Palin Ft Bragg Visit Opened To Media, With Restrictions

Updated at 9:14 PM ET—

Army officials at Fort Bragg have relented somewhat and now say a small "pool" of journalists will be allowed to cover Sarah Palin's book-tour visit to the base on Monday. However, the journalists won't be permitted to interview Palin or her supporters who attend her book signing.

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If a tree falls in the forest and the media isn't there to record it, does that tree make a sound? The answer the Army brass would give appears to be "no" given how it has decided to handle a Sarah Palin appearance scheduled for Monday at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

The Army is banning the media from covering her appearance for fear the media might document the enthusiasm of Palin's on-base fans or, worse yet from the Army's point of view, Palinites making overtly political statements in favor of their heroine and opposing the Commander-in-Chief, President Barack Obama, from the grounds of a military reservation.

As the Associated Press reports:

The U.S. Army plans to prevent media from covering Sarah Palin's appearance at Fort Bragg, fearing the event will turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama, officials said Thursday.

Fort Bragg spokesman Tom McCollum told The Associated Press that the military post's garrison commander and other Army officials had decided to keep media away from Palin's book signing, which will not include a speech.

The AP and The Fayetteville Observer were protesting the decision to ban media.

 

McCollum said the Army did not want the Monday event to become a platform to express political opinions "directed against the commander in chief."

"The main reason is to stop this from turning into a political platform," he said. "There are Army regulations that basically prohibit military reservations from becoming political platforms by politicians."

He said only one politician can use that platform, "and that person does it as our commander in chief."

Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, has already agreed not to give a speech at Fort Bragg, McCollum said. Officials said Palin will only sign her books at the event and will not stop to pose for photographs or personalize the books.

But McCollum worried that Palin's supporters might use the media to express political opinions from the sprawling military installation that serves as a base for some 35,000 soldiers.

"This will stop someone from grandstanding," he said. Other members of the public would be permitted to attend.

McCollom's logic leaves a bit to be desired. If some Palin supporter wants to "grandstand," in the age of YouTube, all he or she has to do is carry a flip video camera or phone to capture himself, friends or others doing the aforementioned grandstanding, then post said video to YouTube where the media would then have access to it.

Matter of fact, through its action, the Army may be making just such a result more likely.

The Army is arguably making more trouble for itself by banning the media from Palin's appearance on a taxpayer funded military base than Palin's appearance would cause.