Shrewd Sarah Palin/Gullible Media
I’ve argued before, and I will continue to argue, that there is nothing terribly unique about Sarah Palin as a politician other than the way in which her opponents and the media play right into her hands by treating her as if she is somehow uniquely important and/or devious.
Today, Dave Weigel documents another set of examples of this, demonstrating the ways in which the media’s (and, for that matter, Palin’s opponents’) insistence on paying attention to her Facebook and Twitter ramblings, making them into major stories, even if with the intention of disproving those ramblings. The entire post is worth a read and does an excellent job of showing exactly how the media and some of her more vocal critics are playing right into Palin’s hands. I especially liked this paragraph:
The problem is that Palin has put the political press in a submissive position, one in which the only information it prints about her comes from prepared statements or from Q&As with friendly interviewers. This isn’t something most politicians get away with, or would be allowed to get away with. But Palin has leveraged her celebrity — her ability to get ratings, the ardor of her fans and the bitterness of her critics — to win a truly unique relationship with the press. She is allowed to shape the public debate without actually engaging in it.
Weigel goes on to present a couple examples of this strategy in action, and concludes that Palin’s actions are “incredibly savvy,” but that the media’s response to those actions “is ridiculous, bordering on pathetic.” I couldn’t agree more. Again, please do read the whole thing.
Seems to be an obvious case of the news now being an entertainment outlet rather than a journalism outlet. An ex-governor that isn’t running for office and is highly unlikely to win the nomination we’re all breathless about… but sure does give everyone a ratings spike.Report
Yes, read Weigel’s whole diatribe about how he doesn’t write about Palin’s Facebook notes, yet he spent probably several hours coming up with that column, which is all about Palin’s Facebook notes. Naturally, he must idiotic argument is that Palin depends on Facebook, and friendly media to get her message out. Boy, where did we see that before, maybe, 0bama himself, who has spent the last 3 or 4 years talking to no one but friendly media. Palin is using the 0bama playbook, right down to publishing a memoir, followed by a highly publicized book signing tour. The only difference is that Palin has actually done things worth writing about, whereas 0bama wrote two autobiographies before he even did anything worth writing about. Something tells me that Palin will continue to wage this type of campaign, driving the loons nuts, and riding the wave of anti-Washington, anti-insider double dealing right to the White House in 2012.Report
Palin’s fans eat up criticism as proof of how wonderful she really is. I advocate just ignoring her.
SteveReport
Sarah Who? What is Facebook?Report
No politician or politician figure has been attack to the level as Sarah Palin has. For anyone to deny this, they are only fooling themselves. People on the left loath this woman with an uncontrollable raw passion the likes I’ve never seen before. The right wasn’t big fans of Hillary or Bill, but it was never ever like this. Sarah Plain connects with mainstream Americans outside the big cities aka fly over country. She isn’t an elitist, that is one of her biggest selling points among average voters. Right now Sarah finds herself just one point behind Obama in approval polls. She is positioning herself as the “anti Obama” figure. People truly need to be honest with themselves. They would have traded the three debates between Obama and McCain just to see one debate between Palin and Obama. As Obama continues to bleed independent voter support, Sarah is gaining in that area. A republican or conservative president doesn’t need the support of liberals in order to win the white house. Both Bushes and Reagan proved that. All Sarah has to do is solidify her base and win independents and she will be the next POTUS if she does decide to run. People who are steaming over Obama are doing so over his policies, 2012 will be an election based on what Obama did against the American people and who they believe can fix the damage that him, pelosi and reid caused. Personal attacks by the media and wingnuts against Palin isn’t going to work.Report
Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and Barrack Obama, just off of the top of my head.
Frankly, if you’d like to be taken seriously, you should at least back up such a sweeping assertion with something resembling a fact.
Sarah Palin is a small town/small state corrupt little piece of crap. The only thing which distinguishes her is that she got a totally undeserved lift to the national stage, where she didn’t do well. Her reaction was then to cash in on her 15 minutes of fame.Report
“No politician or politician figure has been attack to the level as Sarah Palin has.”
This is just complete nonsense, and everyone knows it. But it’s her supporters’ favorite big lie, so they just keep at it.
Poor Sarah Palin – always the victim. She claimed to be a pit bull, but really, she’s just a cry-baby.
And I’m sorry, but it’s Xmas eve and I’m too tired to hunt down anything to try to support my assertions. Sorry.
Merry Christmas everyone!Report
How wonderfully ironic! Since Nixon the press has wielded an almost Oz-like power of politicians. The best and the brightest have cowered before the “investigative journalist”, fearful of the media’s power to banish the errant senator or congressman to a political wilderness.
Now, we here that a woman–considered ignorant beyond comprehension–banal, and completely in over her head in the shark-infested waters of the national political seen has collared the press like an organ-grinder’s monkey. The butt of Tina Fey’s wit and the pinada for Katie Couric’s laser-like journalistic skills is playing rope-a-dop with the greatest aggregate of journalistic power on the planet.
Pity “Socrates”, Steve, and Wasilla Willie: they still are unemotionally and/or intellectually able to accept that
Palin is smarter by lightyears than they could possibly imagine.Report
To really hit the liberals where it hurts, try delivering zingers and rambunctious metaphors in their own left-wing spelling and grammar. Up there in their ivory towers, they probably can’t wrap their pointy heads around concepts like the national political seen, using lasers on a pinada, playing rope-a-dop, or being attack to whatever level.Report
“Katie Couric’s laser-like journalistic skills”
“Palin is smarter by lightyears than they could possibly imagine.”
I have to say, I always get a kick out of this.
Katie Couric is dumb or lightweight or whatever.
Sarah Palin is smarter than you think.
And yet, after the Couric interview, Palin was a laughingstock.
Weird, huh, how the lightweight Couric got the better of the secretly-smart Palin!Report