So Gov. Haley Barbour had a news photographer thrown out of a commercial shoot at Mary Mahoney’s a popular (and quite good) restaurant in Biloxi.

Here’s the Sun-Herald’s reaction to what happened:

Fitzhugh and Perez went to Mary Mahoney’s restaurant on Friday to cover Gov. Haley Barbour and his wife, Marsha, taping a commercial to promote Coast tourism in the wake of the BP oil spill.

It was, in marketing parlance, an excellent opportunity for “free media” for the governor. Broadcasting the commercial being taped in the Biloxi restaurant’s courtyard would be paid for with money provided by BP, but the Sun Herald’s coverage of the making of the commercial would not cost anything while still getting out the message that the oil spill has not shut down the Coast’s tourism industry.

All was going well when Barbour’s press secretary, Dan Turner, demanded that Fitzhugh leave the courtyard so the governor would not be distracted. When Fitzhugh objected, Turner told members of the governor’s security detail to remove him. Perez remained in the courtyard.

Once outside the restaurant, and while standing on a public sidewalk, Fitzhugh started taking pictures of the building’s exterior. He was then told by a uniformed Mississippi Highway Patrol officer that he would be arrested if he took one more picture.

Fitzhugh complied.

That was the end of the incident, but it was only the beginning of our concerns.

What Barbour and his staff did makes no sense.