Wow. Someone is getting fired this week.
For those who haven't seen it yesterday, Republican California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman (ex-CEO, eBay) blew it big time yesterday when she called a press conference and then refused to take any questions.
Here is the story, from Bay Area-based CBS5:
Summary:
Essentially, Meg Whitman called a press conference yesterday and then not only refused to answer questions from media, but her campaign folks actually shooed the media out and even blocked their view from filming Whitman.
Essentially she:
-- held a 'meeting' (i.e. press event) with railroad executives, probably to shore up footage of her being serious and biz-ness-like with "important people." She sat in a meeting room in front of a huge table of reporter microphones, with appropriately-staged "Meg 2010" signage directly behind her head so the cameras can't miss them, no matter what angle.
-- post-meeting, Whitman thanks reporters for coming and then they predictably start to ask questions (including one very audible question asking her thoughts on the "WikiMeg" web site.)
-- at this point, Meg looks past the cameras to her PR rep/handler/stand-in puppet master (I kid! I kid!) and says "Well, how do you want to handle this Sarah?" with a frozen smile. She then gives a somewhat creepy plastic laugh and then the media pepper her with more questions like "Why did you call a press event if you don't want to talk to the press?"
-- then a female staffer (perhaps Sarah?) ushers the press out of the room and blocks the cameras from filming Meg, who later called the station to apologize.
The story ends on a sardonic note from anchor Dana King:
"Yeah, and you'd like to think that the candidate running for office is the one in charge."
Ouch! BURNNNNNnnn.