Media Cry-Babies and Sarah Palin (UPDATED)

Sarah Palin would make a good President. Whether you agree with that statement or not, I would have to say that the way she is treating her East Coast sight-seeing trip is evidence that things would at least be interesting and the media would have daily conniption fits.

Case-in-point: this article from CBSnews.com. They seriously are acting like childish entitled brats. Here is one quippy little part from the article:

Palin's team isn't just ignoring the press; it's actively trying to misdirect reporters. Tuesday morning, for example, Palin's bus was running out in front of the hotel where she had stayed, prompting a gaggle of media to dutifully gather outside. Palin had already slipped out a side door early in the morning for a visit to the Gettysburg visitor center and battlefield.

So what? Just because they want a story is she required to cater to them? Of course not, and the funny thing is they hate this woman. They are actually blaming her for the chaos and confusion of this "situation" which is the result of Paparazzi-esque coverage they, the media, are providing. Again, from the article:

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.

Seriously. You can't read this article and with any intellectual honesty say that Palin is doing anything wrong. She's bigger than the President ... and the media is playing right into her hand. You would think that they would just ignore her if they were so annoyed with her, but they can't.

I told someone today I didn't think she was running, and I still don't. But I want her to... I want to read more articles like this and just laugh. The media has no right to any info or access pertaining to this trip. Any endangerment is on their behalf. They are blame-shifting before anything has happened. In fact, I would go so far as to blame them. By saying this is dangerous is their way of saying that they will endanger folks to get this story. That is a scary thing, the media essentially say they are above the law and above safety.

I pray no one gets hurt, but I also pray the media keep losing their minds over this.

UPDATE:
The Anchoress has posted about this as well, and she gets it completely wrong! 

Palin has gone through the trouble of getting her big bus going; she’s touring and meeting people (including “the Donald” gag me) — all of that is meant to attract attention, get people talking, generate a buzz, and a bit of mystery; “is she or isn’t she”? If you are doing all of that work to direct the cameras your way, only to slap at the press for trying to focus, then you’re behaving like a tease. There’s a line, and for me Sarah Palin is coming close to crossing it.

Nobody likes a tease. Including, I think, voters.

So, no, I don’t find this latest Palin escapade all that endearing. In fact, were I an editor in the mainstream press, I’d pull my reporters off the story of her latest bus tour, and say “adios.” The woman doesn’t want press coverage, don’t give her press coverage. Period.

This battle between Palin and the press is not going to end well. The media are not going to stop being who and what they are — expedient, exploitative, energetic and constantly hungry, and often biased, sometimes savagely so. So Palin — whether she likes it or not, whether her fans like it or not — is going to have to take the high road, before someone gets hurt.

She’s a natural with many strengths, but she is either getting some very bad advice, right now, or Sarah Palin simply hasn’t yet learned how to rise above, with grace.

We need grace in our leadership. It sucks not having it now. I want it back.

Sorry, but do you want a sensation and a celebrity or do you want a president? This is not presidential behavior.

Couple of points. First, Palin isn't an official candidate for President. So the whole, "this isn't Presidential" argument seems a tad odd. Sure, she might run, and sure we want folks to act Presidential prior to running, but still. Second, she calls Palin a tease. Really? This is the stuff Presidential campaigns are made of. Was Truman wrong to hold up the "Dewey Wins" paper? Was that the low road? No. That was politicking and so is this. She is earning media from this. There are double the stories written about Palin with this, and she isn't teasing the voters. She is telling the voters exactly what she would do. First and foremost she would ignore the media and talk directly to the voters, and wouldn't wait for the media to do all those things Scalia listed in her bitter blog post.

Finally, her insinuation, and is she were to deny it I would say she is doing the same thing she is accusing Palin of doing, that Palin is being un-Christian is completely too much. She accuses of Palin going too far, but I accuse her of going too far. I respect The Anchoress quite a bit, but her calling Palin un-Christian through insinuation and in the name of Christianity does not make the move Charitable. In fact it might just be hypocritical.

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