I’ve made a point of limiting my Sarah Palin coverage lately, but some lines are hard to overlook.
Last night on Fox News, Greta Van Susteren asked the former half-term governor about political campaign coverage as if Palin were a credible expert on responsible media. Noting the rumors surrounding New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), the host said, “I guess the, sort of, the question is how should we cover these races and the speculation? How much is too much? And how do we know, you know, when we’re not pitting one against the other, and how to develop the issues?”
“The challenge is in this very quickly changing news cycle world that we are in, you know, there’s a lot of information out there. There’s a lot of white noise out there. And the viewers and readers then really have to be the filter themselves, trying to find out what’s the important information out there.
“I am a proponent, though, of the media providing as much coverage of candidates in order to vet these candidates as possible. We learned our lesson in electing Barack Obama, who was not vetted by the media. The media did not do its job, I believe, the last go-around. So learned a lesson. Now we’re embracing of as much information and vetting of every candidate as possible.
“But again, I do believe that there’s a lot of entertainment value and ratings value involved in this quasi-reality show that is being created through the GOP primary at this point.”
The notion that President Obama wasn’t “vetted” is deeply silly. His presidential campaign lasted a whopping 21 months — one of the longest, if not the longest, in American history. During that time, the media scrutinized every possible angle of his entire life. If there was anyone who sought national office in 2008 who had not been fully vetted, it would be Palin, who had spoken to John McCain for a grand total of about 20 minutes — spanning two conversations — before being invited onto the ticket.
But I especially enjoyed seeing Palin criticizing her party’s presidential nominating contest as a “quasi reality show.” Palin has starred in her own reality show.
The mind reels.
Postscript: By the way, Palin, in the same interview, referred to Herman Cain as “Herb Cain,” three times. Odd.
