A woozy moment on just the second day of the TV Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena Friday was the morning appearance of Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, Vice Presidential candidate and conservative figurehead.
Oddly, it wasn’t her first time at TCA. She accompanied her husband Todd when he was on an NBC party as part of his role in the “Stars Earn Stripes” reality show, causing a brief flurry (though there were more people circling the monkey star of “Animal Practice”).
This time, she was hosting a breakfast for her new show on the Sportsmans Channel called “Amazing America.” Because it was before the 9 a.m. start time, there was no Q & A press conference format allowed, so the choice was to have her at the podium to say a few words or to circulate among tables. She decided to do both.
“You know how much I live the media!” she said. “So a room full of media critics: I can’t beat this for pleasure.”
She seemed much thinner than expected, dressed in black but showing her colors in her patriotic red white and blue platform pumps. The Sportsman Channel sizzle reel flashed the network slogan “Red Wild and Blue America,” but its footage reflected mostly red, from Ted Nugent hunting to NRA talk shows. Palin, politically, would seem to fit right in.
In the panel, she promised to “be bop around the room.” But, she added, “What I’d really like to do is, I want to invite you to come up to Alaska and see our world; to see how we live out the American dream.”
“So much of Alaska is what America used to be,” she said, noting its “pioneering spirit” and freedom.
In the show, she’s going to spotlight outdoor lifestyles nationwide, or more specifically ‘highlight people, places and things that can embrace and encourage American spirit.”
But she particularly liked highlighting outdoor women – “young women out of their element, understanding what it means to build something, hunt for something and to sustain themselves” she hopes “young women will be inspired by the show.”
She said “We’d be better off having more young woman holding a fish in the picture, and less holding cameras in front of a bathroom mirror doing a selfie.”
That was the money quote from the session, since when she went out to “be bop” among us, she ended up instead stalled between tables (and two huge security guys as if she were still a political figure) and reporters began coming up, tape recorders held aloft, until it was a full fledged scrum. It may have been an indication of the former leader’s inability to promise and follow through or tendency to quit things mid term, as she did the governorship.