Can’t Touch This… With Palm & Sprint, Fairness Doctrine Rules

Dan Frommer of the Silicon Alley Insider had an interesting story about how both Palm and Sprint aren’t letting reporters touch or hold the Palm Pre.  Two examples he mentioned were Bonnie Cha of CNET and Citi analyst Jim Suva.

He noted:

At CES, GSMA 2009, and now CTIA, the companies have required that a Palm or Sprint representative have at least one hand on the smartphone at all times even when we're just trying to take pictures and we're not allowed to touch certain functionalities…

But alas, there is apparently good reason for this – it’s all about being fair.  

An unnamed spokesperson for Palm said that since the device isn’t yet available, they are trying to make sure “no particular person gets more time with it than others.”

Fair enough.  Although it does make me wonder how they’ll handle reviewers when the Palm Pre starts rolling off the production line.  Surely there will be a huge number of folks vying to be the first to post “First Look” stories.  How the heck will Palm and Sprint handle “fairness” then?