Palin and McCain at the UN Redefining First Amendment Absolutism

So, Sarah Palin is at the UN today shoring up (or is it creating) her record of meeting with world leaders. Except no one was allowed to watch! TVNewser has been following the travails of the press corps that is attempting to follow the Alaskan governor: apparently when Steve Schmidt said yesterday that the McCain campaign were “First Amendment absolutists” he neglected to mention they had redefined the term! Per TVNewser:

All the networks were prepared to ban the use of pictures and video from Gov. Sarah Palin’s meetings at the UN today. The ban was in protest of the McCain campaign’s restriction on editorial presence.

We hear the networks had arranged for a pool camera to cover all the meetings, and at least three journalists were to be present as well (one print, one radio, one TV). Earlier today, the McCain campaign said it would allow just one editorial person inside. Later, the campaign limited it to a camera only.

Within the last few minutes, the campaign reversed course and will allow a CNN producer in to the meetings.

And by access what they actually mean is 29 seconds.

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