostages, or sacrifice victims? A person who is a hostage is TAKEN; a person who is a sacrifice is SENT. Those reporters were sent by their bosses. Mortgages must be paid, and if following Sister Sarah around is required to keep those payments up to date….
June 3rd, 2011 at 5:07 pm
Why don't they simply abandon the bus and go do real reporting. She's a complete non-event, like the Kardashians. At least Paris Hilton was really running in 2008 even if it was a farce campaign.
June 3rd, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Why don't they just forget her. She is playing with them to keep her name out there. She isn't going to run for president. If the media would leave her alone, she would leave us alone.
June 3rd, 2011 at 6:56 pm
There's one media scene I want to see replayed again and again: Palin's explanation of Paul Revere's ride. It's been on at least 5 major networks today, and I expect it will get a lot of play on Comedy Central, exactly where SP belongs!
June 3rd, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Timing coincidence . . . the book disclosing Sarah's mis-deeds comes out and Sarah goes on a distraction tour.
June 3rd, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Journalists, no. Paparazzi, si.
June 3rd, 2011 at 7:56 pm
The real hostages to Sarah Palin are her children, especially her youngest daughter. The look on her face as she trails after her completely oblivious mother is very sad. I watched her when Palin was campaigning with McCain. She was sort of lost, wandering around the arenas listlessly. I can see that Sarah Palin's first priority is Sarah Palin, she uses her children to further her political agenda. She needs to take them home and start being a real mother.
June 3rd, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I sure wish she would run, to siphon off some more of the pointless energy of those that give a rats-rear-end about anything she has to say. Surely you wouldn't want our media to snoop into ANYTHING that DOES matter, would you?
June 3rd, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Glad to see someone else is bothered by the way Palin drags her children around with her. I find it disgusting. Of course someone who's as narcissist as she is obviously doesn't care as long as she's getting the ego gratification she so blatantly craves. What's even more upsetting is all the journalists who follow her and actually think she has anything of substance or intelligence to say. We can only pray she goes back to her little comic book La-la land. Unfortunately her giant ego is not likely to allow her to do this.
June 3rd, 2011 at 9:59 pm
The GOP strategy is to start by making a big spectacle of the hard core $%^&!s who don't have a chance (e.g., Trump, Palin). Then, amazingly, Romney looks incredibly sane, serious, and electable *by comparison.*
I'll be shocked if anyone beats Obama in 2012, but I have written an encouraging letter to Kucinich. :)
June 3rd, 2011 at 10:41 pm
No press agent or reporter is held hostage except by their corporate masters and the need for useless, wasteful tabloid press junkets. I find it interesting that the part of the headline speaking of "hostage" isn't in quote originally.
June 3rd, 2011 at 11:19 pm
Actually, I'd say the tour is only about one thing: money, and how much Sarah Palin can generate for Sarah Palin. She just bought a $.17M house in a high rent suburb outside of Phoenix. Someone has to pay for the new digs!
The children are along, because she's too cheap to pay a baby sitter and hubby is working. Yes, I know it's a nasty thing to say, but all the family values stuff republicans blather on about is just more hot air.
"The GOP strategy is to start by making a big spectacle of the hard core $%^&!s who don't have a chance (e.g., Trump, Palin). Then, amazingly, Romney looks incredibly sane, serious, and electable *by comparison.* – phiclub Excellent Point. There is another real candidate to watch and that is Jon Huntsman, former governator of Utah. If the GOP hadn't moved so far to the right, they might have a chance with someone who is seen as more moderate, but we all know that won't happen.
June 4th, 2011 at 7:55 am
I am absolutely ecstatic at these blogs.Of course no-one gives even a passing (let alone serious)consideration to What Sarah has said over and over is the reason she is doing this tour.That aside…I did not hear the normal insult and invective and vicious name calling so normal on FAIR blogs.Is she finally getting to that magic place where liberals grudgingly admit she is not the anti christ?
As for me ,I think she and fam are great.She is smart ,shrewd,down to earth and hysterical.She was the only good thing about McCain .She does with a smile what a lot of nasty ass politicians cant articulate in all their born days.She tells the truth.At least the conservative truth.And she believes every word of it.She walks the walk, and talks the talk.Her son serves proudly.She has a loving and loved family.Salt of the earth,with normal problems.A daughter that had a child out of wedlock.A handicapped child.As my dad said"measure a person not on their trials but how they handle them."Both those children are smothered in love.When i see her ice climbing mountains…hunting caribu….fishing in the Bering strait on a working boat for halibut ,or snowmobiling in the outer reaches of Alaska,after a harrowing bush plane flight i am impressed.As Alaska's chief executive she was a marvel.She did a wonderful job in everything she has put her hand to.Impressive is the word.So now she asks her family and staff to tour some historical sights of interest that will reaffirm their impassioned beliefs, and America joins the parade.I saw her.Not a bad vibe out of the thousands who came out.I don't know if she has alterior motives.If she will run.Or if she will try for a senate seat in Arizona.Or if she will just enjoy her life to the fullest.Being a voice for a bigger and better America(not smaller and less)founded on traditional principles.i do think wherever she lands will be the better for it.
Now Im not saying libs need agree with her.It is a wonderful world filled with different views.
June 4th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Obviuosly, FAIR does not understand how the media works. The journalists are covering Palin because they have a job (for which they are paid for), and their bosses are asking them to get out there and cover Palin as a part of their job. The bosses are doing it because they want to put stuff about Palin in their papers, and websites, because this generates a lot of sales, and a lot of clicks that lead to ad sales. This is how the media is making a living, economically speaking.
If only few people would be reading this, it would not be covered. However, the fact that every blog post about Palin generated tons of comments clearly shows that this is clicked on, and read. This is how the press works in a capitalist society. It is done for the same reason papers and online media have stories about cruelty to animals, abducted blondes, UFO showings, sure weight loss and the like.
So, if Americans would stop reading Palin stories, she would not be covered, the same way Gary Johnson is not covered, since nobody cares about him.
June 4th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
"."Both those children are smothered in love."
Really? You seem to have magic abilities to see. I am only seeing one child, Piper, she looks pushed around, left alone, and annoyed. The other ones have been dropped of some place out of sight.
June 4th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Confusing a reality TV show with realty is an interesting mistake to make. I am impressed.
Spoken by the kind of American who joins Sarah's parade…..off the cliff.
June 4th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
There is no bamboozaling here. This is a very well crafted reality-less side show that the media gate keepers want Americans to be distracted with. There is no news.
Certainly nothing of importance that deserves our attention. We are fed with nothingness, and the public sits likes zombies, apatheticly.
This government in cooperation with the news media keeps us in our place, while they sit incompetent, but safe.
We should be wondering whats not getting reported and why.
June 5th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Eva
Did you not watch the fantastic series she and her family did on traveling Alaska?When I say smothered in love, I mean it.What a wonderful dynamic family.
June 5th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
reporting they would prefer to do?
a) i wouldn't be so sure that a lot of those reporters would rather do something else
b) i doubt it's palin telling them to cover her. it's probably their bosses, who think that palin makes for great ratings. and probably rightly so. i'm just saying – while everybody is probably a bit complicit in this, i think the biggest culprit is not palin but that for profit news system.
June 6th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Be sure to revel in Smush's (Palin) latest simpleton remarks about Paul Revere. Then the Quitter doubled down on her ignorance right at "home," on Fox with Chris Wallace. Then her sycophantic followers tried to hijack and alter a Wikipedia page that detailed her latest fantastically ignorant comments. What a simp! Her and her whole miserable family are an ongoing assault on reason, the life of the mind, good taste, democracy, the rule of law, and just plain old common sense. She and her rotten family are all yours, Arizona! Bad, very bad.
June 7th, 2011 at 7:14 am
Tim….That whole thing on Paul Revere…..Actually Historians are running to her defense.Seems she got it right(and boy is that hidden on google).But it is a good point that right or wrong there are people who will try to spin it that she is like all conservatives …a bit slow. Better for the debate to get past that nonsense and move on to her policies if she wants to add to the fray. She and Bachman,Christi and Romni,and a whole cast of characters are diametrically opposed to this president.If we really want to be civil than lets move past this personal attack phase and move to respectful discussion.
June 9th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Now they are releasing 3000 E mails in an e mail lynching.Im a little lost….can we also view all of Obma's E mails?
July 13th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
[...] But Palin fans will have a hard time trying to figure out how to square this puff piece with the notion that the mainstream media is out to get Palin. [...]