Media Has Fit as Palin Takes to Airwaves

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Media Has Fit as Palin Takes to Airwaves

Posted By Bobby Eberle On January 14, 2009 at 7:34 am

Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin became the #1 target of the media. Her straight-forward, no-nonsense approach was just a little too “rustic” for them, and she was criticized relentlessly. Whether it was her family, her knowledge of issues, her experience, or her wardrobe, nothing was off limits for the media who were foaming at the mouth to get Barack Obama elected.

Now, Sarah Palin is speaking out. In a series of interviews, she addresses her time as the vice presidential nominee and takes the media to task. Of course, this hasn’t gone over well with those in the “journalism” community. Setting the record straight doesn’t appear to be something the media are interested in doing.

Earlier this month, Sarah Palin sat down for an interview with documentary filmmaker John Ziegler to discuss the topic of media coverage during the 2008 election. Gov. Palin took the opportunity to strike back at the misinformation that was continually being spewed by TV personalities and others who claim to be “unbiased” journalists. A portion of that interview can be seen below:

Palin also sat down with Esquire magazine. While the interview will be published in the March issue, the magazine released some quotes which show the governor’s frustration with false information that was flying around during the campaign.

Palin on Bloggers and Journalism: Bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie annoy me….I’ll tell you, yesterday the Anchorage Daily News, they called again to ask — double-, triple-, quadruple-check — who is Trig’s real mom. And I said, Come on, are you kidding me? We’re gonna answer this? Do you not believe me or my doctor? And they said, No, it’s been quite cryptic the way that my son’s birth has been discussed. And I thought, Okay, more indication of continued problems in the world of journalism.

Palin on the Campaign: If I were giving advice to myself back on the day my candidacy was announced, I’d say, Tell the campaign that you’ll be callin’ some of the shots. Don’t just assume that they know you well enough to make all your decisions for ya. Let them know that you’re the CEO of a state, you’re forty-four years old, you’ve got a lot of great life experience that can be put to good use as a candidate.

Palin continues to battle her own local newspaper regarding the rumors that she is not the mother of her youngest child, Trig. In an e-mail exchange with the Anchorage Daily News (ADN), Gov. Palin touches on a number of stories and actions by the newspaper which continues to paint Palin in a poor light. The ADN responded that they were, indeed, working on a story regarding her and Trig, but they claim it was an effort to “put the conspiracy theories to rest.” Put the theories to rest? Come on! Palin’s own doctor has already stated that Palin is the mother… how much more digging needs to be done?

The fact that Palin has begun speaking out does not sit well with the media elite. In a recent episode of The View, Barbara Walters found it “disturbing” that Palin would mention “class” as one reason the media didn’t favor her. Palin made the remark in her interview, noting that she wondered if Caroline Kennedy will receive the same harsh treatment in her quest for the New York Senate seat.

Walters also says, “One wonders why she keeps doing these interviews again.” Is she serious? The media was so one-sided with their portrayal of Palin, and now Walters wonders why Palin is speaking out? I guess the media assumes that since Obama won, conservatives will just run and hide.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann took a shot at Palin’s interviews in his Tuesday program. As noted by NewsBusters, Olbermann said on air, “But, apropos of Palin, I can’t remember who said this, but it came to mind: What’s the difference between a governor of Alaska and a pitbull? You can train a pitbull to occasionally keep its mouth closed.”

It seems that the more Palin speaks, the more the media go into convulsions. Good for her! The left-wing media continues to lose ground… circulation at the New York Times continues to fall. But they still have an incredible grip on the American public, and their bias needs to be taken to task. Kudos to Gov. Palin for stepping up and doing it.

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In era of Obama, no new Reagans allowed

In era of Obama, no new Reagans allowed
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Posted: December 06, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
© 2009
I have noticed a common theme in the media lately: Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate is being portrayed as the bane of the GOP – the single-handed destroyer of the McCain campaign who should retire into political oblivion.

Why is this an ongoing message, with even some so-called Republicans pushing it?

I believe it is because Gov. Palin resonated with conservatives nationwide in a way that caught the mainstream (read: not-so-clandestinely liberal) media completely off guard. They don’t want her, or anyone like her, to rise up as the exciting future of conservative politics; they want no new-generation Reagan gaining steam in the era of Obama.

So what’s the problem with Mrs. Palin in the eyes of the media? I believe she has intimidated them. She’s young, she’s an unashamed Christian, and she resonates with countless women as a working mom who embraces pro-life and pro-traditional family positions.

This is not the accepted dynamic of the modern political woman – certainly not the type the mainstream promotes. And therein lies the allure of Sarah Palin to conservatives. She is the embodiment of the political nonconformist – the outsider who has a history of being not only a maverick (and not simply as a catchphrase) but an effective reformer.

As such, she will continue to face what I see as an intentionally deceptive depiction from the mainstream media that she is a lightweight, a political pretender whose supposed ambitions outweigh her capabilities.

And to such criticism, I hope she continues to say, “So what!”

Who cares what the media and the left think, anyway? Gov. Palin’s values are not going to be accepted by Big Media or by Capitol Hill’s entrenched insiders who seek out yes men to carry out their tired political visions. I would suggest that she shouldn’t even try to make inroads into those shallow worlds. (She’s done pretty well on her own, anyway.)

It’s time for real change. As such, it is time for conservatives to join together and redesign their playbook so that it hearkens back to the days of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.” Sure, they’ll be scoffed at, but that will be the price of standing up to the fashionable left.

As Christians living in an increasingly secular world, we face these types of challenges every day. You see, the very foundations of what we believe – from our conviction in how the world was created to how it will one day end – are constantly disputed by the purveyors of accepted “truth.” Even in the Republican Party, we – the religious right – are often covertly whispered about and laughed at (until election time, conveniently).

But conservative people of faith continue to be the solid backbone of the Republican Party, whether some of its leaders want to admit it, or not.

“Conservatism, real conservatism, resonates with heartland America, and wins elections,” said Christopher G. Adamo in a GOPUSA commentary this week. He added, “The people of this country have little interest in a Republican Party that seeks to define itself as a milder and cheaper version of the societal dissolution and erosion of American greatness offered by the opposition.”

Thankfully, there are people who still understand this, and Sarah Palin is one of them. There are other rising conservative stars on the horizon (Reps. Mike Pence of Indiana, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Eric Cantor of Virginia, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and others) who can communicate economic and social solutions that counter the policies of the left. Our friend Mike Huckabee is also telling everyone that the November losses by Republicans mean that the party must return to its conservative roots.

I believe millions of Americans are anxious to find vocal leaders to usher in a new day for conservatism.

However, the conservative leaders who do come to the fore must realize two important facts: 1) they are going to be the black sheep of the political world, and 2) the similarly outcast religious right is one of the big keys to a conservative revival.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=82828

In a League of Her Own, Palin Swings Away at Couric, Fey and Kennedy

 

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January 13, 2009

NYC

 

By CLYDE HABERMAN

 

A modern film version of “The Women,” Clare Boothe Luce’s 1936 play about class distinctions and resentments, came and went in New York a few months ago, leaving a trail of unflattering newspaper reviews.

Now we have a real-life update involving some of the city’s most prominent women: Caroline Kennedy, Katie Couric and Tina Fey. A central role is played by an outlander named Sarah Palin. Somehow, we suspect that the critics would be equally underwhelmed.

If you happened to be preoccupied over the weekend with lesser matters — war in the Middle East, the crumbling economy, the New York Giants’ collapse — you may have missed clips from an interview with Ms. Palin that made their way to YouTube. No one can accuse her of going gentle into that good Arctic night now that she is back on her regular job as Alaska’s governor.

Ms. Palin talked last week with a conservative filmmaker, John Ziegler, about bias that she perceives in the news media. She seems convinced that it explains why her campaign as Senator John McCain’s running mate failed. She bristled with resentment, some of it rooted in what she saw as class-based favoritism. This is where Caroline Kennedy comes in.

Ms. Kennedy, of course, has offered herself as a replacement for Hillary Rodham Clinton once Mrs. Clinton gives up her Senate seat to become secretary of state. Senate hearings on the State Department appointment are scheduled to begin Tuesday. Short of Mrs. Clinton’s testifying that she really did run a serpentine course to avoid that nonexistent sniper fire in Bosnia, she is probably a shoo-in for confirmation.

It means that Decision Day on picking a successor is fast approaching for Gov. David A. Paterson. No name on his list looms larger than Ms. Kennedy’s.

Enter Ms. Palin. She was asked if she thought that a news media “class bias” had created a double standard in how she and Ms. Kennedy were being treated.

“I’ve been interested to see how Caroline Kennedy will be handled and if she will be handled with kid gloves or if she will be under such a microscope also,” the governor replied. “It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out. And I think that as we watch that, we will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here also that was such a factor in the scrutiny of my candidacy versus, say, the scrutiny of what her candidacy may be.”

Let’s leave aside an obvious difference between the women. One is looking to become a backbencher in a 100-member club. The other wanted to be the proverbial heartbeat away from controlling America’s nuclear launch codes.

Sticking to the class issue, it’s hard to imagine that the born-to-privilege Ms. Kennedy feels that she has received kid-glove treatment from reporters. Her qualifications for the Senate have been sharply questioned. And she has been pounded, you betcha, for the scores of “you knows” that rendered her inarticulate in recent interviews. To rework a line used by The Daily News in a different context years ago, it seems that with Ms. Kennedy, the syntax of the father has not been visited upon the child.

THAT Ms. Palin was unaware of the Kennedy coverage makes one wonder how she gets her information. Articles about Ms. Kennedy’s stumbles had circulated for a week before the Ziegler interview. What newspapers and magazines does she read?

Hold on. Isn’t that what Katie Couric asked in her CBS interview with Ms. Palin during the campaign? It was a softball question, hardly a gotcha moment. But the governor turned this, too, into a class issue. “To me,” she said, “the question was more along the lines of, ‘Do you read? What do you guys do up there?’ ”

She gave Ms. Couric the back of her hand. “Katie,” she said, “you’re not the center of everybody’s universe.” You almost could hear those words coming from one of Clare Boothe Luce’s characters.

Ms. Palin was similarly peevish about Tina Fey’s impersonations of her on “Saturday Night Live.” There was “some, perhaps, exploiting, that was done via me, my family, my administration,” she said. Yet she was more than happy to have done some, perhaps, exploiting of her own. She did, after all, do a star turn on what she referred to familiarly as “S.N.L.”

All this brings to mind another women-focused film, “A League of Their Own,” about female baseball players during World War II. In it, the team manager played by Tom Hanks chews out a fumbling player so harshly that she is reduced to tears. “Are you crying?” he asks in outrage. “There’s no crying in baseball.”

He might well have added as a corollary: “Are you whining? There’s no whining in politics.”

E-mail: haberman@nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/nyregion/13nyc.html?_r=1