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An editorial in the Modesto Bee notes that Gov. Palin's speech tonight at California State University, Stanislaus will follow three months of public controversy, including much posturing by the state's politicians, all to the delight of a media which not only feeds off a simmering stew, but turns the heat up whenever it is to its advantage to do so, which is nearly always.
The media, in fact, has become a large part of the story. The Associated Press has been arguing that the media should be "allowed" to cover the story. What AP and other media outlets never tell you is that they have always been "allowed" to cover Gov. Palin's public events. The media equates having to purchase a ticket to an appearance by Gov. Palin with not being "allowed" to cover it. They have been getting free press passes to events for so long that they consider such free rides an entitlement. So the news that the media will be "allowed" to cover the Stanislaus fundraiser simply means that they don't have to pony up the $500 price of admission like ordinary mortals do.
Over 400 ordinary but solvent mortals have paid their 500 bucks to attend tonight's fundraiser, which means the CSUS Foundation will gross well over $200,000 tonight, less expenses. Among those expenses is Gov. Palin's speaking fee, the amount of which has been the burr under the saddle of many of those who don't look favorably upon the governor's visit. In its reporting, the media has often failed to mention that a standard clause in the contract between the Foundation and the Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents Gov. Palin, provides that the amount not be disclosed. The Bureau understandably doesn't want one event organizer to use the amount paid by another as a bargaining chip. But that matters little to politicians who want to do some grandstanding in an election year.
Among those politicians is state Senator Leland Yee, who knows fully well that the contract doesn't allow the speakers fee to be divulged, but he has made quite an issue of trying to get the Foundation to make it public. Yee has managed to kick up enough dust over the fee to get Jerry Brown, who is currently California's attorney general, involved. Brown, who wants to be governor again, launched an investigation into the matter. It's a probe which, like Yee's grandstanding, will produce little of substance, but could have a handsome political payoff. Local Democrats, for example, have called for Gov. Palin to donate her speaking fee. Not so curiously, these same Dems make no such demands when on from their own party or elsewhere on the political left gets paid to speak on a California Campus. Ah, but hypocrisy is the first prerequisite of liberalism. And so it goes.
There are others attempting to cash in on the politically-generated controversy. Enter the protesters. It is California, after all, where one of the most popular recreational activities for those on the left is carrying angry signs and chanting childish slogans. These are the people who are outraged whenever a noted conservative steps onto a college campus, but they think it's great when Bill Ayers, who set bombs wrapped up in roofing nails at government buildings and police stations, speak at local universities. This is the "off the pigs" crowd that has no use for law enforcement officers until their car gets stolen our their house is broken into. Like with the grandstanding by the politicians, the protests accomplish little that has any real meaning, but it's guaranteed to get the groups engaging in the activity a few minutes of television time on the evening news. More on the protests from Adrienne Ross at Motivation Truth.
In a matter of hours, Gov. Palin will have concluded her speech and will be on her way to East Texas, where she has a Saturday night appearance scheduled at Tyler's Oil Palace. Leland Yee and Jerry Brown will have to focus on something else. Perhaps they will even be persuaded to talk about some of California's real problems and what solutions, if any, they have to solve them. The media will have to find other things to chatter about. Perhaps it will occur to them to ask Brown and Yee some relevant questions. And the protesters will have to put their signs in storage until their next big opportunity for free publicity presents itself. The real winners in all this, the CSU Stanislaus Foundation, will be able to make a healthy deposit to its ailing bank account. And life in California will return to what is considered normal... for California.
- JP
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