Award-winning Dallas-based photographer, Barry B. Doyle was at the local Barnes and Noble in that Texas city yesterday, to cover Sarah Palin's book signing. He hoped to take several photographs of the event, but B & N wouldn't let him. Early in 2010, Doyle had gotten permission to take photos at Palin's book signing at Dallas's Legacy Book Store. The picture above is from yesterday's book signing, just before it started. The Palin protectors couldn't keep Doyle from taking a picture from across the street.
The picture below is from the signing at Legacy, for Palin's first book:
Doyle wrote about yesterday's experience for Salon.com today:While I was able to get employee credentials at the Legacy Bookstore in Plano for Palin's first book, Barnes & Noble is a different animal. All requests had to go through its corporate offices, and I was just too late with my requests. To be honest, I didn't even know Sarah Palin was going to be in town until Friday.Doyle writes that some waited in line for the first book for up to 14 hours. This past Sunday, "there were about 30 people in line."
Another reason I couldn't get inside was that her reality television people were there filming the event. TLC managed to get Barnes & Noble to restrict other media access during the signing.
The local news outlets could not videotape during the actual signing of the books; there were to be no print journalists allowed and no questions could be asked of Palin while she was in the store.
At both Dallas-area events, there was a common theme. The people waiting to see her were devoted and enthusiastic followers, and almost all of them were a homogeneous demographic -- there were very few people of color, which made that contrast stand out all the more.Doyle concludes his Salon.com photo essay with:
One last note: At the Legacy Bookstore signing in 2009, Palin signed about 1,300 books. At the Barnes & Noble store, they set aside about 250 books for her to sign.
It was a non-event.
6 comments:
That photo comparison is sooooo heartwarming. Thanks for passing it along.
I am in the Dallas area. The area she was in is heavily populated--not suburban at all. So it is quite funny so few showed. There was very little in the news about it--a snippet or two. The press in Dallas doesn't like her "LSM" games and won't play.
She was in Waco for a pro-life event a few months ago. The Baylor student paper(lariat online) and 2 tv stations refused to cover her because they were told they had to buy a ticket. They felt buying a ticket would be an endorsement. They consulted with a professional journalistic group who backed them up. So they didn't go. Really, they were quite insulted. Anyway, she doesn't have near the support here that people think. It's the national press pushing that narrative.
Thanks, Sal.
You're right about the national media. The single thing that bothered me most about the media and Palin in 2010 was that there were more reporters than attendees at the Tea Party convention back in February.
Yes indeed. The national press now seems frozen and reactive, missing once again the clear messages from without the inner circle, that the Palin express was launched and maintained by the press itself. She's their creation, thus we find last week's NYT Sunday Magazine with the cover feature piece about her. Incredible. She could and should have been stopped in her tracks long ago, but the lazy-ass, jaded, pampered press corps gave her the pass she needed. Well, to paraphrase some line my husband picked up somewhere--"screw you and the horse you rode in on too."
Just in case a bot comes along to try to dispute this, I wanted to comment that @4:53 Fox4 (DFW) came on during football and showed the roped off line and nobody in it for the 6pm signing and said wristbands were available. They referred to a "sparse" crowd. On 10p news, they showed a line inside but it wasn't anything great.
Here's a follow-up to the NYT Palin piece--I think he's got it just about right. And he describes himself as "a mere graduate student".
http://liberalironist.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/what-an-non-judgmental-account-of-sarah-palin-still-shows/
I really must learn tinyURL. Sorry.
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