As far as liberal bloggers go, Baltimore Sun TV critic
David Zurawik is one of the better ones out there.
Zurawik sometimes goes against the grain as he did when
he criticized the Obama Administration’s war on the Fox News
Channel in October 2009. In the run up to the
mid-term elections,
Zurawik took both President Obama and the Democratic National
Committee to task for their attacks against the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce.
With this in mind, I wish Zurawik would take a more fair and
balanced approach to Sarah Palin. When I say fair and balanced, I
am not expecting Zurawik to concur with Palin’s philosophy,
policies or even her personal conduct. But I do expect a
pretense of objectivity.
Which brings me to Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Suffice it to
say,
Zurawik is not a fan of the show:
But here’s what matters about her lowering herself to the freak
show level of a reality TV star on TLC.
When the carnival comes to town — and TV and the Internet are
our electronic midways — we all at one time or another let the
carnival barkers lead us to one of the back tents to look at the
fish with six heads or the woman with so many tattoos she has not
one inch of flesh colored skin. We pay our money, we look, we shake
our heads and then we go back to our real lives. We do not invite
the woman with the grotesque tattoos home for dinner.
And while we might tune into the reality-TV show characters and
even follow them on sleazy celebrity gossip websites, we don’t vote
for them as presidents.
So Sarah Palin is “the woman with the grotesque tatoos” we
should not invite to the dinner table nor elect President?
Well, whether Sarah Palin is invited to the dinner table or elected
President is up to the American people, not David Zurawik.
One of Zurawik’s chief objections to Sarah Palin’s
Alaska is her involvement in hunting and commercial
fishing. Or as Zurawik puts it, “Palin bludgeoning fish to
death and shooting caribou.” O.K, fine, Zurawik doesn’t like
hunting or commercial fishing. Yet his objections beg several
questions.
How does Zurawik think meat and fish come to market? Does
he think caribou and halibut walk into the local supermarket and
declare they are ready to eat?
Does Zurawik think hunting and commercial fishing should be
banned? Should Americans be prohibited from purchasing and
consuming meat and fish?
After all, Sarah Palin is hardly the only American, let alone
Alaskan, who engages in hunting and commercial fishing.
Indeed, Palin was out hunting with her father and a family
friend. Or does Zurawik also consider Chuck Heath and Steve
Becker to be nothing more than reality-TV show characters? If
he does then that tells me that Zurawik sees Palin, her family and
her friends as less than human beings.
After reading Zurawik’s column I can only come to one
conclusion. David Zurawik hates Sarah Palin. Sadly, he
isn’t the only one. But surely Zurawik can do better
than that.
