Via the Politico: Palin: Media goes easy on Kennedy
Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) believes Caroline Kennedy is getting softer press treatment in her pursuit of the New York Senate seat than Palin did as the GOP vice presidential nominee because of Kennedy’s social class.“I’ve been interested to see how Caroline Kennedy will be handled and if she will be handled with kid gloves or if she will be under such a microscope,” Palin told conservative filmmaker John Ziegler during an interview Monday for his upcoming documentary film, “How Obama Got Elected.” Excerpts from the interview were posted on YouTube Wednesday evening.
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She observed that Katie Couric and Tina Fey have been “capitalizing on” and “exploiting” her.
“I did see that Tina Fey was named entertainer of the year and Katie Couric’s ratings have risen,” she said. “And I know that a lot of people are capitalizing on, oh I don’t know, perhaps some exploiting that was done via me, my family, my administration. That’s a little bit perplexing, but it also says a great deal about our society.”
I have to say, if one can’t handle being satirized, then perhaps one ought not be in politics, let alone national/international politics. SNL in particular has been a part of our national political discourse in terms of such satire for decades. Every president since Nixon has been a subject on the program and, in particular, Ford, the Bushes and Clinton were regular characters (so to speak).1
Second, there is little doubt that Caroline Kennedy has gotten some benefit of the doubt because she is a Kennedy, and specifically because she is JFK’s daughter, However, the main reason she has not faced anywhere near the scrutiny of Palin is that 1) Senator is simply not in the same category as Vice President (especially Vice President to a 72 year-old cancer survivor), and 2) it is, by definition, primarily a local story. News coverage of Senate elections never matches news coverage of Presidential elections, so it is hardly a surprise that the coverage of a potential appointment(Hillary has to be confirmed as Secretary of State before the seat in vacated) isn’t receiving the kind of coverage that Palin received (especially with a pending inauguration, not to mention the whole Gaza thing and that whole recessions business all dominating the news).
And, to be fair, I have heard and read criticism of Kennedy which has raised very similar questions about her that were raised about Palin. For example, on Wednesday (or perhaps its was Tuesday) I was listening to NPR (I think it was Talk of the Nation) and they played clips of Kennedy’s “you know” interview with the NYT, which was far from flattering and they were poking fun and also asking if it was a Palinesque performance (which, it was, to be honest). Not only did she sound like a high school kid (with the “you knows” punctuating practically every sentence), her basic display of public policy knowledge came across as extremely shallow.
BTW, if it makes the Governor feel any better, I think that if one were to compare political resumes, that she easily bests Kennedy. And, indeed, Palin would have received far, far, far, less criticism had she been running for the Senate in 2008 rather than the vice presidency.
Sphere: Related Content- And before anyone sees a liberal bias in more Reps than Dems being in the list, remember: since 1968 (and yes, I know SNL isn’t that old), there have been five Republican presidents (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush and Bush) and only two Democratic presidents (Carter and Clin
I do think that Kennedy has been given a slightly better ride in regards to the media than did Palin, and certainly the national scton). [↩]
January 13th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
[...] Actually, I concur with her: it is best for her to let it go. However, it seems to me that she hasn’t let it go as the fact that she is talking about it underscores, as does her ire at Tina Fey that I noted the other day. [...]