Michael Shear Sour Over Sarah Palin's Lack of Respect for Mainstream Media

New York Times chief political blogger Michael Shear is a bit annoyed that Sarah Palin is successfully attracting media attention while ignoring reporter's inquiries and playing hide-and-seek with the press on her "One Nation" bus tour. (Photo by the Times' David Winter.) Shear, who has filed multiple blog posts on the Palin family's historical trail through the Northeast, made Tuesday's print edition with his gripes: "Palin Family Hits Road, if Not 2012 Trail [1]."

Ms. Palin announced her bus tour with great fanfare last week and is using it on her Web site to raise money for her political action committee. Despite that, she is acting as though her family is just like any other on vacation.

Never mind the charter bus plastered with images of the Constitution. Or the fact that her family vacation has a name: the One Nation Tour. Or that she is documenting her family's movements on a Web site that invites Americans along. Or that she might just run for president.

Perhaps he resented following Palin over the Memorial Day holiday? Shear's Tuesday morning "Caucus" post sounded just as sour: "Palin Dismisses the Press, but They Come Back for More [2]."

Sarah Palin has apparently decided that she can treat the media any way she wants - and they will be there regardless.

And she might not be wrong.

On Monday night, the media following the former Alaska governor were hot and sweaty, sitting in 100-degree weather at the Gettysburg battlefield, when they got the word: Ms. Palin was at the Courtyard by Marriott a few minutes away.

....

It was a surreal situation given the fact that Ms. Palin and her advisers had shown an almost complete contempt for the press corps and its usual rituals. But the grumbling among the press corps notwithstanding, reporters and camera crews continued to follow her across three states and hundreds of miles over the long holiday weekend.

(Hard to imagine why Palin would feel contempt [3]for the mainstream press.)

Shear's Monday night posting was filed under the snippy headline, "Palin Talks to the Media, for Three Minutes [4]." An earlier story from Shear also measured Palin by the amount of access she was giving the media: "On the Road, More or Less, With Palin."

As if the Times would be anymore sympathetic to a Palin who provided unlimited access.

Finally, in an online post Tuesday morning, Shear sniped while following Palin to the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg ("Palin Ditches Press and Tours Battlefield [5]").

Ms. Palin, the former Alaska governor, also continued her manipulation of the news media.

Now whose fault is that?