In Defense of the Media

(Updated Below)

The last three days have completely reshaped my understanding of the Palin pick and the McCain campaign strategy in general. When it was first announced that a socially conservative, female governor of Alaska was chosen for the #2 spot on the GOP ticket, I thought (like many of us) that it was a desperate attempt to pull in Hillary supports and the evangelical Christian base so essential to Republican success. But this theory is so three days ago. Recent twists reveal that different forces are at play here.

Palin's speech last night showed her to be an effective communicator: she hit all the big Republican talking points, outlined her biography, attacked her opponenents in searing (and I believe, mean-spirited) terms, and generally came off as competent, serious, and focused. It was a major success for someone who has been defined by competing media interpretations of her over the last week - she took back her identity and showed the nation that she is for real.

Watching the GOP's reaction to her over the last few days has been very revealing, and indeed has shifted my perspective on the issue. The primary reason for chosing her, I now believe, has little to do with pulling in woman voters who will cast their votes for a woman regardless of anything else; she was chosen because she is a social conservative with the ability to excite the base. This decision was not made for the Democrats: it was made for the hard-core GOP faithful. Despite the fact that the nation knows nothing about her, the conservative base has flocked to Palin. (Some conservative Christian leaders have questioned the herd mentality seen at the convention: a prominent Christian leader and former Jerry Falwell aide, Mark DeMoss, puts it this way: "Too many evangelicals and religious conservative are too preoccupied with values and faith and pay no attention to competence. We don't apply this approach to anything else in life, including choosing a pastor.") Even in the early days of the RNC, the party line had been established: Palin was a great choice. Reporters on the floor heard the same handful of talking points and defenses whenever they questioned the new running mate's viability. The GOP, en masse, had made up its mind: Palin is The One.

Let's back up for a moment here. Gender plays a big role here, but not in the aforementioned context of pulling in dissaffected Hillary fans. No, the truth is far more cynical (what can be more cynical than chosing a woman to attract Hillary fans, you ask?). Palin's sex, her traditional values, and her lack of significant experience combine to form a potent strategy to 1) deflect all criticism of her and the Republican ticket as out-of-touch elitism; 2) cast criticism as "sexism"; and 3) allow GOPers to take up the much beloved role of aggreived outsiders and victims of senseless liberal media bias. The gender issue isn't about Hillary - it's about making the media (and by GOP-think extension, the Left) look like misogynistic bullies, thus rallying Republicans to defend their candidate against the smears.

I'll be the first to admit that many (especially in the blogosphere) jumped to conclusions about Palin; I'd also admit that the Obama campaign's initial statement about the VP wasn't the right way to deal with the news. But the strength of this pick is showing itself more and more to be a strategy to unite Republicans around a much-hated foe, the media. They were fully aware that the media would pounce on Palin (how can they not? She's a complete unknown.) - this, in turn, gave them the pretext to reignite the tired old war against urban elites, the liberal media, out of touch and condescending Democrats, pro-choicers, anti-gunners, etc. With a new enemy in sight, GOPers rallied around the flag of self-righteous indignation. The same old game that defined 2000 and 2004 is now once again afoot.

Was the mainstream media coverage (blogosphere aside) of Palin unfair, sexist, or liberally slanted? You can read into media coverage what you want, hence why there has never been a convincing objective study to put the old canard about liberal bias to rest. One man's truth is another man's bias. (Although the fact that Bush was, until about 2006, given a free pass by the press should poke some holes in the idea that all media is hopelessly biased towards the Left.) I didn't see a media that tore someone up for no reason - I saw a media that were performing due diligence on a complete unknown. They were playing catch-up. Barack Obama was vetted by the media over the course of about two years - Palin was hit with all the background checks and doubts overnight. Would it be appropriate for the press to ignore all the negatives that have come to light? Absolutely not. Yet by expressing legitimate doubt, the media seem to have stirred up that old resentment from the Right. Palin's positives were reported as well, but the narrative has already been established: the liberal media hate a pro-life, small town mother. Toss her gender into the mix, and all of sudden the GOP - who would have ever thought we'd see the day - is able to toss sexism arguments into the mix.

Time writer Joe Klein sums up this situation very well, and it bears repeating in full:

Steve Schmidt [McCain's chief strategist] has decided, for tactical reasons, to slime the press. He wants the public to believe that there is an unfair--sexist (you gotta love it)--personal assault going on against Palin and her family. This is a smokescreen, intended to divert attention from the fact the very real and responsible vetting that is taking place in the media--about the substance of Palin's record as mayor and governor. Sure, there are a few outliers--and the tabloid press--who have fixed on baby stories. That was inevitable....the flip side of the personal stories that the McCain team thought would work to their advantage--Palin's moose-hunting and wolf-shooting, and her admirable decision to have a Down Syndrome baby. And yes, when we all fix on the same story, whether it's a hurricane or a little-known politician, a zoo ensues. But the media coverage of the Palin story has been well within the bounds of responsibility. Schmidt is trying to make it seem otherwise, a desperate tactic.

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

From a reporter who is often sympathetic to Republican politics, this can't be written off as another piece of liberal bias.

There's a lot to be upset with the media about, but Sarah Palin is not one of them. McCain knew that his pick would be scrutinized closely in the week leading up to her speech; he knew that her sex would make criticisms seem sexist - and all of this works like magic to pull Republicans, with a renewed sense of victimhood, together to rally around their man and chant "USA! USA!" Negative coverage is good for a party that loves to claim that the world is against them. When social conservatives see the press "bashing" a pro-life woman with five kids and an NRA membership, it is just one more instance of the elite attacking people with their values. Before we reflexively follow the line that the media is biased, let's take a moment to stand back and think about the political victory that Republicans receive from a media that is perceived as biased, liberal, and sexist. John McCain has a lot to gain by promulgating this view.

Update I: A great post by the NYT's Judith Warner amplifies these points. And here's another one by Paul Krugman about the politics of resentment.

Update II: This recent Daily Show clip illustrates the rank hypocrisy of GOP spinmeisters beautifully: