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March 14, 2011

Media can't resist Sarah Palin

Joseph Smith
Perhaps the "intelligentsia" could take time out from the faculty lounge and consider what it means to have principles...

Problem:  Drawing readers to a left-leaning political web site in the wake of an epic tragedy that has sucked up all the oxygen in the newsroom....

Solution:  Put Sarah Palin on the front page and dredge up yet another disparaging remark to build a story on.

Politico's lead story on the Monday following Japan's earthquake leads with "Al Sharpton, Alaska version," and goes on to attack the former Alaska Governor for defending herself from the relentless mud-slinging thinly disguised as enlightened political rhetoric.

The Politico column notes that:

Most famously, she has played the victim card -- never more vividly than when she invoked the loaded phrase "blood libel" against liberals and media commentators in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting.

Of course there is no mention of the fact that the media pulled out all the stops to pin the blame for the Arizona shooting incident on Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and tea partiers everywhere:

Sarah Palin has found herself in the crosshairs of the ensuing political debate with opponents suggesting she may have fueled the gunman's rage...

When Palin several days later termed the media's deranged political scapegoating a "blood libel" her critics did not dispute the accusation but instead carped about the origin of the phrase and Palin's right to use it.

The Politico column is well-stocked with references to "the conservative intelligentsia," "right-wing intellectuals" and "raised eyebrows in GOP circles."

Palin's critics on the right are referred to as the "elder statesman... a top strategist... a leading voice," while Palin is impugned for her "flamboyant rhetoric... intellectually empty brand of populism," and for being a "professional victimologist... in her naughty librarian glasses."

In the apparent coup-de-grace, one detractor says  "she seems at best disinterested in ideas or least lacks the ability to articulate any philosophical justification for them."

As Rush Limbaugh often notes, "the left will tell you who they fear."

Perhaps our President, our commander-in-chief for better or worse, could take a lesson from Sarah Palin, and stand up for the United States, lead and show strength instead of bowing and apologizing. 

Perhaps the "intelligentsia" could take time out from the faculty lounge and consider what it means to have principles.

And perhaps the news media could get a life.

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