How does Newsbusters think the media should have described Palin?
July 06, 2009 2:14 pm ET by Jamison Foser
Here's Newsbusters' Brent Baker complaining about media coverage of Sarah Palin's announcement that she is quitting the governorship of Alaska:
Sarah Palin's "bombshell" holiday announcement that she will resign as Governor of Alaska managed to trump Michael Jackson as the lead on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts Friday night ... CBS reporter Nancy Cordes reflected the tone of the stories when she described "a rambling, at times confusing announcement," while on all three newscasts Palin's decision was called "bizarre."
And here's Baker's colleague, Brad Wilmouth:
Also similar to the DNC statement, CBS managed to squeeze in the word "bizarre" twice as a description of Palin's announcement as Cordes first showed a soundbite of the Politico's Mike Allen calling Palin's actions "bizarre," and, moments later, as he appeared with substitute anchor Maggie Rodriguez to discuss the story, CBS News political consultant John Dickerson also used the word. Allen: "This is very unusual, even bizarre." Dickerson: "It's bizarre, and there's no good explanation."
It doesn't seem to have occurred to the Newsbusters crew that Palin's speech is being widely described as "bizarre" because it was bizarre. This is exactly the kind of thing the word "bizarre" was created to describe.
Without getting too bogged down listing the many ways in which it was bizarre, let me just note that Palin denounced taking "a quitter's way out" in the middle of a speech in which she announced that she is quitting. You can watch or read the speech and decide for yourself; I have no idea what Newsbusters is complaining about, and no idea how you could report on the speech without calling it bizarre.
It claimed that the "MSM" was in league with the Democratic Party because they book used the words "abandon" and "bizarre."
Now, the MSM could have used the words "quit" and "quitter." I certainly would have.
Other than "bizarre," what word comes to mind? "Strange?" "Unreasoned?" "Stupid?"
NewsBusters failed to note that both the MSM and the Democratic Party also used the words "and," "is," and "the."
I was thinking a word like "nutty" would be more acceptable, and a much more neutral term.
For god's sake, one of the things she said was that she was resigning because some lame duck governors take advantage of their lame-duckness! So, she didn't think she could resist the urge to take advantage of the position? And that's supposed to make us think highly of her?
And then she twittered that she isn't allowed to resign, but others are? Name me one other politician who resigned like she did, without another position waiting in the wings.
Can you name anyone who was outraged by the style or manner of the speech? Did you see people throwing up their hands, shrieking, and running in terror? Did you see people vomiting? Did you see people getting red in the face and stamping their feet? Did you hear any catcalls, demanding that Palin be lynched?
No.
You could call it disorganized. You could call it rambling. But it is no more bizarre than the Prairie Home Companion radio show. The worst I've heard it called was "whimsical."
But there wasn't any whimsy in Palin's speech. In the words of the late Gilda Radner, "there's always something." If there's anything that's bizarre, it's tolerating attacks <i>on your family</i> like the Vanity Fair piece, or David Letterman's joke about his daughter's bastard child, in order to pursue a job of president <i>that she'll probably never have.</i> If there's anything that is bizarre, it would be paying $500,000 in legal fees annually in order to keep a job that pays $125,000/year.
Yes, the speech was very unusual. <i>Palin does the unusual.</i> But if you think this is exactly the kind of thing the word "bizarre" was created to describe, you need to spend some time curled up with a dictionary. And the tinfoil brigade thinks <i>immigrants</i> should learn the English language? How about we start with <i>requiring that of political pundits?</i>
*((Gotta put First Things First))*
'In the words of General MacArthur said, “We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.” '
Well, it is bizarre when anyone that claims a point guard "calls an audible."
They don't need to know why you aren't doing the job they voted you in to?
Right now, she's deliberately lowered the bar for herself. Okay, dramatically lowered the bar. It's all uphill now until she attains the White House. This is what she wanted. It's all part of her long-term strategy. Watch out, boys, here comes the Barracuda!!
I bet she shows up on Fox News with her own show inside a couple of months. Perhaps she could sing Alaskan moose hunting songs accompanied by Huckerbee on guitar.