By Cameron Turner
I
am really tired of the conservatives whining about media coverage of the
Presidential election. This time they’re fussing at Oprah. They say
she’s being a hypocrite because she won’t book Republican
Vice-Presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin on her show. Once again the
self-pitying, media-bashing right wing is all wrong.
Oprah is doing the right thing by not using her top-rated TV talk show
to spotlight any candidate. Everybody knows that she backs Barack Obama,
but she has not used the considerable power of her daily show to promote
his candidacy. Oprah endorsed Obama early in the primary season, hosted
fundraisers for him and attended his acceptance speech at the Democratic
National Convention. But through all of this, the Queen of Daytime Talk
has kept a low profile. No one would have known she was at the DNC if
long-lens TV cameras had not spied on her, paparazzi style, behind the
closed windows of her private stadium box.
Sen. Obama has been on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” twice, but those
appearances were in 2005 and 2006, years before he announced his
intention to run for President. Obama has not been a guest on “Oprah”
since the campaign started. None of the candidates have been on the show
so it’s silly for Gov. Palin’s supporters to expect her to get special
treatment. Oprah explained all of this in a written statement saying,
"There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my
show. At the beginning of the presidential campaign, when I decided that
I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I
made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the
candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and
I would love to have her on after the campaign is over."
Obviously, that’s a fair policy. But a lot of conservative Republicans
don’t like fairness. They want media outlets to kowtow to them like Fox
News or the countless right wing radio call-in shows. When that doesn’t
happen, conservatives puff up their faux outrage, saddle up their high
horse (actually a make-believe steed rather like Henry Drummond’s
“Golden Dancer” in the classic American play “Inherit the Wind”) and
start spewing the worn-out, old poppycock about “liberal media bias.”
The latest round of conservative falsehoods started during last week’s
Republican National Convention at which an endless succession of
speakers issued groundless allegations about the media mistreating Gov.
Palin. Failed Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee made the colorful but
inaccurate complaint that reporting on Gov. Palin had been “as tacky as
a costume change at a Madonna concert.” Sen. McCain’s wife, Cindy, went
further telling ABC’s Diane Sawyer that the media was being sexist in
its coverage of the GOP’s wannabe veep.
I’m sorry Mrs. McCain, but you’re wrong. Male candidates get scrutinized
for family matters, all the time. The media had plenty of questions for
former Sen. John Edwards when he continued to pursue the Democratic
Presidential nomination after his wife developed cancer.
Gov. Palin has not been singled out for special scrutiny. The media have
simply done their job, asking the kinds of questions that any candidate
with Gov. Palin’s career history and personal circumstances would be
asked.
Sarah Palin is the Vice-Presidential nominee for the party that has made
personal morality and so-called “traditional family values” central to
its politics for over 20 years. She’s a conservative Christian
abstinence advocate whose 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant.
In previous elections that alone would have disqualified her from a
place on the Republican ticket. So, naturally, reporters and the public
want to know when and why the rules changed. Asking about that was not
unfair, “tacky” or sexist. Neither was asking Gov. Palin how she planned
to balance running for office with caring for her four-month-old Down
Syndrome baby. Also valid were the questions about Gov. Palin’s resume
and qualifications to hold the second highest office in the land: her
very limited experience in state government (less than two years as
governor of Alaska), total lack of experience in national government and
the fact that she’s the subject of an ongoing state ethics
investigation.
News agencies are duty-bound to investigate personal and professional
matters that (a) could affect a candidate’s ability to serve and (b)
seem to go against established norms and values of that candidate’s
party. That’s what the media has done with Gov. Palin and they were
right to do so. Thank goodness – and the Founding Fathers! – that we
live in a nation where the public’s right to know is protected by a
Constitution that guarantees freedom of expression. If the Republicans
had their druthers, the whole media would sound like Fox News and Rush
Limbaugh and we would be much more ignorant and weaker because of it.
Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents.
THINK! IT AIN’T ILLEGAL…YET!
