The New York Times, Sarah Palin, and the ‘Gravitas Gap’

[Geee]

Pajamas Media:

The New York Times Magazine has a lengthy cover profile of Sarah Palin coming out Sunday, and already available online, titled “The Palin Network.” While its principal takeaway appears to be Palin’s admission she is seriously mulling a presidential run — an acknowledgment she has evidently also repeated to Barbara Walters on ABC — that was not what interested me in the article. That Palin is at least considering a candidacy at this point should surprise no one. The article by Robert Draper was much more fascinating as a snapshot of where the New York Times is at this moment regarding the former Alaska governor.

Now we can take it as a given that the powers that be on 44th Street would prefer China’s Hu Jintao — possibly even Hugo Chavez or Ahmadinejad — for U.S. president to Sarah Palin. Nevertheless, they have a problem. Is it better to tear down Palin unmercifully now, as was done by most of the MSM earlier, or to give her a pass for the time being, so that she might actually get nominated to be branded later, when it counts, as a dangerous extremist, not to mention an illiterate moron?

This is a tricky problem indeed for the “objective journalist.” For the most part, Draper does an elegant job of splitting the difference, noting on the one hand that no one could any longer “underestimate” Sarah Palin, while only a few paragraphs before reminding us the dullard used the word “refudiate,” instead of “repudiate,” in a Twitter posting. (Could that simply have been a typo? Draper — who undoubtedly never makes them — was mum on the subject.)

But how does Draper finally resolve the conundrum? Since the advent of the Internet, we have been teaching each other how to read articles in papers like the Times. In think pieces — now often called “news analysis” — six or eight experts are consulted on a subject. Quotes from these experts are then ordered somehow mysteriously to endorse the author’s point in the last paragraph. (Similar techniques are used for populist “man-on-the-street” stories.)

[NCTexan]

She's so unimportant and insignificant that "The Old Gray Lady" just can't get Sarah out of her mind!

 

As well as several other folks who will remain unnamed.

[Pepper]

NCTexan

 

Hey, PDS in full form.

 

Other places have RomneyDS.

 

Speaking of refudiate and making up words, I saw this web site that has Rupublicans in the title bar: The Women's National Rupublican Club, Inc.

 

What's a Rupublican? An urban Republican?

[AceRimmer]

The real question is: "Who lacks gravitas? Palin or the Old Grey Drag Queen?" My money is on the latter...

[pollyannaish]

the Old Grey Drag Queen

 

[Stella]

The media did the same thing to GWB when he was running and he learned how to deal with it using humor.

[Guest areafiftyone]

The media did the same thing to GWB when he was running and he learned how to deal with it using humor.

 

You have to otherwise you are doing exactly what the media wants you to do. They have more respect for you when you can deal with them and take it head on and even laugh at them. Why get all worked up - all you do is make the media happy because they pushed your buttons.

[Argyle58]

The media did the same thing to GWB when he was running and he learned how to deal with it using humor.

 

You have to otherwise you are doing exactly what the media wants you to do. They have more respect for you when you can deal with them and take it head on and even laugh at them. Why get all worked up - all you do is make the media happy because they pushed your buttons.

 

Ronald Reagan was the master at this strategy. It was the reason that he was able to get so much of his legislative agenda through congress, even though the Republicans were in the minority.