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Friday, November 20, 2009

A Little Bit on Sarah Palin

I'll admit I don't watch the news. At all. Not Fox, not CNN, none of them. My awareness of the media's obsession with Sarah Palin was only second hand, read from the Internet.

The other night, when I got home, my wife was watching NBC Nightly News just about the time Sarah's new book had come out. Over at NBC, they were going completely crazy. They were fact checking and sneering and discussing it with each other, not from any disinterested, third-party point of view, but as if we were in their living rooms during a cocktail party. It was all personal and conversational and incredibly viscious.

While I don't watch the news, I do know that the MSM most certainly did not fact check Barack Obama, Joe Biden or even, for that matter, John McCain, certainly not to the excrutiating level of detail they were going after Sarah. As an outsider coming in cold to the event, I had not been desensitized to the level of venom through months and months of watching them go after her and so it was particularly stunning to see.

The level of hate is obsessive, as if she is their ex-wife or a girlfriend who dumped them or the cute chick in high school who turned them down for a date or the one who stole their boyfriend. The hate is primal, sexual and sick. There are times when I wonder if the schadenfreude over the media's descent into financial ruin is misplaced and then I tune in to something like this and decide they can't die fast enough for me.

I've disinterestedly read analyses of just why the media hates Sarah so much and I'm going to add my own little bit here. The level of hate stems from the lack of balance in the newsrooms. It's a high school in there where everyone is piling on the cute cheerleader and ripping her apart behind her back. Everyone is showing how cool they are by adding one more drop of poison. The participants are proving their loyalty to the clique by joining in the feeding frenzy.

If you don't think so, consider this scenario. Imagine you're back in high school and the Julius Caesar-style mass stabbing is going on in conversation. Some girl who you all think is a snob is being torn apart by your friends. Are you going to be the one to say, "You know, guys, she's actually not that bad. She does a lot of volunteer work at the animal shelter."

That's never going to happen in the high school quad of the media. They'd all be terrified that the knives would turn on them next.

I know that on this blog, I routinely defend Sarah Palin. Just to be clear, I don't think she's particularly bright nor especially prepared for the Presidency. I do think she was the best candidate of the four that ran in the election. Whatever she lacks in intellect or foreign policy experience is utterly trumped by her success as an executive, success totally unmatched by McCain, Biden and the now clearly floundering Barack Obama. We'd be far better off today if we were saying President Palin than we are now.

You asked her out and she turned you down. Don't you just hate her?

9 comments:

  1. I was in the movie theatre last friday, dragged along by my teenage sons, to see the execrable 2012. There was a trailer for a movie whose title I forget - the tired plot involving wonderful New Yorkers transplanted to some Gaia forsaken hellhole west of the Hudson. At one point one of the characters expressed fear/shock at seeing a rustic woman by exclaiming "It's Sarah Palin!" After the enthusiastic laughter had died down, I brayed like a donkey. A little protest. I'm kind of ashamed, but getting very weary of this.

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  2. Brilliant! As I said on twitter, "It's the tribalism, stupid."

    One of the ur themes on my own blog. Species recognition here.

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  3. One minor point of disagreement. I think Sarah is sparkling bright. Since you don't do TV, you may want to dig up some of her recent interviews on YouTube or wherever and take another look. : )

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  4. Sissy, I don't think she's stupid, I just don't think she's that deep. Above average or so, but she's no Charles Krauthammer.

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  5. There is only one Krauthammer, but I've never bought his take on Palin.

    First time I ever disagreed with the good doctor was on August 29, 2008, when he fuddy duddied on Fox that McCain should pick someone "safe" like Fred Thompson. As I blogged at the time, "We LOVE Fred, of course, and our sis will remind us that we have a heart too soon made glad, but the Governor of Alaska gets our girls-just-wanna-have-fun juices flowing. Sarah, get your gun!"

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  6. I admit to being conflicted about Sarah Palin. I love her political beliefs, her background, her rise outside of the normal political machine, the fact that she took on obviously corrupt politicians. But I have to admit that her experience and her occasionally baffling responses to interview questions makes me think she is not really the standard bearer we are looking for. (Obama shares these defects.)
    Perhaps she will be more effective out of political office, in the same way that Al Gore has, unfortunately, been.
    The visceral hatred on the left just makes me laugh, she is living proof that they do not speak for the women of America the way they claim, and for that she is hated.

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  7. B-Daddy, now that Gore has made his first billion duping the simpletons in the green movemebt out of their idiotic carbon offset cash, it's hard to see how Caribou Barbie will ever compate.

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  8. Intellect is overrated. I stand as a shining example of that.

    Seriously, I want my Commander-in-Chief to be guided by solid convictions and to possess a rock-solid committment to uphold the Constitution and defense of this country.

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  9. Anonymous9:22 AM

    Hey KT! :)

    Coming out of the woodwork here, to say, Brilliant essay!

    I couldn't have said it better. You have perfectly dissected the unbelievable media bias against her. True, she is not the brightest bulb in the box, but her character and accomplishments are far superior to 99% of politicians today. She definitely would have been a better president than the one we are stuck with today.

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