Palin finds liberal defenders on television

By Jerome J. Schmitt

Those familiar with ABC News This Week panel discussion know that most Sundays the reliably-liberal Cokie Roberts joins George Stephanopoulos and Sam Donaldson to triple-team the lone conservative, George Will (ABC's idea of fair & balanced). Consequently, I was surprised to see Ms. Roberts, one of the grand-dames of mainstream television broadcast news, take center stage on Sunday to vigorously defend Governor Sarah Palin against attempts to dismiss her candidacy prematurely. George Will hardly said a word, leaving Ms. Roberts to do the heavy lifting on behalf of a Republican.

Ms. Roberts repeated her performance last night on PBS's Charlie Rose. Although not actually endorsing Sarah Palin, Ms. Roberts almost bristles at liberal concoctions designed to dismiss her qualifications before the Governor has had a chance to make her case to the American public.

Could the Palin candidacy be instigating a split in the ordinarily-monolithic liberal mainstream media? Dennis Sevakis already noted that Maria Bartiromo was positively effusive over Sarah Palin's qualifications on Meet the Press this past Sunday.

In response to the Governor's selection, a few well-known cast-members seem to be changing their roles.