MMMM #12 - Palin & The Media

The old maxim "Answer the question you wish they had asked" crashed and burned in at least one high profile case during the GOP convention. It came in the midst of media questions about V.P. nominee Sarah Palin...(who, we'll note, has agreed to just one interview as of Sunday morning. It was offered to ABC's Charlie Gibson several days ago and is expected to take place late this week in Alaska. I suspect the campaign wants to keep her under wraps to avoid the many questions out there. Anyway, in case you missed it, CNN's Campbell Brown tried her best to pierce the "Question-You-Wish" defense as reporters tried to do their job by, duh, asking questions. Senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt demanded an end to what he called a "faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee" for vice president. "This nonsense is over," Schmidt declared ( in a written statement, we note...all the better to avoid questions).

The CNN interview that caused all the fuss? "Can you tell me one decision that she made as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard?" Brown asked McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. "Just one?" "Any decision she has made as the commander of the (Alaska) National Guard that's deployed overseas is more of a decision than Barack Obama's been making as he's been running for president for the last two years," Bounds said.

Here's the much-watched interview segment on Youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqKYO7jzqBg

After that exchange, The McCain camp cancelled an appearance by McCain on Larry King as a punishment to CNN for allowing Brown to actually insist on actual answers. I'm not sure who's being punished there, but hats off to Ms. Brown for providing a high-profile example of actually listening to the answers and refusing to accept the non-answers that are so often offered by politicos and accepted by reporters in political campaigns.

And it is not only the right that's angry with the media. Read some of the assault from the Left on the blog "Left In Alabama"!

Also: over the weekend MSNBC made a big change in its talent linep after complaints, including chants of "N-B-C, N-B-C" during media criticism in speeches at the Republican convention. Here's the NY Times story.

Meanwhile the Pastor of Palin's church told his congregation Sunday to pray for the press. Larry Kroon said the media are to be "cherished and respected" and quoted 19th century philosopher Alexander de Tocqueville's works describing a free press and freedom of religion as essential pillars of democracy.

Amen.