September 12th 2008
Media Bias #54
Reporting Gibson/Palin
The headline of the AP story that broke as Charles Gibson’s first barking dog interview with Sarah Palin ended captured perfectly the media’s unrelenting effort to discredit the VP nominee:
Palin tries to defend qualifications in interview
If it had been BHO sitting down with Charlie, the word “‘tries” would have been nowhere to be seen.
Such are the vagaries of AP’s iPhone feed that although I saved the story last night, when I emailed it to myself today, it came up as a different story – therefore, no link. Nevermind; the text is still in my iPhone:
John McCain running mate Sarah Palin sought Thursday to defend her qualifications but struggled with foreign policy, unable to describe President Bush’s doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against threatening nations and acknowledging she’s never met a head of state.
It is correct, most unfortunately, that Palin whiffed on the Bush Doctrine (or maybe not – see my second thoughts), but AP doesn’t get it right, either. It’s not “threatening nations,” it’s nations that are known to pose an immediate threat to our national security. And once Palin got passed the unthinkable problem that she didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine was, she answered forcefully:
“Charlie, if there is a legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country.”
It’s astonishing (just kidding; it’s not) that AP is repeating the bogus “no head of state” meme. What does meeting a head of state have to do with anything? These meetings, unless they are through carefully pre-arranged talks, are mere diplomatic niceties. It’s hard to image that Palin could not stand up to the task, and I’m sure the line of foreign dignitaries wanting to meet her would be winding out the door – unlike the few that would interrupt their schedules to meet with Joe Biden! Back to AP:
The Republican vice presidential nominee told Charles Gibson of ABC News in her first televised interview since being named to the GOP ticket that “I’m ready” to be president if called upon. However, she sidestepped on whether she had the national security credentials needed to be Commander in Chief.
I didn’t see any sidestepping. Gibson asked six questions on her readiness, and she answered all affirmatively and forcefully. Just because she doesn’t meet an AP reporter’s criteria (Beltway crowd, east coast school, junior year abroad) doesn’t mean she “sidestepped” anything. Being ready to serve comes from the core of the being, not the resume – as Jimmy Carter proved so well.
If you want to see a pretty well reported piece on the interview, check out the New York Times. It’s tough where being tough is right, but provides much better detail with much less obvious bias.
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September 12th, 2008 at 10:38 am
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