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.