Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com

A couple of weeks ago, we said that making outsized requests to reporters about the stories they’re working on is a bad idea after a film company’s grumble about the tone of a Moviefone story turned into an AOL dustup. After reading a few recent stories, it looks like big demands are becoming more common.

During his mea culpa for pitching a fit at the GMA studios, Chris Brown said that it’s normal for he and his team to submit talking points to a potential interviewer. If the interviewer doesn’t agree with the talking points, Brown will take a pass. (In that case, GMA said it received no talking points.)

This week, demands from both Sarah Palin and Britney Spears have turned into stories. Do we smell a trend?

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Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength” from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.

Sarah Palin has released a video with her take on the response to the weekend shooting in Tucson, AZ. In the clip she says Jared Lee Loughner is the “single evil man” responsible for the tragedy and rejects the “irresponsible statements” of those, like “journalists and pundits” who would try to place blame elsewhere. Moreover, she dismisses any debate about whether political rhetoric had anything to do with the shooting.

MSNBC.com’s First Read column asks about the timing of the video, which was released 15 hours before a memorial service will be held tonight where President Obama will be speaking.

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Photo:Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Our fabulous FLOTUS Michelle Obama (making history at left, according to People, for being the first first lady to wear vintage – a Norman Norell – for a public appearance. We loves!) is getting support for her anti-obesity campaign from Republicans. It’s insanity that this is partisan or political, but these days, what isn’t.

Sarah Palin lashed out against Michelle Obama’s efforts on her show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, by making s’mores in support of dessert. And again she took on the campaign on Laura Ingraham’s radio program while there to promote her book.

“The first lady should ‘get off our back and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions,’” the Washington Post quotes Palin. The anti-obesity effort falls under the “nanny state” heading that Palin and others have rallied against apparently.

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Sarah Palin didn’t take a break for Thanksgiving like the rest of us pie eaters. She was on Facebook criticizing the media for reporting on what she calls “a simple one word slip-of-the-tongue.” On Glenn Beck’s radio program last week, she said North Korea rather than South Korea was a U.S. ally.

Palin’s post highlights gaffes from others, including one from President Obama during the 2008 campaign when he said he’d visited 57 states.

Sarah and Todd Palin sea kayaking

Sarah Palin’s Alaska debuted with 4.96 million viewers, making it the most watched premiere in TLC’s history.

Besides the benefits for the TLC network and Sarah Palin (the New York Times says some are calling the show a “campaign ad” for a possible 2012 run for President), the state of Alaska could be benefiting.

Kathy Dunn, director of consumer marketing for the Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA), told MSNBC.com that there was a four percent increase in people expressing interest in Alaska during Palin’s 2008 vice presidential run. Palin’s celebrity has also rubbed off on Wasilla with tourists lining up to get their picture snapped with the town sign and buying souvenirs.

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President Obama issued his response to the Tuesday’s election outcome via press conference yesterday. Today, various Republicans voiced their response.

Sarah Palin e-mailed a minute-long video to her supporters that features a voice-over from one of her stump speeches and images of the candidates she supported (without distinguishing between which ones actually won or lost ). The video, also available on YouTube, is posted above.

“We’re going to stand up and we’re going to speak out and it may take some renegades going rogue to get us there,” she says in the video to a round of applause.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking this morning at the Heritage Foundation, focused on efforts to repeal the health care law, admitting that it will take some time.

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Steve Schmidt has joined Edelman as Vice Chairman, Public Affairs, the agency said today. Schmidt was most recently a partner at Mercury Public Affairs, leading the firm’s operations in California.

He was also a key source for the best-selling book Game Change, which revealed behind the scenes information in regards to the 2008 U.S. presidential election. The above video is from Schmidt’s January 10th, 2010 appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” where he spoke about the McCain presidential campaign, and their decision to add Sarah Palin to the ticket.

Schmidt served as senior advisor to John McCain‘s 2008 presidential campaign; campaign manager for the 2006 re-election of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; and was deputy assistant to the President and Counsellor to the Vice President in the White House, where he played leading roles on the confirmation teams for the nominations of both Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. In addition, he was a member of the senior strategic planning group that directed Former President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign.

Edelman says their U.S. Public Affairs practice has revenues of $60 million with a team of 170 serving clients including API, Business Roundtable, Monsanto, Oregon Bridge Delivery Partners, and Pfizer.

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Burson-Marsteller CEO and Democratic stategist Mark Penn appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this morning to talk about the Obama administration and the political landscape post health-care reform passing.

“I think President Obama has his mojo back,” said Penn. “People had a lot of doubts on all fronts and I think he is back in many ways.”

When asked about the “force” that is Sarah Palin, in reference to how she in many ways is leading the counter message against the administration, Penn said, “I don’t think the White House should tangle with Sarah Palin, because that would only elevate her.”

TIME‘s Michael Scherer takes a look into how the White House is managing a news cycle that seems to move exponentially faster with each passing day. From the story:

“We have a theory of how the news media work in this Internet age,” explains Dan Pfeiffer [pictured], the buzz-cut 34-year-old who recently became the third person to serve as Obama’s communications director. “There is basically a constant swirl going on.”

This twister still includes the newspaper front pages, nightly news broadcasts and magazine covers that can often shape the national debate. But it also incorporates Sarah Palin‘s Facebook page, the latest Internet attack videos and that e-mail your aunt just sent you. “There is a constant conversation that goes on all day long, through blogs, through cable TV, through Twitter, between reporter, subject and reader,” says Pfeiffer, who sits down the hall from the Oval Office. He says his new job is to “make sure we are not getting swallowed up by the swirl.”

PRNewser has spoke with a number of political PR operatives who have said the fast changing news cycle is one of the reasons why the Obama press team has become more active on Twitter, in an attempt to squash incorrect or incomplete stories there, before they bubble up to mainstream media.

During her appearance on ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jay Leno last night, Sarah Palin was asked by Leno, “The media does try to get a rise out of you, they sort of poke you, to get you to react, and sometimes your reaction becomes bigger than whatever the initial story was. Have you sort of learned, maybe, OK, I’m not going to comment on that one because it will only get bigger?”

Palin responded in part, “What I’d like is perhaps more opportunity to follow up on a comment I perhaps have made.” Leno asked for an example, to which Palin referred to a recent incident with the TV show “Family Guy,” which made a joke in reference her son Trig, who has Down syndrome.

In that instance, Palin responded via her Facebook page, stating, “If the writers of a particularly pathetic cartoon show thought they were being clever in mocking my brother and my family yesterday, they failed. All they proved is that they’re heartless jerks.”

In her interview with Leno, Palin said her comment, “got out there in the blogosphere, in the different mediums we have today, and it’s left there, not an opportunity to follow up and elaborate on what I really meant.”

However, many would disagree with Palin’s stance. If there is anyone in the world that has the power to “follow up,” it is Palin, who regularly appears on the number one most watched cable news network, Fox News, has a Facebook page with more than 1.4 million fans, and can regularly command the attention of just about any reporter or media outlet she desires to speak with. Scroll to about the 1:26 mark in the clip to watch the exchange, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.