Because I am a simple man, allow me to pose a simple question: What the deuce were 30 reporters doing in Juneau last week sifting through 24,000 pages of emails written by then Governor Sarah Palin? Why did a bunch of news agencies spend money to send their people north to Alaska after the state government released the correspondence?
Maybe they want to know more about oil shale on the North Slope. Perhaps fishing off the coast of Nome interests them. Could it be urban renewal in Skagway?
Sure. We all know the reason why the media barbarians descended on Juneau. They wanted to find something on Palin. As Don Henley once sang, "Give us dirty laundry!"
And not only did the reporters go on location but, incredibly, both the New York Times and the Washington Post asked for unpaid volunteers to read some of the emails with the hope of finding something, anything, on Mrs. Palin. So I guess this is the journalism of the future—"Hey, you, can you research this story for me? I have to go to dinner."
After all that, here is what the Washington Post came up with: "The emails provide a revealing look at an ambitious rookie politician finding her way in the corridor of power." If that's not Pulitzer stuff, I don't know what is.
Here's the New York Times' assessment: "What is clear in the 24K pages of her emails is that her governing style was not necessarily an either-or proposition. Sometimes she seemed to be everything all at once." Really? Fascinating.
Like Casey, the media struck out. The laundry was clean and neatly-folded.
The Palin-email exposition is the best example of a political witch-hunt that I have ever seen. Did the media demand to see Senator Obama's correspondence while in office? How about Governor Romney's email experience? No, the media did not.
A fair-minded person has to wonder what it is about Sarah Palin that makes the press so aggressive towards her. Putting aside her conservative ideology which makes many media people ill, I think it's her glamour. The governor is good looking and feisty. She commands attention by her very appearance.
In our shallow, reality-show driven society, Mrs. Palin has become a star not because of her public service, but because of her movie star-like marketing. There she is in the Alaskan woods looking great on camera. Here she comes in a new film touting her love for America. Move over Jennifer Anniston, there's a new friend in town: Sarah Palin.
In the end, the media's obsession with Sarah Palin actually helps her. Americans know when a person is being persecuted. Like her or not, Mrs. Palin does not deserve the level of scrutiny being foisted upon her and her family. She's just a politician, people, not Kim Kardashian.
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