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Reporter's notebook: No one crushed during new GM CEO's first scrum

General Motors
GM CEO Mary Barra introduces GMC Canyon

Media had their first chance to see General Motor's new CEO Mary Barra in action Sunday night.  Barra introduced the new GMC Canyon.

Afterwards, she went through the trial by fire known as a media scrum, her first.  Barra was surrounded on almost all sides by a huge crowd of reporters.  Her GM handlers made sure her back was to a truck, to give her an exit strategy.

So eager was everyone to get the new CEO's first off-the-cuff comments that some reporters looked like they were playing Twister in the contorted melee - all trying to get their tape recorders or ears close enough to hear her comments.

Barra took eleven questions and then was quickly escorted from what can become a hot and grueling process for reporters and executive alike.

Here's a link to my story about scrums from last year's auto show, featuring former GM CEO Dan Akerson, Ford CEO Alan "Not Going to Microsoft" Mulally, and AOL Editor-in-Chief Sharon Silke Carty.