I was perusing the NewsBusters site while at work today (yeah, not much going on here) and found a few of their articles that I thought I would summarize for all of us Neanderthals and extremists. While I have previously highlighted the attacks that the Democrats (along with Brian showing complicity from their operatives in family, media and PR circles) have undertaken against Gov Palin, I have not really focused on what the media themselves are spewing.
According to Tim Graham in his piece, he found that Newsweek went to ask an ATHIEST about how extreme and how wrong Gov Palin's religion is in this day and age of enlightenment. Here is Newsweek's title: "When Atheists Attack: A noted provocateur rips Sarah Palin—and defends elitism." Does that tell you anything of the bias and Palin-loathing present in the piece? Tim makes this analysis...
The highlighted quote is "The joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance – it’s what’s so unnerving about this pick." That shortens the actual quote, in which Harris claims Palin supporters "celebrate" her ignorance.
It’s hard to escape the idea that Harris is speaking for the vast majority of the Newsweek editorial staff as he ripped Palin as the McCain campaign’s "Rapture-ready extremist" being led around like a "pet pony."
Speaking to Matt Lauer as they tour Virginia for this morning's Today, NBC newbie Luke Russert reported from the University of Virginia. Just before the 8:30 break, Lauer asked him if that campus was representative of students statewide, and young Russert asserted:
"You have to remember, the smartest kids in the state go there, so it's leaning a little bit towards Obama."
CNN’s Ed Henry introduced a new and odd adage about Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s trip to the United Nations on Tuesday’s American Morning. Instead of trying something similar to the "education" line that CBS’s Julie Chen used, the White House correspondent focused on how the McCain campaign was "trying to cram a lot in for Sarah Palin over the next two days in New York:" "It's like speed dating with world leaders.
ED HENRY: Good morning, Kiran. It's interesting. Obviously, she's trying to get ready for that upcoming vice president debate with Joe Biden, who is an expert on foreign affairs, and the McCain camp is trying to cram a lot in for Sarah Palin over the next two days in New York, and her allies believe that she has the poise to pass this test.
HENRY (voice-over): It's like speed dating with world leaders. In the span of just 30 hours in New York, Sarah Palin will meet with nine major international players during the U.N.'s General Assembly meetings, from the presidents of Iraq and Afghanistan, to Henry Kissinger and the rock star Bono -- all aimed at beefing up Palin's thin foreign policy chops.
On September 12, for instance, The L.A. Times repeated the charge.
When Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the city billed sexual assault victims and their insurance companies for the cost of rape kits and forensic examinations.
The L.A. Times also helped further the warped claim that made it seem that the only Alaskan town that charged victims for rape kits was Palin's Wasilla.
Then-Gov. Tony Knowles said Thursday that Wasilla was unique in the state in charging rape victims for costs incurred by law enforcement in trying to solve the crime.
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On September 21, the Chicago Tribune repeated the tale, as well. The Chi Trib tried to spin this tale into one that made Palin notorious in the Alaska State Legislature over the practice.
While she was mayor of Wasilla, her town was the only one in Alaska that required rape victims to pay for their own forensic tests. Charging victims for the "rape kits" necessary to collect evidence and convict sexual predators was a "cost-cutting" measure that continued until complaints about her administration's policy prompted the Alaska State Legislature to pass a bill that banned this anti-victim practice statewide.
One would think that if all this were true, Palin would have been all over Alaska's news in the year 2000 because of it. But, in reality, none of these charges can be found and Jim Geraghty of NRO has done a little investigative work to prove it.
Geraghty looked to see how often Wasilla and Palin were mentioned in the debates about the rape kit bill. But he finds that there is not one mention of the town of Wasilla in the hearings over the bill. Far from being the mayor that had "complaints about her administration's policy" (as the Chi Trib says) being the one forcing the state legislature to pass the law, Wasilla is not mentioned at all in the debates about the bill.
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Geraghty also could not find a single instance of a rape victim ever having been charged for her own rape kit.
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Additionally, Geraghty found that it was the hospitals in Alaska, not the police agencies, that were passing the bills on to the victims' insurance companies. And the idea that only Wasilla had such a policy is blasted out of the water by Geraghty who notes that Juneau also had the same policy of charging rape victims for their rape kits.
On Wednesday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith talked to former Hillary Clinton campaign strategist Mark Penn and former Bush advisor Karen Hughes and asked about Sarah Palin’s effect on the presidential race: "Well, give us some perspective, Karen Hughes, first, on Sarah Palin, turned the world on its ear when her nomination was announced. It now seems, would you agree or disagree. Is it -- is it still a positive? Or is it beginning to be a drag on the Republican nominee?"
Smith went on to cite a new ABC News poll that gives Barack Obama a nine point lead over John McCain and asked Penn: "How do you explain it?" Penn replied: "Well, Sarah Palin's not going to help in an economic crisis. I think what the people are seeing is that.