{"id":11252,"date":"2010-03-10T02:35:26","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T02:35:26","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-03-10T02:35:26","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T02:35:26","slug":"meg-whitman-wont-take-questions-media-grows-weary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2010\/03\/10\/meg-whitman-wont-take-questions-media-grows-weary\/","title":{"rendered":"Meg Whitman Won&#8217;t Take Questions: Media Grows Weary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Carla Marinucci rolls with the punches. The veteran SF Chronicle reporter can ask a tough question now and again; she plays by the book. &nbsp;But, even as her job is rapidly changing, now involving some &#8220;Shaky Hand Video Productions&#8221;, she is still responsible for doing the job of a reporter, getting answers to questions, and presenting information to the public. &nbsp;Meg Whitman apparently wants to change the way this system has &#8220;worked&#8221; in past. &nbsp;She wants to talk at reporters, who then dutifully write down what she says, and the world will be a better place.<\/p>\n<p>Except, Carla Marinucci wasn&#8217;t having any of that at a press stop in the East Bay. In a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/blogs\/nov05election\/detail?blogid=14&#038;entry_id=58775\">blog post this afternoon<\/a>, she posted <a href=\"http:\/\/link.brightcove.com\/services\/player\/bcpid1407952648?bctid=71033602001\">video of a press flack making up BS<\/a> as to why Whitman wouldn&#8217;t answer any questions. &nbsp;Then, for good measure, she posted <a href=\"http:\/\/link.brightcove.com\/services\/player\/bcpid1407952648?bctid=71033600001\">video of Whitman sitting calmly refusing to acknowledge that there is anybody asking her questions<\/a>. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Reporters from Bay Area media outlets &#8212; TV, print and radio &#8212; turned up for Whitman&#8217;s advertised campaign stop in Oakland, where the former eBay CEO had announced a campaign stop and press event.<br \/>\n<br \/>*** *** ***<br \/>\n<br \/>Then came the news that Whitman also wouldn&#8217;t take questions; reporters had been called in to &#8220;see&#8221; her make statements on &#8220;how she could be helpful as governor&#8221; on jobs and the economy, Whitman spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said.<\/p>\n<p>Veteran reporters, who included KTVU&#8217;s Randy Shandobil and KPIX&#8217;s Hank Plante, were among the crowd that wasn&#8217;t amused. Question: is Whitman a candidate for governor, or a museum piece to be &#8220;watched&#8221; by reporters?(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/blogs\/nov05election\/detail?blogid=14&#038;entry_id=58775#ixzz0hjUbpNZX\">SF Gate<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, Whitman did give a half-hour interview to establishment right-wing columnist Debra Saunders. I&#8217;m sure there were some really tough questions there.<\/p>\n<p>So what is the plan with all of this? &nbsp;Sure, she can buy all the media time she wants 30 seconds at a time. She doesn&#8217;t need the earned media in the same way everybody else does because she can just throw another bucket of cash at the problem. &nbsp;But, really, you are going to piss off the entire press corps by sending them to an industrial facility and then blow them off? <\/p>\n<p>Whitman&#8217;s people tried various tactics to spin eMeg&#8217;s 874th refusal. This time she was running late, but when that failed to stop the reporters, it became against UnionPacific&#8217;s policy to take questions at their facility. &nbsp;Ummm&#8230;except it&#8217;s not:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A Whitman spokeswoman said Union Pacific had asked that no news media accompany Whitman on her tour of the facility; Moore told one reporter that it was the campaign&#8217;s decision. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.insidebayarea.com\/news\/ci_14641727\">InsideBayArea<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Is she really that scared of the media? Exposing the fact that she really doesn&#8217;t understand any of the state&#8217;s problems, even after running for governor for the last 8 months? <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Whitman is trying to make Jerry Brown look like a media superstar? Maybe recycle the ol&#8217; Paris Hilton ad from the McCain campaign. That worked well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carla Marinucci rolls with the punches. The veteran SF Chronicle reporter can ask a tough question now and again; she plays by the book. &nbsp;But, even as her job is rapidly changing, now involving some &#8220;Shaky Hand Video Productions&#8221;, she is still responsible for doing the job of a reporter, getting answers to questions, and presenting information to the public. &nbsp;Meg Whitman apparently wants to change the way this system has &#8220;worked&#8221; in past. &nbsp;She wants to talk at reporters, who then dutifully write down what she says, and the world will be a better place.<\/p>\n<p>Except, Carla Marinucci wasn&#8217;t having any of that at a press stop in the East Bay. In a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/blogs\/nov05election\/detail?blogid=14&#038;entry_id=58775\">blog post this afternoon<\/a>, she posted <a href=\"http:\/\/link.brightcove.com\/services\/player\/bcpid1407952648?bctid=71033602001\">video of a press flack making up BS<\/a> as to why Whitman wouldn&#8217;t answer any questions. &nbsp;Then, for good measure, she posted <a href=\"http:\/\/link.brightcove.com\/services\/player\/bcpid1407952648?bctid=71033600001\">video of Whitman sitting calmly refusing to acknowledge that there is anybody asking her questions<\/a>. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Reporters from Bay Area media outlets &#8212; TV, print and radio &#8212; turned up for Whitman&#8217;s advertised campaign stop in Oakland, where the former eBay CEO had announced a campaign stop and press event.<br \/>\n<br \/>*** *** ***<br \/>\n<br \/>Then came the news that Whitman also wouldn&#8217;t take questions; reporters had been called in to &#8220;see&#8221; her make statements on &#8220;how she could be helpful as governor&#8221; on jobs and the economy, Whitman spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said.<\/p>\n<p>Veteran reporters, who included KTVU&#8217;s Randy Shandobil and KPIX&#8217;s Hank Plante, were among the crowd that wasn&#8217;t amused. Question: is Whitman a candidate for governor, or a museum piece to be &#8220;watched&#8221; by reporters?(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/blogs\/nov05election\/detail?blogid=14&#038;entry_id=58775#ixzz0hjUbpNZX\">SF Gate<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, Whitman did give a half-hour interview to establishment right-wing columnist Debra Saunders. I&#8217;m sure there were some really tough questions there.<\/p>\n<p>So what is the plan with all of this? &nbsp;Sure, she can buy all the media time she wants 30 seconds at a time. She doesn&#8217;t need the earned media in the same way everybody else does because she can just throw another bucket of cash at the problem. &nbsp;But, really, you are going to piss off the entire press corps by sending them to an industrial facility and then blow them off? <\/p>\n<p>Whitman&#8217;s people tried various tactics to spin eMeg&#8217;s 874th refusal. This time she was running late, but when that failed to stop the reporters, it became against UnionPacific&#8217;s policy to take questions at their facility. &nbsp;Ummm&#8230;except it&#8217;s not:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A Whitman spokeswoman said Union Pacific had asked that no news media accompany Whitman on her tour of the facility; Moore told one reporter that it was the campaign&#8217;s decision. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.insidebayarea.com\/news\/ci_14641727\">InsideBayArea<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Is she really that scared of the media? Exposing the fact that she really doesn&#8217;t understand any of the state&#8217;s problems, even after running for governor for the last 8 months? <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Whitman is trying to make Jerry Brown look like a media superstar? Maybe recycle the ol&#8217; Paris Hilton ad from the McCain campaign. That worked well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2Vu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}