Back in April, the Obama administration made it extremely clear that it disapproved of the fact that Carla Marinucci, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, had published video of a private fundraising event she had attended. Now, the President is touring the West Coast, campaigning to his base at the homes of wealthy supporters like Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg… an event that only national pool reporters were permitted to cover. In other words: No reporters from the Chronicle or other local news papers are able to attend.

And, as Turnstyle News reports, Marinucci would like an explanation about why that is.

Deep-fried butter wasn’t the only treat on display over the weekend at the Iowa State Fair. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was also on hand to increase her stores of other people’s thunder, but not everyone was enthralled with the GOP superstar. One fairgoer confronted Todd Palin over his wife’s decision to quit the Alaska governorship, resulting in a viral video exchange that was captured by the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Dollar Store Microphone Department. The paper also caught the extended remix of Jake Tapper‘s heifer-delayed Q&A with Palin.

Last week, President Obama held a fundraiser in San Francisco during which a group of protesters stood up and began singing a song in support of imprisoned WikiLeaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning. Carla Marinucci, senior political reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, recorded video of the protest and later posted it in the online version of her report. While media outlets around the country wrote up the incident, this video has led the White House to threaten the Chronicle with expulsion from all future pooled coverage in the area.

As Melissa Block interviewed Karen Grigsby Bates Wednesday on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, Bates made a startling statement that may have caused many listeners to drive off the road. In describing Judge Vaughn Walker, who had just found a ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, she said “He’s gay and out. And it doesn’t seem to be an issue for anybody, including the supporters of Proposition 8.”

We’ve got pretty thick skin here at Mediaite, and faced some critics when we launched back in July. We welcomed it, really, and we continue to do so (Jeff Jarvis, cone on Office Hours please).

But there was a particularly ridiculous review of our new site, Geekosystem, that needs to be addressed.

SF-based videoblogger Zennie Abraham has a wide-ranging interview with newspaper titan Phil Bronstein.

Some media outlets see the news that socialites Michaele and Tareq Salahi were able to get past state dinner security and even snap photos with President Obama as an alarming sign of poor security, some find fault with the Obama administration itself, and some think that the whole affair is funny. A poll: where do you come out?

Newspapers doubtlessly spent yesterday preparing their Sunday covers, unable to foresee exactly how the health care vote and bill would shake out, but fully aware of its inevitable headline grabbing appeal. Between placement, prominence, photo selection and of course, headlines, the results provide a look into the disparate layouts of the country’s prominent papers. Gallery inside!