It's an interesting question given how much free airtime the Fox News contributor's online video has received since it was released.

The Nation's Ari Melber did some digging and seems to have the answer on just who exactly watched the former half-term Governor of Alaska's “mama grizzlies” video in the week following its launch.

Good thing too. The last thing we'd want is reporters claiming that Palin had really stepped up her game to rally her base with this new fangled online video stuff for the YuteToobs and FaceSpace. You know, like it did in claiming Palin's recent fundraising was impressive and a sign of her seriousness when, in fact, it was about the same as last year.

From Melber's post (emphasis added):

In the week since it was first posted on Palin's Facebook page, which boasts over 1.8 million backers, the video has drawn 368,000 views. Yet despite her large following, only 33,000 people watched the video via Facebook, according to YouTube statistics. That means only one out of ten viewers found “Mama Grizzlies” through Palin's social network -- and under 2 percent of her Facebook community watched the video. So who did watch “Mama Grizzlies”?

Mostly traditional news readers and Palin detractors.

Almost a third of all views came through an article on Yahoo! News, for example, while ratings for the video ran almost two-to-one for “dislike” over “like.” “The bulk of the views seem to come after it had been covered in the mainstream media,” observes Pete Warden, a social media analyst who has studied Palin's Facebook strategy. “She is still reaching a lot more people indirectly through the media than through Facebook and Twitter and the other direct channels,” added Warden, a former engineer at Apple.

It's quite a feat. Palin blasts the “lamestream” media while claiming to commune directly with her base, which draws extensive media coverage for an effort that actually reaches a tiny number of people. Without the media assist, though, Palin would just be sitting on a Facebook page with 2 percent participation and a YouTube video with niche numbers. (As is, “Mama Grizzlies” is not exactly Double-Rainbow material; it would place below this week's top ten political videos for overall views.) Some reporters are catching on. “I hope we don't hear from Sarah Palin about media bias anymore,” Chuck Todd recently said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe,” “because it is amazing the ability this woman has to get media attention with as little as she does, whether it's a Twitter or a Facebook update.”

Be sure to check out Melber's entire post, including the humorous postscript with an interesting comment from an unnamed SarahPAC official.