Sarah Palin: LA Times Dilemma on How to Handle Coverage of Palin

A quick perusal of the Sunday morning Los Angeles Times backs up our claim that the MSM has a dilemma on its hands on how to handle its coverage of McCain’s running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska.

The headline trumpets “some on the right are joining a chorus of criticism over Sarah Palin” while a smaller, more salient story regarding Palin’s popularity with California conservatives lies hidden under “local news”:

“Palin may give GOP a boost in California legislative and congressional contests
McCain’s chances of a win in the state are low, polls show, but his running mate could lift turnout in other races.”

In the Los Angeles Times front page article, staff writer James Rainey, a lesser known liberal “media” reporter for the Times, recounts how “several prominent columnists on the right”–Rainey only lists one: George Will– have called Palin “reckless” and “strident rather than forceful”.

Rainey, a staff reporter for the Times, fails to back up his claim with facts, yet the other, smaller story, placed under “Local” California news, has Palin a big hit with Republican voters and how the addition of Palin may help the GOP ticket in California:

“Late in the day, the silent auction of commemorative plaques featuring Republican notables offered loud testimony to her new place in the party: Ronald Reagan’s was going for $90. John McCain’s was going for $100.

And Sarah Palin’s was at $200 and counting.”

The Times, perhaps in response to the backlash from the public over the initial nasty and negative feeding frenzy over McCain’s announcement that he had picked Palin, the Governor of Alaska, as his running mate, has annointed its Media reporter, Rainey, to supply the negative hit pieces.

Rainey stated that it was “intellectual” conservatives who were under attack from other conservatives after their “assessment” of Palin. Again, Rainey implies a mutiny within the ranks of conservative “intellectuals” in regards to McCain’s choosing Palin, while only naming Wills.

And yet, Rainey’s story raises this hypothetical: what if every single “intellectual” conservative were to write that McCain shouldn’t have picked Palin while Palin’s popularity among conservative, and some independent voters, continues to rise? Could it imply, and this may come as a shock: voters have the ability to pick and choose whom to vote for a candidate without the “blessing”, critique, or assessment of political writers, reporters, or columnists?

In the meantime, two separate interests of the Times are at play: how to get their candidate, Obama, elected, while actually reporting the news, such as the very real story where California GOP voters are gaga over Palin.

The real story that some in the MSM do not want to print is that Palin is a hit with GOP voters, that her nomination has reinvigorated the party. The excessively nasty hit pieces were met with disdain from the public who know when someone is being “beat” up unfairly by the press. The press has retreated and now resorts to “potshots” against Palin while placing the real “red meat” pieces, the rising popularity of Palin among the GOP in “local” or “media” sections of the paper.

One can envision the Times’ editors scratching their heads, much like Mother Superior and the nuns in the Sound of Music, “how do we handle a problem like Maria (Palin). If they attempt to sweep Palin’s popularity under the rug it will come back to haunt them come Nov. 4.. That’s easy, they say, we can write how Palin’s popularity at the polls came as “surprise”.

By LBG

Tags: 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, California, conservative columinists, election, George Will, GOP, Governor of Alaska, John McCain, liberal bias, Los Angeles Times, Media, media bias, NEWS, nuns, Sarah Palin, Sound of Music