If the press will just do their job, all will be OK

Lots of must-read editorial following the release of the first part the ABC News interview with Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin.

It's so totally appropriate that this interview took place on Sept 11. Because of that, and the fact that we're all re-living that day 7 years ago, we should be aware of how incredibly important it is that our political leadership be involved in the world we live in. Everything is so interconnected these days, it's dangerously naive to think that you can assume leadership of this country with no knowledge or preparation for that complex job.

Listening to Bob Woodward about his interviews with President Bush in his last year of an eight-year Presidency, you can clearly see that he is still unprepared to be the leader of this country. He has deligated essential Commander In Chief responsibilities to unelected aides, people who we don't know anything about and he glosses over important parts of his decision-making process with the same unconfident imprecision that Sarah Palin does in her ABC News interview.

Joan Walsh writing in Salon this evening says "The fact that Sarah Palin sat for her humiliating interview with ABC's Charles Gibson on 9/11 is one of those strange serendipitous events that makes one believe there's order in the universe. Remember how 9/11 changed everything, especially our new seriousness about the larger world and foreign policy? Never again would we risk a president, maybe not even a senate candidate, without global experience and sophistication."

Howard Kurtz, in the Washington Post, says the press is angry.

As they should be, because they, like everyone else, are being used by the Republicans, to try to slip another fast one by us, circumventing our democratic process, and taking advantage of a few voters who aren't paying attention. As the title of this piece says, if the reporters do their job, we'll be fine. They don't have to be referees, they just have to be finders of fact and tell everyone what they found. There's nothing hard about that job.

Barack Obama isn't a sexual pervert, the law that he voted for when he was an Illinois state senator was designed to protect small children from sexual predators. The news should not report a controversy, they should report that McCain is telling a desipicable lie. Until that lie is acknowledged, retracted and apologized for, both to Obama and to the electorate, McCain should not receive any of the services of the press. The first question in any interview should be "Why are you lying and when will you admit that you are and stop." If he continues to lie, that's the end of the interview. The reporter wraps it up and leaves. You can't continue to interview someone who you know is lying. Reporters do it all the time, but this must stop now.

The Republicans can scream all they want, all that anyone will hear is that they are lying. I don't see how the press can avoid this. We can all see it openly, Republicans and Democrats and independents, and people all over the world who don't get a vote in our election, but whose respect for us they do control. America will be judged by how we handle this. We will not be able to hide behind the usual excuse "I didn't vote for him" because you are now called on to do more.

I think we made a lot of progress today, cleared a lot of things up. Republicans could help by holding another convention and nominating a new ticket. McCain is completely discredited, he could not serve as President with the support of anyone who has an education or who cares about the future of this country. Yes I understand that we who are educated and have health insurance and jobs are elitist and different from those who live in small cities and towns, but my family comes from small towns, and my ancestors were not educated. We have so much in common and so much at stake, we really can't afford to be split this way, again.

McCain's gamble was too big, and it didn't work. You can play a few more cards from the hand, but it's not going to change the outcome -- he can't be President. It won't work. The sooner the Republicans acknowledge that and respond, the better we all will be. Until that happens all the press has to do is report the news and stop being anything other than reporters.

PS: When I posted this originally on my blog some commenters doubted that the Republicans would have their awakening. The world is watching anyway. If McCain is elected it will radically change the United States, a lot of people will give up, here and overseas.

Comments

[wilhelmR]

CornellRedneck says that "we are still the nation of Andy Jackson, 'the Common Man'." Maybe he should read "Listen, Little Man" written in 1948 because THAT is what we're all about: "little Man," who let ourselves be deceived over and over and over by other Little People expecting them to liberate us from ourselves. This is the contradiction of how so many white little men and women will not vote for Obama: They are full of repressions including subtle racism disguised as "he is inexperienced" but Palin is not.

[CornellRedneck]

Face it: If you're tagged as an "elitist", people's eyes glaze over when you try to talk about anything. We are still the nation of Andy Jackson, "the Common Man" is really what we are still all about.

[withcheese]

I read the original article right after you posted. I want to believe that yesterday held a pivotal moment and that everything will turn out fine. There is still time to turn this around but the momentum is not ours. I watched Palin's speech and the local news here in my swing state only aired the parts where she was attempting to turn her answers into patriotic sermons- none of the meat of the interview that clearly revealed her ignorance and resolute confidence even in the face of that ignorance. I am not a writer or a journalist but I wrote a long piece last night reflecting on what I have observed this week. What has upset me most is to see that white women seem to be the reason McCain is getting ahead. Any theories about why lead me to ugly realities about our voters. Were they just waiting to be fed some phoney excuses so they would not have to vote for an intellectual in the package of a black man? Is their rejection a juxtaposition of latent racism and a preference for Entertainment Tonight over serious political discourse? Palin is even worse than W because she seems much more vindictive and that scares me to death.

[HandsOnTheScreen]

They won't.

[Peddler]

There were days when the "press" actually reported the fact and news as they happen. Those days are long gone, and what we have are self-promoting self- servicing journalistic bottom dwellers on a quest of self-promotion to increase their quasi-celebrity status, and at the same time increase the ratings of their employer..­......whic­h all in the end equates to "profits." And then if there is no news, we can spin what we find and create news to benefit both the employee and employer. Now I know why 50% of Americans have never read a newspaper and why 50% of Americans don't vote........and I pray that it is the same 50%.

[southernsepia]

That is a huge if!!

If they had been doing their jobs we wouldn't have gone to Iraq.

Or to put it accurately if they stopped doing their jobs for corporations and started doing their jobs for the American people things would be fine.

[bbittner]

Wow. What a great article. You hit the nail on the head. I wish everyone in America would read it.

I will be doing my part by sharing this with my friends and on different web services, such as my blog and Clipmarks.

And I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said your words also make me proud to be an American...and a Democrat.