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Why are they Facebook Stalking Sarah Palin?
The lead up to Sarah Palin's resignation in July became the top story
across the press. Networks gathered pundits from every direction to
debate, dissect and interpret the ex-governor's words and actions as
the day drew nearer. When the day finally arrived, it was as if the
rest of the world stood still as the Republican Vice-Presidential
candidate that failed to win the election for her party resigned from
her job as governor abruptly, not even having served two years in that
post.
Everyone argued about what exactly would become of the governor after she left office. Many suggested that the governor would disappear from the national spotlight, while she worked to build up her portfolio, we assume to run for the presidency in 2016, educate herself on the issues which she showed that she had little knowledge of during the campaign, and pay off her mounting debt from legal fees she accrued as governor of Alaska.
However, the governor has remained in the spotlight, and in fact has played a large part in shaping the national discussion on healtcare despite being out of the governorship and away from the Alaska press corps that would follow her as governor. Her new medium has been her Facebook page, and her audience, aside from her at last checked 777,825 Facebook supporters, has been the news media, which has decided to become Sarah Palin's Facebook paparazzi.
You can be sure that this entry is not about Sarah Palin. Listening or watching a Sarah Palin speech is as intellectually stimulating as watching turkeys drown in rain, as a country we have far more important issues to discuss than listening to someone who has clearly demonstrated the inability to produce a coherent argument. This entry is about the news media's obsession, to the point of obstruction, with the ex-governor.
Sarah Palin has become a lighting rod in American politics and Washington beltway journalism, because those in journalism have decided to exalt her to such a position. Sen. McCain, the actual head of the Republican ticket last November and still a current Republican Senator, has been all but forgotten in the political arena; whereas his running mate has managed to dominate the news. As we have seen with the recent rhetoric about "Death Panels", triggered by Sarah Palin via Facebook, the press has turned debate over health care reform largely into a Sarah Palin and her supporters v. Barack Obama.
Such a scenario is an absurd equivalence that the media must take responsibility for and correct.
Sarah Palin like every American has the right to voice her opinions on the issues, whether via Facebook or an opt-ed in a newspaper; and should if she wants to act as a medium for her ideological base. If the media chooses to pick up the story it should be kept in context and reported in conjunction with the facts. Sarah Palin does not need the assistance of Washington journalists to spread her message. That's what her Facebook page is for after all.The fact that like everyone who can read at a fourth grade level, the news media knew that there was no mention of anything close to the "Death Panels" that the governor mentioned in her status update last week, and yet continued to circulate the story throughout the press is indicative of the type of media irresponsibility that we have come so accustomed to.
If the news media chooses simply report a story rather than reporting the facts that go along with it, it makes the news media no more reliable that traditional tabloid journalism, and should be grouped as such.
Sarah Palin and those like her continue to be a thorn in side of American intellectualism and civil discourse, because the powers that be have given people like her the soap box to stand on and spread their ideology and rhetoric, which does not have to be supported by the facts. As a result we have seen our discussion on health-care derailed by illogical comments such as "government wants to pull the plug on grandma", "Obama is a socialist-Marxist-fascist", and "I don't want government-run health care. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my Medicare."
We can have an intelligent discussion about the role of government in providing health care to its citizens. We can have a enlightened conversation about making the tough decisions, such as end of life care, and what role the government should have, if any, in that. We can have a civil debate about the role of government in terms of spending and controlling the deficit. However, to do so we must put aside the rhetoric, which in this debate has become akin to a cancer; and the media's role in that is separating the pure political rhetoric (from both sides) from the discussion as it presents the news to its viewers.
Everyone argued about what exactly would become of the governor after she left office. Many suggested that the governor would disappear from the national spotlight, while she worked to build up her portfolio, we assume to run for the presidency in 2016, educate herself on the issues which she showed that she had little knowledge of during the campaign, and pay off her mounting debt from legal fees she accrued as governor of Alaska.
However, the governor has remained in the spotlight, and in fact has played a large part in shaping the national discussion on healtcare despite being out of the governorship and away from the Alaska press corps that would follow her as governor. Her new medium has been her Facebook page, and her audience, aside from her at last checked 777,825 Facebook supporters, has been the news media, which has decided to become Sarah Palin's Facebook paparazzi.
You can be sure that this entry is not about Sarah Palin. Listening or watching a Sarah Palin speech is as intellectually stimulating as watching turkeys drown in rain, as a country we have far more important issues to discuss than listening to someone who has clearly demonstrated the inability to produce a coherent argument. This entry is about the news media's obsession, to the point of obstruction, with the ex-governor.
Sarah Palin has become a lighting rod in American politics and Washington beltway journalism, because those in journalism have decided to exalt her to such a position. Sen. McCain, the actual head of the Republican ticket last November and still a current Republican Senator, has been all but forgotten in the political arena; whereas his running mate has managed to dominate the news. As we have seen with the recent rhetoric about "Death Panels", triggered by Sarah Palin via Facebook, the press has turned debate over health care reform largely into a Sarah Palin and her supporters v. Barack Obama.
Such a scenario is an absurd equivalence that the media must take responsibility for and correct.
Sarah Palin like every American has the right to voice her opinions on the issues, whether via Facebook or an opt-ed in a newspaper; and should if she wants to act as a medium for her ideological base. If the media chooses to pick up the story it should be kept in context and reported in conjunction with the facts. Sarah Palin does not need the assistance of Washington journalists to spread her message. That's what her Facebook page is for after all.The fact that like everyone who can read at a fourth grade level, the news media knew that there was no mention of anything close to the "Death Panels" that the governor mentioned in her status update last week, and yet continued to circulate the story throughout the press is indicative of the type of media irresponsibility that we have come so accustomed to.
If the news media chooses simply report a story rather than reporting the facts that go along with it, it makes the news media no more reliable that traditional tabloid journalism, and should be grouped as such.
Sarah Palin and those like her continue to be a thorn in side of American intellectualism and civil discourse, because the powers that be have given people like her the soap box to stand on and spread their ideology and rhetoric, which does not have to be supported by the facts. As a result we have seen our discussion on health-care derailed by illogical comments such as "government wants to pull the plug on grandma", "Obama is a socialist-Marxist-fascist", and "I don't want government-run health care. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my Medicare."
We can have an intelligent discussion about the role of government in providing health care to its citizens. We can have a enlightened conversation about making the tough decisions, such as end of life care, and what role the government should have, if any, in that. We can have a civil debate about the role of government in terms of spending and controlling the deficit. However, to do so we must put aside the rhetoric, which in this debate has become akin to a cancer; and the media's role in that is separating the pure political rhetoric (from both sides) from the discussion as it presents the news to its viewers.
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Well said.
The media just won't let Palin go. She's too much of a money maker for them.
Our so-called media (I'm not talking about the independents but the corporate consolidated media) has driven national discourse into the dirt.
It's hopeless when the thoughts of right-wing extremists are given more weight than actual experts.
August 16, 2009 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
She generates ratings, which beget ad sales, leading to revenue.
Controversy is seen as interesting, more so than substance in far too many cases.
Who's at the root of this? The viewers - the public, who turn to stuff like that, to "celebrities gone wild", to high-speed car chases broadcast live, to the most sensational over the more substantive.
Ask any (honest) TV news programming exec, and you'll learn that they can track viewership and channel-switching down to the program block, and the viewers wander when the foreign stuff comes on, or the analysis. They want screaming headlines and starlet photos.
Is Michael Jackson still dead?
August 16, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know at the end of the day it comes down to simply a matter of dollars and sense. The news and stories of the world's events are not interesting enough to keep the networks afloat, and so they have to rely on these stories to keep going.
I accept that as part of the beast that is news, primarily cable news.
However, that alone does not excuse the various hosts who supposedly report the facts from not doing just that.
It does not break any journalistic code of ethics to point out that were no such things as "Death Panels" in the legislation in addition to making a story. Rather than spending a week 'debating' whether or not Sarah Palin saw something everyone else who read (if she even did that) did not.
I believe that you can present the news and engage in a debate and maintain our attention without having to rely on Palin like antics.
August 16, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post.
At this point, she's a scourge on American politics, has no job or responsbilities, and can just spout venom and nihilism for free on FB.
I think MSM jackasses are enabling her, just as they did Drudge (remember him?) in the past and Rush.
It's a self-fulfilling prophesy to claim that what so-and-so says is important because everyone is reading them.
Just say no to Sarah "Quitter" Palin!
August 16, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent post. One thing I have been wondering about is this: You cannot stay in the limelight and never have any interviews. I'm sure she will have some Fox News spots, where she will be spoon-fed easy questions that she will have seen in advance, but she can't go national staying under the wing of Fox.
Any other interviewer would have to ask her about her multiple contradictory statements, and her glaringly obvious lack of knowledge about just about everything. I just can't see her being successful in a one-on-one situation unless the other "one" is in her pocket. She is so undereducated it comes out with every statement she makes. Now her crazy base won't care, and she probably will entice even more people to lock & load, but she will never get anything out of it except a boatload of money.
Maybe that will be enough for her, but I think she is seeking status of power, and unless our country descends even further into idiocy I don't think she'll make it.
August 16, 2009 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's hard to see how she gets power in a competitive election process. She's confident, exciting to the idiotic base, but that's also a problem. She was shown up as an idiot in the Presidential elections, an unruly idiot according to McCain accounts, and I don't think they've invented a stop-being-an-idiot pill yet. Now she's a quitter, too. Everybody will look upon that as a sign of untrustworthiness and instability except the imbecilic base.
August 17, 2009 3:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
My latest response to Palin, tea baggers, and Republican Loons like Grassey and Bachman, for example, has been not to read or watch sensationalized headlines no matter how entertaining they may be: no screaming meemies, no shootist at the OK Town Hall, no Death Panels or granny killers, and nothing with the name "Palin" in it.
If I can't get the straight dope, then I guess I'll go cold turkey.
August 17, 2009 2:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
P.S. '08 graduate - maybe there's hope for the next generation.
August 17, 2009 2:16 AM | Reply | Permalink