Keep Your Post-Modern Business Out Of Politics

We just wanted to use this item to make more mock of Nut-Meg, but there's more going on than one might suspect, judging from the flap.

The former eBay CEO's decision to rely largely on paid advertising while not engaging traditional news sources represents "a defining moment that may have massive repercussions going forward," Adam Mendelsohn, a Republican strategist and former communications director for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said Wednesday.

In the past, California candidates accepted that "you had to subject yourself to the rigors of the working media and you had to risk being off-message - and you had to answer questions you don't want to answer," Mendelsohn said. But Whitman's inaccessibility to the news media suggests that "some candidates are saying they don't have to abide by those rules - and they can use (other) methods of communication to work around the media," he said. "If that's successful, campaigns going forward may all consider that strategy."

Tucker Bounds, Whitman's campaign communications director, objected to the notion that the candidate has been inaccessible to the media. Her campaign says Whitman has done more than 200 interviews.

But critics say Whitman has largely avoided in-depth interviews and news conferences - and has skipped the traditional editorial boards at newspapers.

She has preferred talks with conservative radio hosts and columnists, including an interview Tuesday with Chronicle op-ed columnist Debra J. Saunders.

Leave it to Golden State business people to get all po-mo & start "creating their own reality."