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.

UpdateSteve Benen has more. Comments 30


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...but the fact that she's a joke is going to stick in peoples minds for a while.

I honestly believe, the press should boycott Palin. They should run a blackout on all coverage of her until the campaign ceases and desists in actions like this. Is McCain's campaign, Stalinist Russia? China? The Taliban? Each new low elicits the same thought, has McCain hit bottom, yet?

There has never been a more vile and morally bankrupt campaign run in my life time.

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.....if the tongue talker would've appeared on the scene a few years ago she might've gotten some kinda traction...a lot of other idiots did

......maybe she'll get a senate campaign off the ground in the future, Alaskans seem like a buncha dumbfuks, they would probably go for it

....after all morons like Dan Quayle & John Thune have held senate seats

Try being honest for once in your life i know that is a stretch but try you may enjoy it and take a load off as you lose the election there will be less rubber rooms to fill.

presidential poitics is patty cake compared to local stuff, as Richie Daley once said "politics ain't beanbag".......

no.

The press needs to keep reporting on palin, because every time a new detail comes out it makes her look worse and worse.

Being left alone is exactly what palin wants, but we need to keep the spotlight on the albatross around mccain's neck.

.....this bizarre McCong thing makes Nixon & Reagan campaigns look like school girls doing a a slap fight

..IMO both GWB campaigns were in the same league with the McCong campaign

....there's no doubt in my mind that the hand of Karl Rove is in the McCong campaign clear up to McCongs tonsils.

.....hence the whacky mix of blustery missteps and consequent overkill "corrections' followed by filthy outright smears on the dem candidate.....this is Roves MO to a "T"

.....agree with smiley that press engagement with Palin (even on a limited level) works for dems

Indeed it is not beanbag. I should have qualified for clarity, the worst national campaign I have witnessed in my lifetime. GWB set new lows in 2000 and moreso in 2004, but McCain has excavated the ground beneath Bush's standard.

....going down in the last decade, I'm happy to see Bible thumping cocksuckers exposed & disposed of in the political arena...the tongue talker episode may be their "last stand"

I considered that before I replied. When threatened with a boycott by CNN after the campaign's refusal to allow an editorial presence in Palin's meetings (photo ops) at the U.N., the campaign backed down in an hour. They want pictures, they want her lies prominently displayed, as they were for a solid 1/2 hour this morning. Maybe I'm missing something here, but she only reaches thousands during a live speech. When it's televised and regurgitated all day long, it reaches millions.

The press should be there, but no broadcasts. I'm willing to listen to further argument.

They wanted her in the spotlight at first, but even they must have realized that aside from the Lowry's of the world blogging with one hand while watching her on TV, less media exposure is better.

I think if the press boycotted this time, the mayor of Mooseknuckle would breathe a sigh of relief.

I believe McCain has exceeded GWB. The 527's did the heavy lifting, but McCain himself is hands on in his campaign.

This is the result of Schmidt's involvement. A protege, not fully a formed Rove, yet, he is misfiring. Where Rove seemlessly worked with the Swiftboaters, Schmidt has allowed McCain himself to play in the mud and they don't have a full fledged 527 like the Swiftys, not for the lack of trying (Corsi) sliming Obama. I don't recall Bush dealing the low blows, but I may have chosen to forget his personal involvement.