Topic: Media Research Center
A Sept. 2 Media Research Center press release howls about the "utter shamelessness" of "the leftist media" for not reporting only positive things about Sarah Palin. The MRC does know from utter shamelessness.
While the press release offers a blanket indictmenty of "leftist media" coverage, it offers only two examples. The first was CNN's John Roberts asking whether "the role of vice president" would detract from Palin caring for an infant with "Down's [sic] syndrome." Roberts was attacked as having "dove right down to the bottom" by asking this. The release also cited ABC "Good Morning America" anchor Bill Weir asking essentially the same question; he was portrayed as engaging in "brutality."
But right-wingers are asking this too. From a Sept. 2 WorldNetDaily column by Olivia St. John:
Last April, when Palin gave birth to her fifth child, she dutifully returned to her work as governor after three days. A few years prior, while serving as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she kept her infant daughter in a car seat under her desk while she worked in her office.
At a time when many former feminists cry foul upon realizing they were duped into thinking they could do it all, few seem to be asking if Palin can do it all.
Does the MRC think St. John is diving to the bottom too?
The release also claimed that "the announcement of the preganacy of Gov. Palin's 17 year-old daughter Bristol elicited more of the same low-rent reporting," but no examples are offered. Again, St. John:
Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old, unmarried daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant. Although she plans to keep the baby and marry the father, her immoral shortcoming is still clear for the nation (and world) to see. Is it possible that her very busy, avowedly-feminist mother, the governor of Alaska and presumptive Republican vice-presidential candidate, could have made a moral difference, had she been more available for her daughter?
Is St. John being "low-rent"? Will the MRC denounce her too, or will it just stick to the script (and the fund-rasing mantra) and bash the "leftist media" even though the evidence that it offered of the crimes it purportedly committed is scanty at best?
Looks like the latter. The release quotes Brent Bozell ranting: "These alleged journalists are again demonstrating what utter charlatans they are. ... These are not reporters, these are hypocritical left-wing advocates using their First Amendment rights as clubs to bludgeon and abuse this fine woman with the lowliest attacks they can drum up."
Speaking of hypocritical: Eight months ago, as we noted, Bozell was attacking pregnant teen Jamie Lynn Spears as a "loser" and bashing Spears mom because "she doesn’t know diddly about parenting celebrity children."
UPDATE: Bozell's Sept. 2 column touches on the same talking points but with different adjectives, this time calling Roberts' question "intensely ugly and personal." For good hateful measure, Bozell throws in a reference to the misleading and subjective National Journal ranking of Barack Obama as "the most liberal Senator."
