CBS Blasts Palin in Ridiculous 'Scandal' Segment
'The Early Show' goes after a favorite media target again.
By
Erin Brown and Matt Philbin
The Culture and Media Institute
April 6, 2009
Recent
earthquake activity in Alaska
provided “CBS Early Show” co-hosts with a ready-made metaphor for a segment on
the personal lives of some of the those surrounding Alaska Governor Sarah
Palin. But their quake turned out to be barely a ripple.
Hosts
Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez couldn’t contain their smirks as they introduced
the piece. “There's been an earthquake rumbling outside Anchorage, but there is some other rumblings,
as well, near Wasilla,” Smith snickered. “Oh, indeed,” Rodriguez chimed in with
her eyebrows raised. “Sarah Palin says that she is focused on one thing,
governing Alaska.
But it has been hard to dodge the negative headlines swirling around her
friends and family. Some real doozies.”
Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin’s ex fiancée and father of
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s grandson, was interviewed on the Tyra Banks show.
Questioned by Banks, Johnston said “I’m pretty
sure she [Gov. Palin] probably knew” he and Bristol were sexually active.” Then (perhaps
momentarily forgetting that there was living proof to the contrary) he tried to
maintain that the two had “always” practiced safe sex. After several prompts
from Banks, he reluctantly admitted it was only “most of the time.”
To “Early Show” reporter Hattie Kaufman the teenager’s alternately
uncertain and untrue statements were enough to launch a further assault on the liberal
media’s favorite target: former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. “The
second piece of bad news also hit close to home,” Kauffman said. “Here in
Wasilla, Sarah Palin’s sister-in-law was arrested and charged with felony burglary.”
Kauffman’s “exclusive interview” with the burglary victim revealed that Palin’s
relative was the “coolest woman you’ve ever saw in your life.” Kauffman didn’t elaborate on who the
sister-in-law is or how close or distant her personal relationship with the
governor may be.
“Add
to the personal drama, a political hit from John McCain,” Kauffman fretted. “Palin's
former running mate hedged on endorsing her in 2012. But with an approval
rating over 60 percent here, Sarah Palin is not out in the cold.”
That
last sentence was a half-hearted effort to save the segment from total negative
bias against Palin and her family. The bias is hardly surprising. As the
Culture and Media institute chronicled in a Special
Report, the Palin withstood a fierce assault from the media during the 2008
presidential campaign.
“Never
seems to end, huh guys?” Rodriguez said to her grinning colleagues at the close
of the segment.
Let’s
see: a slimy interview with a confused and untruthful adolescent; a chance to
link Palin to a criminal; and the non-endorsement of a notoriously inconstant
“maverick” politician. What never seem to end are the many, sleazy
and ridiculous attacks on Sarah Palin.
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