New Fox News piece: Why Does the Media Love to Pick On Palin?

My newest Fox News piece starts off this way:

The media just loves to hate Sarah Palin. And, if polls are to be believed, the constant media bombardment has hurt her standing among many independents.

Unfortunately, over the last couple of weeks, even conservative media pundits such as Mona Charen, Peggy Noonan, George Will, Joe Scarborough and Matt Labash see these attacks and warn that she can’t win the presidency. They even buy into the attacks on her judgment, intelligence, and competence. But what these conservatives don’t appreciate is that Palin is being attacked because she is smart and effective, not because she is dumb.

For just how far off base her coverage by the media has been, consider the reaction when Sarah Palin, a Fox News contributor and former Alaska governor, last Wednesday accidentally referred to North Korea as an ally. It was an obvious slip of the tongue and she corrected the trivial gaffe immediately in her very next sentence. The local, national, and even international news coverage was massive, making the trivial error front-page news. A Google news search finds 834 separate news stories run just that day alone.

This is just the surface of the attacks. . . . .

Mark Levin read the piece here.

My piece discusses how Sarah Palin is willing to take unpopular stands because they are the right things to do. As if on cue to show that Palin is different than other Republicans, we have this:

House Republicans are looking to repeal the healthcare reform law and replace it with one of their own early next year without interrupting two popular parts the administration has already begun to implement.

They include a mandate that bars discrimination of pre-existing conditions and a stipulation that allows young people to remain on their parents' insurance plans until age 26.

Incoming Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Monday that they would do this by passing a GOP healthcare bill at the same time as repeal efforts are underway.

Speaking to more than 100 students at American University, Cantor said, "What you will see us do is to push for repeal of the healthcare bill, and at the same time, contemporaneously, submit our replacement bill, that has in it the provisions [barring discrimination due to pre-existing conditions and offering young people affordable care options]." . . .

Here is a piece from the Washington Post that parallels my Fox News piece closely in terms of pieces that I cite and general issues that I address. The viciousness against Palin can be seen in Kathy Griffin's attacks on Bristol Palin below.



Of course, that isn't the only attack on Palin or Bristol (see here).

UPDATE: Speaking of accidental misstatements, Obama can't get Senator Mitch McConnell's name correct.


Politico did note:

President Obama thanked a host of Democrats and Republicans on Monday for helping to pass a childhood nutrition bill -- including the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell.

Obama goofed up on McConnell's name, though, calling him "Mike" and moving on without correcting himself. . . .

UPDATE: Another example of the media attacking Palin. Recently the media went after Palin for supposedly taking a hairdresser with her on her trip to Haiti. It turns out that the hairdresser was her daughter, Bristol. For a discussion of the misinformation see this.



UPDATE2: I wasn't sure whether to link this in with my AOL piece on the reaction after the Tucson attack or to put it here, but Rush Limbaugh weighs in on the attacks on Palin and the piece that he is reading is very similar to what I wrote above.