ABC’s Jake Tapper the interim host of This Week took to Twitter to invite Sarah Palin to be a guest on the show.

From Yahoo.com

Stopping by the Sunday-morning chat shows once seemed like a prerequisite for any politician seeking national office. But Sarah Palin broke that tradition during the 2008 campaign by skipping all the Sunday shows — a marked contrast to her running mate John McCain, who’s long been a permanent fixture on the political chat circuit.

Palin has certainly kept her name out there since 2008, however, with high-profile speaking gigs, regularly posting endorsements and policy positions on Facebook and Twitter, and writing a best-selling book.

But the Big Three network Sunday shows continue to be shut out. Palin, a Fox News contributor, made her first Sunday-show appearance on “Fox News Sunday” in February but still hasn’t appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” ABC’s “This Week,” or CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

ABC’s Jake Tapper, interim host of “This Week,” is trying to change that, and is going after a Palin booking in an unorthodox way: over Twitter. Yesterday, he wrote: “I’d hope @SarahPalinUSA fans might want her to broaden her reach by coming on #ThisWeek, talk politics and policy. #PalinThisWeek.” Tapper, in a later tweet, said that if Palin doesn’t think the media is covering the flotilla incident in Israel adequately, she can always discuss the matter on “This Week” (hint hint). And Tapper has also engaged over Twitter with Palin supporters, despite Palin’s own frequent complaints about the many faults of the “lamestream media.”

Tapper hasn’t yet heard back from Palin but told Yahoo! News that the Twitter strategy “seemed worth a shot.” Palin, he said, is “very engaged online and by reaching out via Twitter it seemed a way that her supporters could get involved as well, encouraging her to broaden her audience by coming on ABC News and vouching that I’m fair.”

Palin often talks about her use of social media as a way to sidestep the mainstream-media filter and talk directly to the American people without a journalist there asking follow-ups. Regardless of her ongoing media critique, journalists inevitably cover just about anything she writes on Facebook — such as last week’s rant against new neighbor Joe McGinniss. The only problem is they can’t respond with a question, especially since Palin maintains virtually no press apparatus. These days, Fox News hosts seem to be the only ones who get to ask Palin questions on television, and that’s because the network employs her.

If Palin can freely express her views on Fox News or Facebook, and they’ll be covered by the mainstream press anyway, why would she want to endure follow-up questions from a Sunday-show host like Tapper?

“For the same reason any public official would come on ‘This Week’ — to have a conversation, answer questions, share views with the larger public, and reach people beyond one’s base audience,” Tapper responded. “Based on her frequent Facebook and Twitter postings, she has a lot of views on politics and policy that she wants to share.”

The chances are that Palin will not respond to Tapper’s request  but using Twitter is a great idea to invite hard to book guests on shows like This Week.

This puts the invite into the public sphere and makes it difficult if not impossible for politicians in particular to claim that they were not invited or shunned by the networks if the invite is in the public domain.

Share This

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

About the author

1 Comment for ABC’s Tapper Tries Twitter to Lure Palin