Progressive Alaska has been highly critical of the role the Anchorage Daily News has taken in fluffing up Sarah Palin. I've written about how disturbed media around the country has been about Palin's pivotal role in the dark forces unleashed by some of her adherents at rallies, and how bothersome it is that the ADN has yet to address that. I've written that had the ADN covered any of a number of issues connected to Palin's political ascendancy in Alaska, she probably wouldn't have been a VP pick. One issue I cited, was her role in the need for Alaska HB 270, back in 2000. Back in 1999 and 2000, the ADN neglected covering Palin's policy of deleting payment for forensic exams for sexual assault victims from the City of Wasilla budget. Palin, in late September, issued a non-denial. She has yet to be asked, point blank, "Did you, as Wasilla mayor sign city budgets that did not include a line item for the expense of forensic exams of sexual assault victims? [the answer is "yes.] What role did you play in this policy's formulation? Could you characterize any discussions on this you might remember?
Palin's media blitz this past week, both up here in Anchorage and Wasilla, and at the Republican Governors' Conference in Florida, has brought out new waves of derision of our Governor, as she has strengthened her creds as the biggest political joke of the 21st century. There has been no shortage of brilliant analyses of her continuing blunders and shameless selfishness. My favorite short take on how she comes across to millions, is by Andrew Sullivan, in an essay he wrote Wednesday:
Let's be real in a way the national media seems incapable of: this person should never have been placed on a national ticket in a mature democracy....The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history. That the press felt required to maintain a facade of normalcy for two months — and not to declare the whole thing a farce from start to finish — is a sign of their total loss of nerve.
....This deluded and delusional woman still doesn't understand what happened to her; still has no self-awareness; and has never been forced to accept her obvious limitations. She cannot keep even the most trivial story straight; she repeats untruths with a ferocity and calm that is reserved only to the clinically unhinged; she has the educational level of a high school drop-out; and regards ignorance as some kind of achievement. It is excruciating to watch her — but more excruciating to watch those who feel obliged to defend her. [emphasis added by PA]
So far, the Anchorage Daily News continues to play a key role as some sort of gatekeeper. With a great bunch of reporters and such top investigative help as Richard Mauer and George Bryson, the ADN certainly has the talent to write a far more accurate and insightful portrait of a person of such "obvious limitations."
Many people have cited how watching her on the national stage gives them the same fascination as watching a train wreck happen. And the humor element of her inanity is almost precious, for sure. The most recent example is from her interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer:
BLITZER: Does that mean you want to come up with a new Sarah Palin initiative that you want to release right now.
PALIN: Gah! Nothing specific right now. Sitting here in these chairs that I’m going to be proposing but in working with these governors who again on the front lines are forced to and it’s our privileged obligation to find solutions to the challenges facing our own states every day being held accountable, not being just one of many just casting votes or voting present every once in a while, we don’t get away with that.
Just another of her many, many Miss South Carolina moments.
Larry King asked Palin about her presidential aspirations:
KING: All right. You were a step away. As you look at yourself, think about it, are you ready to run for the presidency? Is that something that would interest you? You?
PALIN: Again, I'm not going to close any doors of opportunity that perhaps are open out there in the future. Not having a crystal ball, I do not know what those opportunities will be. If I have to call an audible down the road here and circumstances change and the door is open for me to do so, it would be something that I would take that challenge on, that responsibility.
So, our responsibility to help get an in-depth, accurate portrait of this ambitious politician out there, is immense.
The bottom line for me, on why it is important to get the truth out on Palin, is quite serious. When she was selected by McCain as his running mate, Alaska progressive bloggers sought to truthfully get the word out on how truly unfit for national office she is. Over the course of the campaign, as we worked with many Outside journalists, we discovered more about her, reinforcing our already solid opinions. But it became more serious as we were able to witness the rising levels of hatred shown by some of her most partisan and fierce adherents.
Every day, new examples of the relationship between Obama hatred and Palin's vitriol are written about in the on-line press. Yet Alaska's journal of record refuses to even address this.
I feel ashamed. Who knows, maybe the fine ADN reporters will convince their incredibly negligent publisher and senior editors, that the paper owes it to the country to stop fluffing and softballing this enormously polarizing figure.