"Don't be swept away by hype in Palin campaign: media's job to unearth facts, not repeat myths"

[Bluebear]

Christian Science Monitor - 9/10/08
By Jerry Lanson, Journalism professor at Emerson College

....The turnaround has been breathtaking.

Just over a week ago reporters disclosed that Palin is being investigated for allegedly trying to intimidate state officials into firing her estranged state trooper brother-in-law. Commentators raised sharp questions about her inexperience and poor vetting. Airwaves filled with idle – and sexist – speculation over whether a mother of five could handle the vice presidency.

But by Friday, an MSNBC commentator offered the breathy pronouncement that the McCain-Palin ticket "will be ahead in the polls by the end of the week." And on Sunday a long profile in The Washington Post pivoted on this sentence: "Of the many striking images of Palin – sportswoman, beauty queen, populist – in Alaska the most iconic is working mother, a perfectly coifed professional woman balancing public duties and child-rearing in a charismatic blur of multitasking."

Meanwhile, reports of Palin's hard-right credentials (anti-abortion, pro-gun, possibly pro-creationism, and pro-abstinence education) receded rapidly as did news, covered in a blur, that she had attended five colleges over six years before graduating.

The see-saw story of Sarah Palin should give the press pause. Feeding frenzies followed by fawning serve only to confuse. If the public is to make sound decisions, to sort what's real from what's manufactured, the media must do their job with greater consistency and greater care.... MUCH MORE -->


http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0910/p09s01-coop.html

[kurth_]

1. The BushCo-trained media is doing a helluva job

regurgitating the GOP crap. Eight years of experience, in fact.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Excellent column, well worth reading.

Thanks for the thread, Bluebear.:thumbsup:

[Beartracks]

3. GREAT read! So, so true. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

4. Spot-on analysis

But he's rather optimistic when he presents his list of "how media should do it's job".

It won't happen.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

5. She's like a Chatty Kathy doll...you can only pull her string for so long

before she becomes annoying. I'm already tuning out.

[AndyTiedye]

6. What a Difference a Few Days and a Few Phone Calls to Network Executives Make

Most of the press responded to the Palin pick with such shock and bewilderment that we got some actual reporting for a day or two.

Then phone calls were made to network execs, and marching orders were issued, and Palin has gotten the rock star treatment since then.

[intheflow]

7. An excellent analysis of what media needs to do to correct itself.

:kick: