Confessions of a Branchflower

Last week we flagged CNN's Drew Griffin's interview with Sarah Palin, in which he offered questions like "You seemed to be very much on your game. You get huge crowds. Even bigger crowds than John McCain. Why is that?" and "Governor, is Barack Obama a socialist?" before getting around to softly addressing what is the single largest issue facing Palin -- her involvement in the firing of Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

Palin has now given another national interview; she and John McCain sat down with NBC's Brian Williams last week. (Note, again, that Palin draws out a marquee interviewer, making CNN's assignment of Drew Griffin last week all the more curious). Amazingly, Williams didn't even ask about Monegan's dismissal at all.

It's worth reiterating how important this issue is when considering Palin's case for the vice-presidency. When McCain introduced Palin in Dayton, she said that "Along with fellow reformers in the great state of Alaska, as governor, I've stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the Big Oil companies and the 'good old boy' network." Palin has repeated this in countless iterations since then, and it's the reason McCain's team picked her in the first place. Jane Mayer's recent New Yorker piece makes clear that McCain chose Palin in large part because other candidates "did not transmit McCain's core message that he was a 'maverick.'" Robert Draper writes the same in The New York Times Magazine -- he reports that what McCain campaign manager Rick Davis saw in Palin was "namely a way to re-establish the maverick persona McCain had lost while wedding himself to Bush's war."

The problem, of course, is that on October 10, a bipartisan legislative panel found that Palin "unlawfully abused her power" in firing Alaska's public safety commissioner, and specifically said Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Such a condemnation, so close to the election, is damaging to any candidate, to say nothing of one that's based her image on battling corruption.

Williams' interview aired over three days last week, and he even mentioned the Troopergate scandal in two of the prefaces to the interview clips -- but he didn't find it relevant enough to actually ask Palin about it. By the way, over the course of the three days the Palin interview was airing on NBC's Nightly News last week, Palin was being deposed again in a seperate investigation into the firing of Monegan. The deposition happened not 24 hours after Williams interviewed Palin -- but he apparently did not find this newsworthy and did not ask her about it.

Aside from Griffin's neutered question, Palin has never been asked about the Branchflower report, nor has she publicly responded to it, save a shouted reply to a group of reporters that she was "vindicated" by the report's findings, which is, you know, not true. The story just isn't a visible one -- over the past month, it's gotten only 25 mentions on the network and cable news outlets combined (Palin and Branchflower), as compared with 143 mentions of her recent wardrobe dust-up (Palin and $150,000).

Et tu, Brian?

To read the rest of today's Altercation, click here.

Comments

[DaisyBelle]

Sarah Palin "pals around" with corrupt politicians--oh wait--she is the corrupt politician.

[ESerafina42]

This IS important. Do we want to give someone who uses her power to pursue a personal vendetta control over agencies like, oh, I don't know - the FBI, IRS - not to mention the warrantless wiretapping program. Can you say Nixon squared?

[ilpostino]

I suspect that NBC was given permission to do the interview ON CONDITION that no mention was made of the Branchflower report or troopergate. NBC Nightly News and MSM need viewers now more than ever and they will compromise whatever shred of journalistic integrity is remaining in order to get those viewers. Don't look to the major networks for journalistic rigor. It disappeared with the departure of Cronkite and more recently Tim Russert.

On a related note, I am glad CNN is refusing to show Obama's 30 minute infomercial tonight. I am pro-Obama all the way but I think he is taking his campaign into dangerous territory by PAYING networks to monopolize the airwaves with his message. Imagine any other candidate doing this, left or right, liberal or conservative. He is leading by a comfortable margin in most polls across the country. Why is he doing this? What kind of precedent is the future President presenting to the nation?

[balrog221]

A few questions. How would your devout religious influence your decisions in office? As energy czar would you instruct scientist, geologists on the true source of fossil fuels in the context of Genesis?

[Meggie]

I agree that it makes "serious" interviewers look incompetent when they don't ask about things like these investigations, but you gotta admit that interviewers don't have all day, and she's given them SO MUCH dirt!
Keep the files open! Rumors of her staying on the national scene will make it all relevant if that's what she chooses to do.

[Samalabear]

Not just Troopergate but the AIP connection. These two issues are very important and they're just off the radar.

[NoMoFearNoMoHate]

Palin is not lying about one thing at least... she's not part of the good ol' boy network...

She part of the bad new girl network - watch out boys, the girls have cooties!

[Leedox]

I think that once the dust settles from this election that questions will be asked and answered by Ms Palin. Don't give up Alaska!! Besides for anyone wanting to run against her..this campaign will provide all the fodder that you need to smash her.

[tempting]

Those who want to speak out on this outrageous pass can do so. Here are the emails for all MSM

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111

[radnip]

Abuse of power. She'll fit right in with the other Republicans.