No..........not against Stevens. Against the ninnys and hateful left who vilified her and her family's ever waking moment.
Liberals went above an beyond to prove they are the nastiest creatures on Earth, and one of these days it will come back to bite them.
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The Media and Sarah Palin
Wyncote, PA October 4 2008
The Media and Sarah Palin
Frank Farley, Ph.D
Temple University, Philadelphia
I am a scholar of human behavior, of psychology, politics, and society. Keeping an objective, balanced perspective on humanity is essential to my trade. I am a university professor, as well as occasional commentator in the media on a wide range of matters. Unlike many commentators about politics, who often reflect strong biases favoring one candidate or party over another, I try to remain objective. But bias is rampant. Objective journalism is hard to find. You have liberal journalists/broadcasters and liberal media, and conservative journalists/broadcasters and conservative media. Its often hard to find points in between.
In addition to widespread problems of balanced reporting, there is a growing failure of civility both in the traditional media and especially on the Internet. Mean and nasty things get said about most candidates.
A failure of objectivity, a failure of civility, and a failure of IQ plague the recent media coverage of politics. To illustrate these points, consider the shameful treatment of Gov. Sarah Palin. She has been the target of a relentless media onslaught of nasty comments, cheap-shot parodies, put-downs, and prior to her October 2 debate with Sen. Joe Biden, blood-in-the-street projections.I'm not making a case for or against either ticket, but I am advocating for more media objectivity, civility and IQ in the performance of the pundits and commentators. The media trend toward guilty until proven innocent in crime reporting, and gossip reportage, has carried over to politics. Palin is unknown, seen as from nowhere important, without Ivy and Washington connections and pedigree, a woman in a nation that has in 230 years never had a woman at the top or one step from it. So she stands out from the usual political crowd and like the black swan in a group of white swans, she attracts the attacks. But the media needs to rise above all this.
The ill-informed and nasty attacks on Palin's abilities are epitomized by comments of Fareed Zakaria in the October 6 issue of Newsweek Magazine " Palin is Ready? Please. Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, " to spend more time with her family"?" Or consider, in the same issue of Newsweek, Dahlia Lithwick stating "While it's possible to assert that Sarah Palin was the most qualified person in America for the vice presidency, only approximately nine people have done so with a straight face". Lithwick says nothing of Biden. One could continue with other comparable comments from the media.
So how did all the negative projections about Palin play out? Very badly. Her debate perfprmance was outstanding, poised, quick-witted, cordial, folksy, with social intelligence, and presence of mind.This was all the more notable given her few weeks as background for such a high-level debate.versus Biden's roughly 37 years of preparation including the several recent primary debates.
My impression is of an entirely new kind of candidate on the national electoral scene, a woman who has risen from a modest background to high success, no silver spoons or family connections, no toney education, and that success has taken place in a most challenging environment of a macho State outside the American mainstream. She has risen from PTA to city council to mayor to governor and raised a large family along the way, undoubtedly has had to deal with sexism, and has arrived on our national stage at a young age.
I remain uncommitted to any candidate or party in this election. But it is clear, Sarah Palin, win or lose, is a rising star, someone of charisma and competence with authentic experience grounded in the realities of everyday ordinary life. She is a refreshing newcomer to our political life, and someone for whom it is time for the mean side of the media to lighten-up.
Dr. Frank Farley
Psychology
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA
Phone : 215-204-6024
Fax : 215-204-6013 |
