Old Media Whines That Palin is Mean to Them
-By Warner Todd Huston
Get the pity party violin music warmed up because Ezra Klein and Dave Weigel are whining that Sarah Palin has forced them, the press, into a “submissive role” because she is so mean to them.
Klein favorably cites the analysis of Weigel who whined that the “Palin problem” has “put the press in a submissive position.”
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.
Oh, boo hoo. Now we have to feel sorry for the press over the feeling that mean ‘ol Sarah Palin has been successful in leading them by the nose?
Of course, this ignores all the hate that the press has spread about Palin, it ignores all the fake “news” they, themselves have spread, stories filled with lies, half-truths and insults posing as news. It ignores the many Trig-isn’t-hers stories the press spread, the false story of Palin’s book banning, and…. well, I can name a hundred fake stories that the press has spread about Palin. And they have ALL been stories that Palin was in no way controlling or trying to herself spread.
So, right off the top, Klein by way of Weigel is lying by only focusing on her late public persona and not focusing on their culpability for spreading lies for months before she finally had enough of it and began to more carefully control her public utterances.
However, Klein’s whining about Palin aside, he does have a good point about the failure of the press to place the news in the greater context of the reality of the world even as he papers over the fact that newspapers are, indeed, working hard to pass lies as news.
For one thing, newspapers work very hard to report things that are true, but they are less concerned with whether the overall impression from their reporting is a true impression. Shark attacks, for instance, happen very rarely. But if you report excitedly on every shark attack that happens, people will think they happen quite a bit.
Klein is wrong that the newspapers “work very hard to report things that are true.” The fact is most newspapers work very hard to spin the truth to a left-wing perspective in order to further extremist, left-wing ideas. However, Klein is right that newspapers fail to report the greater context of the facts. They do it on purpose, though, in order for the spin to work better.
For instance, the “news” has been floating the idea that the recent unemployment numbers did not grow and newspapers have marked that as an “unexpected drop” in unemployment as if it’s all good news. However, few papers have bothered to mention that this has been a tiny drop in rates during a steady years-long rise in unemployment. The impression is that good news was had, but the facts prove otherwise. Context is ignored in order to make Obama seem a success.
Anyway, it is amusing to see the Old Media crying that Palin is messing with them like this. An unexpected Christmas present if there ever was one.
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Posted by Warner Todd Huston on December 26, 2009 10:57 am
» Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Bald-face lies, Government, Journalistic Malpractice, Journalistic incompetence, Liberal Media/Bias, Liberal World, News, Propaganda, Sarah Palin, government media, liberalism
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5 Responses to “Old Media Whines That Palin is Mean to Them”
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“The problem is that Palin has put the political press in a submissive position..”
Excellent. It’s the position these curs belong in. Keep it up, Sarah.
Yea, she sure is a stupid hick! (wink) She is the smartest politician I have seen. She has done this by telling the truth and the people know it, that’s why she is so loved. The people that see this would lay their life on the line for her. If you think I’m lying watch what happens in the new year. She has accomplished all that she has done on her own without selling her soul to do it and people know it and that is why the left and the press hate her and want to destroy her. She has my support and my vote, keep it coming Sarah!
If you remember the Newsweek (and Washington Post) story “On Gov. Sarah Palin’s watch, Alaska liberalized its abortion laws,” by Katie Paul (Sep 6, 2008), you quickly realized how biased and factually inaccurate the supposedly objective, mainstream media (as opposed to the sensationalist tabloid press–or even FOX News) decided to treat Sarah. The Alaska Supreme Court, over her strenuous objection, repealed a law requiring parental notification when teenage girls had an abortion. The article also stated that Sarah had cut funding for a social-service organization that helped pregnant teenage girls, when in fact she increased it several-fold, but used her line-item veto to reduce the increase from what the legislature had proposed.
“..one in which the only information it prints about her comes from prepared statements or from Q&As with friendly interviewers.”
Isn’t this what happened (and is still happening) with B-Rak?
I love Palin, so any heartburn she can give the dinosaur media makes me happy. Palin supports the things that make the Left insane with rage:
God, Guns, American Oil, No Illegal Immigration, Strong Defense, Less Governmnent, Less Taxes, Less Abortion.
If all the members of the MSM went and killed themselves today, the world would be better off.