Media Genius Sarah Palin No Longer Taking Questions From Reporters?
This is one of those times where you have to wonder whether Sarah Palin is truly a media genius. Or merely a sign of things to come. Or both. Yesterday, Palin’s longtime spokesperson and “adviser” Meg Stapleton announced she was resigning her position to spend more time with her family.
Stapelton’s competence as Palin’s spokesperson has been consistently questioned since Palin arrived on the national stage in late 2008, mostly recently during the whole Rush Limbaugh/”retard” debacle. Also, for a spokesperson she was reportedly rather hard to reach. Says Politico’s Michael Calderone:
[G]etting a comment or sometimes even an acknowledgment from Stapleton could be difficult. I tried several times in recent months on Palin-related stories, and Stapleton never responded, while her voice mail was repeatedly full and unable to accept messages.
But here’s where it gets really interesting. Apparently, Palin has no plans to hire another spokesperson! The Palin family is apparently “comfortable speaking in their own voice.” Per Calderone:
So as of right now the only contact seems to be through Palin’s PAC, which provides a phone number which goes right to an answering machine and an e-mail address with no specific person to contact (info@sarahpac.com).
Crafty or crazy? Palin is, obviously, one of the most talked-about women/politicians on the planet, and a lot of that talk is not nice. I suspect “responding in her own voice” actually means one of two things. Palin has decided that answering questions from actual reporters is very last decade and is either going to let a combination of her Fox analyst appearances and the take-no-prisoners Fox News PR team speak for her (one can dream). Or! She has concluded, and not without good reason, that her one-way Facebook mouthpiece is all the public access she requires. It’s worked so far. Why bother with the fourth estate at all when all you need is a catchy Facebook note to derail an entire health care bill.
