A case of media character assassination
John Ziegler produced one of the great and definitive political films of the last few years, Media Malpractice: How Obama got elected and how Palin got targeted. In a lengthy piece in the Daily Caller, Zielger has made a shocking statement. Perhaps even more shocking than the statement itself is the fact he is right.
Zielger, who has been dubbed her primary media defender has come out and said that she should not run for President. She cannot win and will damage the chances of any conservative running.
These words, coming from a man who was Palin’s chief media defender are pretty shocking. They are pretty accurate too.
When John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, with one move, he saved his chances for becoming President. When she addressed the Republican National Convention, she electrified people. Much as Ronald Reagan did in 1976, her speech overshadowed the speech of the nominee and many conservatives said, as they did in 76, the wrong person is at the top of this ticket.
The left recognized something too. Palin had an amazing talent as a politician. She could be the next Reagan. So they went after her. It was a political kneecapping. And, it worked.
Today Sarah Palin has a devoted following of good conservatives. Unfortunately they are not enough. Thanks to the media assault on her, her negative ratings are through the roof. Any marketing expert will tell you, it is better to be unknown than to be known and not liked. If you are unknown, you have the room to grow. When you are as well known as Sarah Palin is, and thanks to the media hit jobs on her, to have such high unfavorability ratings, you have nowhere to go.
In a meeting with Palin, Ziegler told her point blank, she cannot beat Obama in 2012. The Media would not allow it. He is right. If we need any proof of that, just look at the email hunt of a few days ago. The State of Alaska released 24,000 emails from Palin’s time in office until September 2008. That is not even all of her emails. Only some of them. The media went nuts, sending reporters to Juneau to cover the story. The Washington Post and New York Times tried to get readers to “crowd source” the emails by asking them to go through the emails and report back anything that was found.
To the liberal media’s great disappointment, nothing was found.
John Ziegler is not a friend of mine, but he is an acquaintance. He and I have talked a few times on the phone and exchanged several emails. TPN has promoted a rerelease of Media Malpractice. John is an absolute class act. He is a fantastic guy and when he comes out and says these things about Sarah Palin, everyone should stop and listen. John believes she is running. I am convinced she is not. Whether she is or she is not, we both agree that it is not a good idea for her to run.
Zielger likes to compare Sarah Palin to Bo Jackson. The comparison is a good one. Both had incredible natural talents and both had their potential cut short by something that was not their fault.
In August 1990, I went to Kansas City for a conference. In the evening, after the conference had ended for the day, a friend of mine and I went to see the Kansas City Royals host the Boston Red Sox. It was a great summer evening and a great game. Roger Clemens was pitching for Boston and Bo Jackson was playing for Kansas City. In the bottom of the ninth, the Royals were trailing by two runs, with two outs. Bo Jackson got on base to load the bases. The next hitter shot a line drive into right field. The first two runners scored, tying the game. Bo Jackson put all of his incredible talent into trying to make it home to win the game. He was cut down at the plate and the game went into extra innings.
To win that game, all Bo Jackson had to do was out run the throw coming in from right field. The Umpire was going to call Jackson safe or out depending on whether the catcher could tag him or not.
For Sarah Palin, she has no such luxury. The Umpire in this game is the media and they will never give her the chance. Ziegler points out in his piece what the Obama ad line will be. She quit to become a rich celebrity, while he was busy finding and killing Bin Laden.
Game over. In baseball parlance, it won’t matter whether the catcher tags the runner or not. The Umpires are going to call her out.
It is not fair, but it is what is going to happen.
Sarah Palin has a tough and equally unfair decision to make. She either runs or does not run. If she does not run, her star fades quickly. If she does run, wins the nomination and is soundly defeated, which is what will happen, she will be responsible for giving Obama a second term and we all know what kind of a disaster that will be.
Sarah Palin was one of those rare politicians who could have been in the same league as Reagan. The lesson learned here is to make sure the next time we have someone of her caliber come along, we make sure the liberal media does not do to them what they did to Sarah Palin.
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