PrintSeptember 6, 2008
The peasants are revolting (updated)
The national press corps is beginning to get a taste of the anger they have created among a large percentage of the American public over their treatment of Sarah Palin. It will take some longer than others to grasp the magnitude of the disaster they have created for their failing industry.
Joe Curl of the Washington Times reports that angry crowds vigorously booed the media in Cedarbug, WI:
Hundreds of angry people in this small town outside Milwaukee taunted reporters and TV crews traveling with Sen. John McCain on Friday, chanting "Be fair!" and pointing fingers at a pack of journalists as they booed loudly.
Baltimore Sun columnist Susan Reimer is not happy at the amount of attention her incredibly snide, error filled September 1 column A woman - but why this woman? has garnered.
A handful of people wrote to say that I had captured exactly their reaction to the Palin nomination. But the rest of the responses were vehement or venomous... And more than 316,000 people viewed the column on The Baltimore Sun Web site. That number -- more than 100 times the attention I normally receive -- actually frightened me.
Newsbusters' Warner Todd Huston notes
She was "actually frightened," you people! Give me a break. What? Is she crying? There's no crying in journalism.
He then dissects Reimer's original bit of feminist snark before taking her and her colleagues to task over the clueless bubble they seem to occupy.
To close my discussion with you, Reimer, I have to ask: don't you see the hatred that you expressed for this woman? Don't you see that your snide comments about her Down Syndrome child and your abhorrence with every American that votes Republican -- which is half the electorate, by the way -- just might raise a bit of ire out there? Can you really be so shocked that your spittle specked rage was met with a bit of resistance?
If not, well, you really aren't as smart as you might like to imagine.
It may still be uncertain who will win this campaign, but it is clear who already has lost: the legacy media.
Update: Phil Gallagher writes from Boston on the news priorities of that city's larger newspaper:
The Boston Globe made an interesting decision the other day. On the day that American forces turned over Anbar province to the Iraqi military the Globe printed nary a word. The story below the front page fold was about a 17 year old being pregnant. Of course the Globe was the last major daily to print anything about the Edward's pregnancy scandal. I view that as an indication that they are very very worried about the impact Palin is having on their candidate.
Update: Phil Gallagher writes from Boston on the news priorities of that city's larger newspaper:
The Boston Globe made an interesting decision the other day. On the day that American forces turned over Anbar province to the Iraqi military the Globe printed nary a word. The story below the front page fold was about a 17 year old being pregnant. Of course the Globe was the last major daily to print anything about the Edward's pregnancy scandal. I view that as an indication that they are very very worried about the impact Palin is having on their candidate.
