Yesterday Sarah Palin appeared in three separate live interviews on Fox News for a total of 29 minutes of airtime. Palin is a Fox News contributor and a possible contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. She has also thrown her support and cash behind dozens of conservative Republican candidates in this election cycle.
On Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Palin predicted “a political earthquake” on Tuesday, with voters rejecting both Democrats and any Republicans who worked with them (or in Palin's words, those who have been “wishy-washy on the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda.”) Palin went on to claim she had a tape that “proves” journalists at CBS affiliate KTVA in Alaska “conspired to make up stories about Joe Miller.” (Palin's colleague Brit Hume wasn't as convinced.) She said of the KTVA reporters, “That's sick. Those are corrupt bastards, Chris.”
Responding to Fox News contributor Karl Rove's statement that Palin's reality show doesn't jibe with the “standards that the American people have” for the presidency, Palin noted that “Ronald Reagan was an actor” and said that “if the country needed” her to be president, I'd be willing to make the sacrifices."
Later on America's Election HQ, Palin reiterated her claim that the tape from the CBS affiliate “speaks for itself,” adding “it is appalling and there was an orchestration there, an attempt anyway to concoct something.” Palin had more words for the Republicans who have refused to embrace emerging Tea Party candidates and again said that the “message” of Tuesday's elections will be a rejection of Obama, who lacks “any kind of experience.” Anchor Megyn Kelly asked if Palin could “relate” to Christine O'Donnell, who is “being used as a punching bag.” She said she could.
Palin finished off the evening with a softball interview on Greta Van Susteren's show, where she spent nearly seven minutes responding to what Van Susteren called “a trash piece” from Politico about establishment Republicans who want to “Stop Sarah Palin.” Palin said she hadn't read the article, but asserted that it was “unprofessional” and “disappointing” for Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei to use unnamed sources and said journalism is in a “scary” and “sad” place. Van Susteren called the article “horrifying” and said that the writers had “shamed themselves.” Fox News' Bret Baier has called the article “pretty accurate even though it's unnamed sources.”
Palin again discussed the KTVA-Joe Miller controversy, saying that the KTVA reporters “were, I believe, conspiring to make some things up” to hurt Joe Miller and that they should be fired. She added, “It's atrocious and people just need to read the transcript or listen to the tape themselves and make up their own mind.”
In response, Van Susteren said journalists should be held accountable for “being fair.” She did not note that Fox News correspondent Dan Springer reported, “We actually had some of our staffers look at some of the more recent articles and stories that KTVA has done to see if there was any obvious bias or hit pieces against Joe Miller, and we couldn't find that. We could not see any obvious signs of bias or hit pieces done by KTVA against Joe Miller.”