Being more-or-less hostile to Sarah Palin is one instance in which the dysfunctionality of our American press corps actually worked in the Democrats' favor. At least in the short term, during the last months of the 2008 Presidential campaign.
The media's many problems generally do more damage to the Democrats than to the Republicans. And so when one of their dysfunctional habits works in the Dems' favor, the Dems should be thinking of it along the lines of, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"
The press corps sets up "scripts" for various public figures, e.g., John McCain is a Maverick, Al Gore is a big ole liar. Then they work hard to squeeze any information about that person into their consensus script. The results are not infrequently painful to behold. When Maverick McCain acts like a nasty old Republican rightwinger, which is most of the time, the media script has it that it deeply pains the Maverick to have to act that way because he's really a very honorable Maverick at heart and so someone must be forcing him to act that way.
Now, Sarah Palin certainly looked shockingly unfamiliar with the issues one could have expected to be part of the Presidential campaign. So the press corps fastened onto the notion that she's dumb. So, "news" shows treated Tina Fey's comedy routines about her as though they were the definitive political commentary on Palin's candidacy. But the one time I heard Tina talking on TV about Palin outside of her comedy routine, she actually made Palin sound like an appealing, engaging personality. As I recall, she said that Palin is "the real deal", and she clearly meant it as a compliment.
And, since fashion is one thing they like to focus on and it doesn't strain their minds too much, the press played up the issue about Palin's campaign clothing budget.
That freed them from pursuing more serious and relevant matters which were central to Palin's political identity: her reliance on cronyism in administration, disturbing irregularities in her conduct around the state trooper who was her former brother-in-law and still involved in legal battles with Palin's sister, Todd Palin's role in state administration, the involvement of both Palin's with the far-right neo-Confederate Alaska Independence Party, and her commitment to the Third Wave Pentecostal movement which involves strong authoritarian tendencies as well as a highly emotional and superstitious approach to Christianity. I'm afraid in some of those areas, she is the "real deal".
Geoffrey Dunn at the Huffington Post raises a new such question in Palin Pallin' Around with Scientologists: Todd & Sarah & John & Greta 03/21/09. His story also involves the close ties of FOX News specifically to the Republican Party.
Palin could still be a serious candidate for President in 2012, though her unexpected resignation as Alakan Governor has raised new doubts about that. She is obviously very popular among the Christian Right, the main voting base of the Republican Party. If our press corps were actually in the business of journalism instead of infotainment, they would have been taking Palin a little more seriously and investigating more substantial issues in her role as a public figure. And not trying to out-mock Tina Fey.
Tags: sarah palin
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