Shep Smith dares to ask the question that made Chris Wallace sigh so deeply on The Daily Show: will Sarah Palin ever take real questions from the open press when she begins her run for president? That's one of those questions to which we already know the answer: no. She remains a Fox propagandist, and if she runs, she will remain a Fox-only propagandist, unless Fox's handful of actual journalists, such as Smith and Wallace, are prepared to enrage their viewers.
So 2008 - the first time a vice-presidential candidate never held an open press conference - was the new normal. No candidate need from now on to be grilled by an open press conference. It's all about targeting vague, content-free identity politics through direct media to those already sympathetic. Anything else is "lamestream."
(Hat tip: Palingates)