Sarah Palin Joins Al Gore In Not Realizing That Everyone's A Reporter These Days

from the something-in-the-veep-sauce? dept

Last year, we wrote how odd it was that former VP Al Gore banned reporters from a speech he gave, where all audio-video equipment was also banned. These days, such “no reporters allowed” speeches make no sense — because anyone can be a reporter. Yet, it seems that there’s something in the veep sauce (or veep wannabe sauce) that leads to these sorts of positions, as former VP candidate, Sarah Palin, is trying to do the same thing, barring “reporters” along with any kind of recording devices from a talk that she is giving. You can understand, perhaps, why politicians like to do this, but it seems both out of touch and completely pointless. Every single person in that room can be a reporter in one way or another — and it doesn’t take a recording device, but a pencil and some paper (or a decent memory). Trying to block out the “official” press is just a waste of time.

Filed Under: , , ,

Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “Sarah Palin Joins Al Gore In Not Realizing That Everyone's A Reporter These Days”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
43 Comments
Mr Big Content says:

Not All Recording Devices, Only Socialist Ones

I’m sure Sarah Palin will be happy to allow patriotic recording devices that won’t twist her words into some kind of irrelevant “meaning” and meaningless “context” that has nothing to do with what she was thinking when she spoke. The trouble is, none of these gadgets are made in the good old US of A any more, so you simply cannot depend on their loyalty. I don’t think she’s blaming the reporters at all, just their use of electronic products made in atheist-socialist countries.

cryptozoologist (profile) says:

nothing new here

sarah palin has never been adept at managing the media. after she was nominated for vp, it was several days before she gave any interviews at all. the result was complete abdication of her message to the media feedback chaotic amplification loop. when she finally did give interviews, the scrutiny was so intense that her actual message was lost.

sarah, if you’ve got something to say, get out and say it. if you make a foolish remark from time to time, that is ok as long as it is a small percentage of what you’ve said. jesse jackson, joe biden, and a whole pantheon of public figures have said something difficult to explain, but since it is a small percentage of their total verbal output people are willing to cut them a little slack.

interval says:

Re: Re: nothing new here

“What really killed her was the interview with Katie Couric.”

Not being able to name a news paper she reads looked pretty bad, even though fewer and fewer people are reading the damn things. The interview with Charlie Gibson though, that made her look like an infant. The way he looked at her down his nose and throgh his glasses at her after asking her about the Bush Doctrine… brutal.

Big Mook (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: nothing new here

So you’re saying Biden’s actually intelligent, but also a fool? The man is a walking gaffe machine, and has been a source of embarassment to this country for decades. At least Obama has the good sense to keep him pretty much under wraps most of the time, although that’s probably the only good thing Obama has done to this point.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

Palin’s problem is if a quote sounds stupid enough there is no way that some people could ever believe that she couldn’t have said it.

She probably just wants to be able to give the same speech over and over again. If a tape gets out she is like the comic who just did the HBO special and needs all new material.

KulganVaslor says:

Its not about secrecy or privacy its about freedom of speech

It is her right to make that request. I see no difference between this event and event where a small group of people sit around the dinner table, in her home, having a conversation over a good meal. Denial ability or not, she is allowed her privacy.

Just because other people in the group can report on it doesn’t mean they have too or even would want to, nor does it imply that what she is saying is private, confidencial or even secret. She has a right to ask its her condition for participation. Compliance to that request is the freedom to participate.

Lonzo5 says:

Re: Its not about secrecy or privacy its about freedom of speech

I think that any citizen should be able to record anything that anyone says at any time for any reason, in the medium of their choice with or without permission from the party concerned. As president or vice president, Palin (along with our great nation of laws) would consider herself justified in recording any of her subjects at any time, for any reason, in the medium of her choice, so I believe that if she prefers not to be recorded, she should refrain from speaking. Wiretap laws and the like should be abolished. I am anti-patriot act, but if it must exist, it should be a two-way street.

Gregory (profile) says:

Oh, please

There is a difference between what is essentially a public servant hosting townhalls and whatnot (and hence should have 1st Amendment rights to have stuff on public record) and private citizens giving commercial speeches.

Al Gore and Sarah Palin both have the right to restrict whatever they want in terms of recordings, because they are private citizens. Despite Al Gore being a blowhard spewing forth mass ignorance and nonsense every time he speaks on so-called AGW using crap data, I will defend to the death his right to restrict his speeches to those who paid to hear him speak. Similarly for Sarah Palin and her $100,000 per speech.

This is no different from people banning a/v capture equipment to circus shows or plays or concerts or whatever.

Now, what’s up with all the hatin’ Palin stuff? What does that have to do with anything? I happen to think that President Palin would have been a 100x better choice than President BHOmbastic, but so what? Neither my opinion nor anyone else’s on this matter has anything to do with whether or not Palin or Gore are acting within reason in banning such a/v capture devices.

technomage (profile) says:

Re: Oh, please

Except she is not a private citizen, she is former VP candidate and actively lobbying for supporters for a later bid. She is lobbying for people, she is using her notoriety to boost people. That makes her a “public servant”. So, as she is doing this for a public lobbying group “Right for Life”. This stops it from being a “private” meeting. If she wants privacy then she need to drop out of ANY governmental or public speaking.

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Coward Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...