#90 – The Media’s Sarah Palin – And the Truth!

You don’t have to be a Sarah Palin supporter – and there are countless millions (over 3 million on her Facebook page) – and almost 95 MILLION listings is indicated when you type her name in Google – and have to have been hiding under a rock for almost 3 years now to know she is the most villified politicianin recent memory. Papers from the UK to Africa are looking at her 24,000 pages of emails as Governor! And, they found nothing they could spin into a negative attack on her.) You also have to be totally cut off from all news to know that everything she says and does (even to the eyeglasses or the clothes she wears) is analyzed and often criticized and ridiculed. The question any fair-minded person has to ask is simply – Why?

“But she says so many crazy things”. Oh, does she. Let’s look at just 3 items:

1) Do you remember how Gov. Palin continues to be ridiculed for saying “I can see Russia from my house! to boast of her foreign policy statement. Did you know that is that she was asked in an interview before the ’08 election about the proximity of Russia to Alaska. It was in response to THIS question that she replied that Russia “could “actually be seen from Alaska”(which is true). The statement attributed to her was actually said in a comedic routine on an episode of “Saturday Night Live” whose intention was clearly to ridicule her in the midst of the ’08 Presidential campaign..

2)Then, on Aug 7, 2009, Sarah Palin was concerned about the possibilities for euthanasia in the Obama health care bill that was being proposed. She specifically mentioned Section 1233, a provision providing for Medicare funding for “end of life” sessions. “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” Liberals such as Howard Dean said that Palin had “just made that up… There’s nothing like euthanasia in the bill.” Columnist Andrew Sullivan (who theorized that her Downs Syndrome baby was actually that of her eldest daughter) called it a ‘”fantasy.” Even a “conservative” David Brooks called it “crazy.” Months later, PolitiFact.com [you do have to be careful even when a site uses the word “fact” in their name] , a website associated with the St. Petersburg Times, chose her statement as “Lie of the Year..” And yet on August 13, less than a week after her statement, the Senate quietly dropped Section 1233 without debate or public announcement. And of course, do you recall the media reporting this? Hmm...

3) More recently, on June, 6, 2011, this appeared in THE BOSTON HERALD by Chris Cassidy: “Sarah Palin yesterday insisted her claim at the Old North Church last week that Paul Revere "warned the British" during his famed 1775 ride — remarks that Democrats and the media roundly ridiculed — is actually historically accurate. And local historians are backing her up. Palin prompted howls of partisan derision when she said on Boston’s Freedom Trail that Revere "warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free."Palin insisted yesterday on Fox News Sunday she was right: "Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms." In fact, Revere’s own account of the ride in a 1798 letter seems to back up Palin’s claim. Revere describes how after his capture by British officers, he warned them "there would be five hundred Americans there in a short time for I had alarmed the Country all the way up”
In these and other instances, Gov. Palin statements were either misquoted, taken out of context, or simply proven to be true. But of course, the TRUTH was not reported (not widely any way) and the public was left with the intended negative impression from her media and other detractors. But again, the question to be asked is “Why?” Well, the answer is obvious when it comes to liberals. Even then we have to ask, “If she is as silly and as unpopular as not to be a serious candidate for President, why do they care so much in attacking her? Why did they chase her bus as it recently toured historical sites, looking for something to get on her? Why did the major news outlets send people to Alaska last week to each bring back 200 pounds of printed copies of the 24,000 emails she sent as Governor.? Have they come anywhere close to analyzing any politican in recent memory, in particular President Obama when he ran in ’08?

I agree with many people that the real reason for the unprecented media attention Sarah Palin receives is simply that people DO believe she could defeat President Obama if she were to run and that they are trying to destroy her before she ever officially enters the race. And what of those from her own party that attack her? I believe that her willingness to do things apart from the party establishment desires and simply in response to what she senses America needs and wants scares them.

In closing, I could share a lot more (and may in a future blog) but I invite you to check out at the library one of Sarah Palin’s books, “Going Rogue” and while I encourage you to read the entire book, do check out the third chapter that talks about what she did as Governor (VERY impressive for just 2 years) and the chapter towards the end that explains the reason why she left office before she completed her term. (Her other book, “America By Heart” explains her postions on many issues and is also a good read. Also, I just learned my library carriees a copy of an ’09 book entitled “The Persecution of Sarah Palin” that should be interesting reading.)