Note to National Journal: Palin is freezing out everyone
November 24, 2009 11:23 am ET by Eric Boehlert
National Journal seems to make a bit of a thing out of the fact that Sarah Palin turned down all of CBS's interview requests last week. NJ linked the snub to the fact that Palin famously bombed during her Katie Couric interviews during last year's campaign. (In her book, Palin, without providing any evidence, claims it was biased CBS editing that made her look bad in those extended interviews. Okaaaay)
Here's NJ's Hotline:
Sources tell Hotline OnCall that Couric's producer sent two requests to Palin's publisher for interviews during the "Going Rogue" book tour, and so far, Couric has been denied.
It's not surprising -- Palin has not agreed to sit down with more than a small handful of mainstream media interviewers -- but the move looks to be part of a larger Palin blackout from CBS News and Entertainment.
But here's the thing to remember, and Hotline makes a passing reference to it above, Palin's freezing out all independent Beltway journalists during her book launch. She hasn't agreed to sit down with a single political reporter, even though Palin just wrote a very political book. (The boycott got so bad MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell was forced to elbow her way to the front of a fan rope line in hopes of simply asking Palin a couple questions.)
Can you imagine if Hillary Clinton, for instance, published a book and then refused to sit down with a single non-partisan cable host or a single political reporter from a major newspaper or magazine? Imagine if Clinton only agreed to do interviews with The Nation, Rachel Maddow and Air America? The Beltway press would go berserk mocking Clinton's timidity. But Palin snubs the entire D.C. press corps, and rather than complain, they just keep obsessing over her.
The whole spectacle has been rather pathetic to watch:
-Step 1: Palin launches a new book.
-Step 2: The news media lavish tens of millions of dollars in free publicity on the book.
-Step 3: Palin tells the news media to get lost and drives her book launch tour bus right around the independent press, which never complains. And in fact, it continues to give Palin even more free publicity.
As I asked last week, do journalists enjoy being used by Palin and then completely snubbed?
Say a new bully comes into school, and proceeds to pick on the cool kids and the nerds.
Now, the nerds are going to hate the bully, but the cool kids will try to be his friend. And why wouldn't they? The bully picks on the nerds, so he can't be all bad. And besides, if the cool kids stood up to the bully, that would put them in league with -ugh- the nerds!
so the best way to stay cool is not to let the bully take your lunch money, but to give him your lunch money. That way you won't be mistaken for a nerd.
Even if it's not representative of the average Palin supporter, it's funny. I haven't met a very well-informed Palin supporter yet, but I'm trying to stay open-minded.
What policies of Palin's do you agree with?
Uh, I don't know any of her policies.
What kind of government spending should be cut?
Uh, all of it.
I think it can be more subtly put as:
Why are you here?
She's a rock star.
What do you like about her?
She's a rock star.
I wish Sarah would sit down with at least one serious person. Though I would prefer, it doesn't have to be with a reporter. Jon Stewart would do just fine (remember the basting he gave CNBC's Jim Cramer!) But Sarah won't do it. Not now. Not yet. She may even believe she can make a serious run for President without ever doing a serious interview.
Sarah's at least smart enough to realize she's not ready for PrimeTime, but, not smart enough to realize she will never be ready. My hope is that she will soon believe she IS ready. Because the sooner we can rid ourselves of this poison to our public discourse, the better.