Mark Halperin has a feature in Time magazine every week called "The Big Questions." For a process-obsessed campaign reporter, this means a weekly who's up, who's down scorecard, in an easy to followQ-&-A format. This week's questions: Is Sarah Palin in or out? What could hold her back? When does she have to decide? Part of his answer to question one: "Palin remains more interesting to listen to than any other candidate." Coming from a guy who once said, "I'm ready to cancel my vacation to go cover Rick Perry," maybe this isn't surprising. It is worth pointing out that [...]
Jul
29
2011
Where Does Press Set Bar for Bachmann?
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Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote a rather apoplectic column about presidential candidate Michele Bachmann this week, lamenting the fact that other GOP candidates aren't calling her out for being completely ill-prepared for the job: Bachmann does not deserve to be in the presidential race. Legislatively, she has done little, she knows next to nothing and what she thinks she knows is wrong. He also called her "an ignoramus" and "a bigot when it comes to gays." Straight news coverage obviously isn't going to put things like that. But what's remarkable is how reporters seem to give Bachmann credit for [...]
Jul
13
2011
Newsweek Touts Palin's Wonky Insights on the Price of Slim Jims
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Will the outrages ever stop? Newsweek's "I Can Win" cover story about Sarah Palin is awful. But Palin fans will have a hard time trying to figure out how to square this puff piece with the notion that the mainstream media is out to get Palin. The premise is that Palin could run for president–and win. Because, well, that's what she says. That's sort of the theme for the whole article, as it is full of quotes and observations from Palin family members and associates who are trying to 'set the record straight' about her political career. Like how she [...]
Jun
01
2011
Journalists Held Hostage by the Sarah Palin Bus Tour
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The Sarah Palin hostage drama continues. In case you haven't heard, Palin is taking a bus tour up the East Coast, visiting various sites of historic interest. Which naturally means that every media outlet is forced to follow along, covering this series of non-events as if they are of tremendous importance, asking the pertinent questions: Is she running for president? Hasshe launched a crafty non-campaign that appears much like a campaign, without really being a campaign? On Sunday (5/29/11), CNN host Howard Kurtz wondered: Is the press in danger of being bamboozled by somebody who, in the end, is probably [...]
Jan
20
2011
Don't Joke About Sarah Palin: How to (Maybe?) Get Booted From Fox News
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From comedian Joan Rivers' Twitter feed (read from the bottom up if you can): Fox says, for the record, that Rivers wasn't canceled due to the joke; the show was overbooked, and she'llbe rescheduled. As someone who has been booked–andthen canceled–by Fox a couple of times, I'm skeptical of Fox's story here.
Jan
05
2011
New Frontiers in Pretend News About Sarah Palin
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This is an actual CNN.com headline: Palin Re-Tweet Raises Questions And the actual lead paragraph: Normally, it's what Sarah Palin tweets that makes news. This time it's what she has re-tweeted. The "substance" is that Palin retweeted a comment promoting Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal. The piece ends: A Palin spokesperson was not immediately available for comment but Rebecca Mansour, a Palin aide, subsequently expressed skepticism on Twitter that the media would take notice of Palin re-tweeting "something that stands [with] gays." The media not taking notice of something that Sarah Palin said? Don't bet on it. This reminds of [...]
Jun
07
2010
Sarah Palin's Incomprehensible Press Criticism
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Think Progress (6/7/10) claims Sarah Palin's criticism of the press regarding Helen Thomas is wrong, but I can't even figure out what she's trying to say. Here's Palin's Twitter statement: Helen Thomas press pals condone racism? Heaven forbid "esteemed" press corps represent society's enlightened elite; Rest of us choose truth. "Enlightened elite" would seem to be sarcasm–Palin does not actually think the "elite" is "enlightened"–but so would "Heaven forbid," suggesting that she thinks the press corps actually should represent this non-enlightened elite. I honestly can't puzzle out her intended message. As for Thomas' statement itself, the message was all too [...]
Jun
04
2010
O'Reilly's Hypocrisy on Sarah Palin & Joe McGinniss
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Witless commentary and breathtaking hypocrisy are no strangers to Fox News, but Bill O'Reilly was in rare form on June 1. Discussing Joe McGinniss, the journalist who moved next door to Sarah Palin's family home in Alaska in order to write about her, O'Reilly declared the move "immoral" and maybe even unconstitutional: "He's intruding upon them, all right? Their pursuit of happiness, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, basically has dropped 100 percent because he's there." (The "pursuit of happiness" phrase actually appears in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.) About now, listeners who have followed O'Reilly's sordid career [...]
Apr
07
2010
Corporate Media Love to Be Hated by Sarah Palin
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New York Times media reporter David Carr wrote the other day (4/5/10) about Sarah Palin's wide-ranging appeal: Ms. Palin still gets a session in the media spanking machine every time she does anything, but the disapproval seems to further cement the support of her loyalists. Ms. Palin may or may not be qualified to represent America around the world, but she certainly represents vast swaths of the American public and has a lucrative new career to show for it. If we donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t see why, then maybe we deserve the "lamestream media" label she likes to give us. Mark Halperin of [...]
Dec
14
2009
Kurtz Covers for Post, Palin
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The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz spends his Sunday mornings as the host of Reliable Sources, the media criticism show on CNN. Yesterday (12/13/09), one segment concerned the Washington Post's decision to print an op-ed (12/9/09) on "Climategate" by Sarah Palin. It prompted this exchange with guest John Aravosis of Americablog: ARAVOSIS: What newspapers aren't supposed to do is present an issue that's already decided as being a he said/she said of, hey, half the people say yes, half the people say no. KURTZ: So you say it's already decided. ARAVOSIS: Ninety percent of scientists believe global warming is manmade. KURTZ: [...]
