The American Spectator

Presswatch

The War Against the Normal

By James Taranto from the November 2008 issue

(Page 3 of 3)

THE MEDIA ATTACKS on Palin proved devastating for Obama’s campaign. As I write, in mid-September, McCain is ahead in the polls, after trailing Obama throughout the spring and summer. One survey in early September found that 51 percent of Americans thought reporters were “trying to hurt” Palin; only 35 percent thought journalists were even trying to provide unbiased coverage. Obama got angry; his campaign promised what a September 12 headline on the Washington Post website called an “aggressive response to GOP attacks.”

Perhaps not coincidentally, “the media are getting mad” as well, the Post’s Howard Kurtz reported on September 11:

The McCain camp has already accused the MSM of trying to “destroy” the governor of Alaska. So any challenge to her record or her veracity can now be cast as the product of an oh-so-unfair press. Which, needless to say, doesn’t exactly please reporters.

The New York Times reported on September 12 that Obama’s campaign “seemed flummoxed in figuring out how to deal with [Palin]. His aides said they were looking to the news media to debunk the image of her as a blue-collar reformer.”

Instead, by waging war against Sarah Palin for being normal, Obama’s supporters in the media succeeded in transforming him into the candidate of those who oppose religion and motherhood. By the time you read this, perhaps they’ll have gone negative on apple pie.

James Taranto, a member of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, writes the Best of the Web Today column for OpinionJournal.com.

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