The Media Apologizes To Sarah Palin
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, McCain, Media, Palin
And Roger Simon does the honors…
First, we should have stuck to the warm, human interest stuff like how she likes mooseburgers and hit an important free throw at her high school basketball tournament even though she had a stress fracture.Second, we should have stuck to the press release stuff like how she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (after she supported it).
Third, we should never have strayed into the other stuff. Like when The Washington Post recently wrote: “Palin is under investigation by a bipartisan state legislative body. … Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week she hired a lawyer to fight to move the case to the jurisdiction of the state personnel board, which Palin appoints.” Why go there? What trees does that plant?
Fourth, we should stop making with all the questions already. She gave a really good speech. And why go beyond that? As we all know, speeches cannot be written by others and rehearsed for days. They are true windows to the soul. Unless they are delivered by Barack Obama, that is. In which case, as Palin said Wednesday, speeches are just a “cloud of rhetoric.”
Fifth, we should stop reporting on the families of the candidates. Unless the candidates want us to. Sarah Palin wanted the media to report on her teenage son, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and soon will deploy to Iraq. Sarah Palin did not want the media to report on her teenage daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unmarried. Sarah Palin thinks that one is good for her campaign and one is not, and that the media should report only on what is good for her campaign. That is our job, and that is our duty. If that is not actually in the Constitution, it should be. (And someday may be.)
Long story short, the media won’t let the McCain camp bully them into submission. And as I mentioned in my previous post “The Weak, Sad Defense of Sarah Palin” it’s beyond hacky to limit access to a VP candidate people know absolutely nothing about.
The media will remedy this, one way or another, and the more Palin and McCain try to paint them as being sexist and partisan, the more independent voters will begin to call BS on that line of attack. And ultimately they’ll simply shy away from her and McCain because they simply won’t trust them.
So much for the apologies…
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, McCain, Media, Palin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
that was the most absurd thing I’ve ever read. Way to rise to my fleeting expectations of you once again. Jackass
September 4th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Matt, seriously, take it somewhere else or I’ll just ban you. I can take criticism, but calling people names is not allowed, and you should know that by now.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
If you make an accusation have supporting evidence to stand up in a court of law. Otherwise it is yellow journalism used just to make a head line and push your own agenda. That should hold true to both parties. There is no need for your false apology. Sarah Palin is more than capable of standing up to the scrutiny you can bring. Do the Gary Hart routine and dig as far as you can on ALL of the candidates. Be a real reporter and not a one sided record with a scratch.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Justin,
LOL good, but they get what they deserve- the politicians as well as the media. Why does it always seem that they deserve each other, though?
I must say, the media has been ahead of the public on reporting about Ms. Palin. When u bring up the soccer mom image and the small town traditional family values stuff, then expect the press to lay off your 17 yr old pregnant daughter? That’s just foolish. Then to whine about it in your big moment in front of the country and show how spunky you are by puttin it ‘in their face’, comedy central is gonna have lots of material to work with from that speech.
What I don’t get is there are so many Republican pundits and bloggers, even on this site, that cautioned there must be red meat in this very important speech. They now say they’re satisfied that she did a great job! I just heard the same old Right Wing rhetoric. Nothing but drill, drill, drill, lower taxes - for the rich, more war spending, same ol’ same ol’.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
To be fair to the right, your expectation was for a stump speech, but they wanted a convention speech.
One is intended to convince the unconvinced, the other is intended to rally the troops.
As a stump speech, it was a loser, but as a convention speech Palin did quite well. She hit the right notes, she extolled John McCain, she crapped on Obama. She didn’t flub.
If you were one of the 37.? million tuning into to learn where she stands on anything like you or I, you were disappointed. (you should have also been disappointed in Joe Biden’s speech which was short on substance)
There was no meat there, but there is plenty of time for the real meat.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Did they send her a card? Heh heh heh….
“Dear Sarah,
We’re sorry.
Love,
-The Media”
September 4th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Isn’t her oldest son a legal adult? And I don’t know the laws in Alaska, but maybe her pregnant daughter is, too. So I think it’s perfectly fine to talk about the adult children of candidates. But as individuals, not as extensions of their equally adult parents. If we are to pursue them as adult children, then they make adult choices. The media can’t say, “The daughter’s an adult so she’s fair game” and in the same breath say, “Palin is a bad mother–just look at her daughter.” At some point you have to accept that young adults are going to make their own choices, and hopefully their upbringing gives them enough of a moral and ethical core to not become too self destructive.
And I think it’s perfectly fine to question her qualifications. If people criticize Obama for the fact that he’s a junior senator with zero executive experience, they should certainly dig through Palin’s executive experience. If people criticize Obama for being long on pretty words but short on substance, they should apply that same lens to Palin.
The one thing that I don’t like, and that does strike me as approaching sexism, is the idea that because she’s a mother, she’ll be distracted from her responsibilities. Obama’s the father of young children, and I don’t think I’ve heard anyone suppose that he’ll be distracted from the Presidency because of his girls.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Palin should apologize to Obama for taking his spotlight.
The media should apologize to Joe Biden for completely ignoring him.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:11 am
I know I would like you. The stereotype preceeds you.
“If you have anything good to say, you say it anyway.”
Criticism defined-
The language of those who contribute nothing.
Pay your dues, respect commanded, greater than respect demanded/expected