Study: Palin coverage negative (No way!)
October 31, 2008
Media coverage of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been overwhelmingly negative according to a new study by the Culture and Media Institute, a conservative media watchdog group.
A survey of stories shown on NBC, CBS and ABC between September 29 and October 12 showed that negative stories about Palin were shown over positive stories at a rate of 18-1. Of the 69 stories about the Alaska governor shown during the stretch, 37 were deemed negative, 30 neutral and 2 positive.
Both of the positive stories were aired on CBS. More than half of each of the networks stories were negative. The study did not offer any information on how Palin coverage has skewed since Oct. 12.
“If the polls are accurate, the networks have successfully created a caricature of Sarah Palin that ignores her all-American appeal, intelligence and accomplishments,” Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said in a release accompanying the report. “CMI’s analysis shows an undeniable pattern of bias against her in a critical period before the election.”
According to the report, most of the negative stories portrayed Palin as either unqualified and unintelligent or as attacking Barack Obama unfairly.
Since being unveiled as McCain’s running mate, Palin has had a contentious relationship with the press. The Alaska governor has been criticized for not being available to reporters and, by many measures, failed her first tests in interviews with ABC’s Charles Gibson and CBS’s Katie Couric.
Palin has frequently criticized the press as biased and sexist both on the stump and in interviews.
During an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday, the Alaska governor said there is an “obvious double standard” in her coverage.
“I mean, talk about my wardrobe and never talking about the male candidate’s wardrobe. Or the questions posed to me of how I will be able to serve in office and still raise a family. I’ve never heard that asked of a male candidate,” she said.
“But I’m not going to complain about that, because if my skin isn’t thick enough to take that as a candidate, I should not be even thinking of serving this nation as vice president.”
Sarah Palin’s Son Track Stars in Iraq
October 31, 2008
Pfc. Track Palin has been promoted from driver to an “air guard” position in one of the rear hatches of the Stryker vehicle. He stands in the hatch with a rifle and watches out for danger to the vehicle, be it airborne or on the ground. His unit also provides security for the brigade’s commander and deputy commander. From there, the next promotion is to be a dismounted soldier, one that leaves the 20-ton, eight-wheeled armored combat vehicle.
From all reports, Track Palin is an unassuming and humble fellow and very quiet about the whole “mom running for vice president” thing. “He’s a good kid and a good soldier and he’d like to remain anonymous,” says Col. Burt Thompson, who commands the Alaska-based 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, known as the “Arctic Wolves.”
Kelly McParland: Palin the rogue is doing the right thing
October 29, 2008
If Sarah Palin really has stopped listening to advice from her handlers in the McCain campaign, it suggests at least one person in the Republican campaign is thinking rationally.
Ms. Palin hasn’t been the vote magnet John McCain hoped for when he lured her out of Alaska and pushed her onto a stage in Minneapolis seven weeks ago. There have been any number of embarrassing moments as she toured the country trying to look vice-presidential, whatever that is. Joe Biden hasn’t been seen or heard from much since Barack Obama chose him for the bottom half of the Democratic ticket, but Ms. Palin’s been everywhere.
If there’s anyone who should be rightly ticked off about the Alaska governor’s brief time on the national stage, however, it is Sarah Palin. Rarely has a candidate with such promise been as badly handled as Ms. Palin has been by the McCain camp.
God knows how decisions were made deep in the recesses of the McCain brain trust, or who’s been making them, but the results have not been inspiring. Ms. Palin’s strengths are her character, her vibrancy, her earthiness, and her total lack of any link to official Washington. It could have been used to great effect. Instead it’s been utterly wasted.
Some Say Blame John McCain Not Sarah Palin for the Campaign’s Struggles
October 29, 2008
She chucked her famously expensive designer clothes, ditched some campaign-approved comments, and, on Sunday, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin donned blue jeans and before a packed arena in Asheville, N.C., sang along lustily to the country hit “Redneck Woman.”
The down-home sing-along with country artist Gretchen Wilson, and Monday’s appearance before several thousand supporters in the woods of Virginia, came as John McCain’s running mate has appeared increasingly determined to shake off the strictures of her handlers—not to mention her Nieman Marcus outfits. And it comes at a time when the Alaska governor is seeking to preserve her unique brand, which just two months ago was crucial to energizing the GOP base but now is under attack even within the McCain-Palin campaign.
For days, the “Blame Palin” faction in McCain’s struggling effort has been taking potshots at the Alaska governor, whose popularity has plummeted in national polls but remains strong on the stump. She’s a “diva” who is “off message” and lacks understanding of issues. And, shockingly, she’s looking out for her “own political future.” And why shouldn’t she? Election Day is just a week away, and with a McCain victory looking like a long shot by any current measure, Palin’s supporters envision the 44-year-old mother of five emerging as a player for years to come, someone who could battle Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for party primacy.
What has emerged is a parallel “Blame the McCain campaign” faction—chief among them Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol and former Reagan national campaign director Ed Rollins, who also chaired Huckabee’s presidential run this year. Though Palin has been roundly criticized for her lack of experience, particularly with foreign issues, and for her stumbling performance during interviews with CBS’s Katie Couric, there has been a growing consensus among a cadre of conservative strategists that it has been McCain’s powerful campaign strategists who messed things up.
Exclusive Interview: Sarah Palin on Alaska Life, Guns, and Oil Drilling
October 29, 2008
Sen. John McCain’s campaign must have learned playground rules in a federal prison yard. Because theirs is no way to treat a new friend, running mate Sarah Palin. From the time she was so poorly unveiled at the Republican National Convention to her muzzling to “fashion-gate” and now to an anonymous McCain staffer’s charge that Palin’s a “diva,” theirs was a bungled effort that Palin probably realized just a few days into the campaign.
How would I know? From my interview with Palin and hubby Todd yesterday, they explained how they size people up on outdoor expeditions in Alaska: “It’s like Plato said, ‘You learn more about someone in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.’ We’ve had people that Todd has ended up hiring [for his commercial fishing business] based on how they did out on a hunt or a snow machine ride with us to see if they are going to complain. Are they going to buck up and realize that you have to make the best of the circumstances you’re in? It’s a good kind of testing ground for people,” says Palin.
In the face of adversity, she’s clearly bucking up. Consider something else when judging whether she’s a good team player: Todd told me that the presidential campaign has torpedoed Palin’s once stratospheric approval rating in Alaska. It’s down 20 points since she’s assumed the partisan pit bull role. As for those urging her to go “rogue,” there was no evidence during my three hours with her campaign yesterday that she was going to stage a mutiny and certainly nothing close to the day 1988 GOP running mate Dan Quayle announced to his press corps that he was taking charge of his effort from heavy-handed Bushies. She and her staff never mentioned a 2012 bid or even veered from her well-traveled pro-McCain, anti-Obama stump speech. Even the music was the same at rallies in Leesburg, Va., and Fredericksburg, Va.: Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.” And the frustration staffers feel about the campaign HQ back-stabbing wasn’t evident on Palin’s face.
