Palin finds a fitting welcome in conservative Fox den
Sarah Palin's first contribution to Fox TV was far from 'critical analysis', writes Emer O'Kelly
You can almost hear the howls of derision in the US on this side of the Atlantic: Sarah Palin is now a network-news commentator on topical events.
The former vice-presidential candidate, and previously the Governor of Alaska, has already made her first appearance as a Fox TV employee, although the treat of her own show -- which will feature inspirational events concerning "ordinary" Americans -- has yet to be aired.
But you've got to hand it to the girl: she's proud of her
Orla Healy facing page
beliefs. Not for Palin the wily and circumspect kicking for touch that might gain a few wavering supporters from the centre, or the liberal left. She beams her right-wing credentials. Her first paid appearance as a contributor concerned the weighty topic of herself. "Why," asked presenter Bill O'Reilly on Fox's The O'Reilly Factor (the first of the programmes to which she will offer her wisdom and in-depth analysis), "do so many pinheads seem threatened by you, Governor?"
It seemed to see-saw in and out of O'Reilly's head that Palin is no longer Governor of Alaska -- or for that matter the Republican vice-presidential candidate -- as he also referred to that in the present tense. Nor did Palin point out his error.
"It's not me personally," she beamed, her trademark glasses flashing over the beautifully made-up eyes in the studio lights. "They don't like the message . . . the common sense conservative solution that I think I represent and you articulate." This, presumably, was a sample of what Fox News Network described in its announcement of the coup of signing up the ex-governor, as the beginning of her "critical analysis and commentary" on its channels Fox Business, Fox News and News Radio. And Palin is delighted to be part of what she told O'Reilly was "the fair and balanced reporting and analysis" that is Fox News. That's a bit of a change from what she wrote in her widely selling and equally widely critically and politically panned memoir, in which she described the mainstream media as "worthless as a source of factual information any more".
She may, of course, have been referring in that comment to newspapers like The Huffington Post, which has been relentless in grabbing every opportunity to pounce on the more airy (and perhaps air-headed) of Palin pronouncements. Its editor Roy Sekoff is of the opinion that Fox News presenters traditionally had to dumb themselves down, but "Sarah Palin doesn't have that problem. She fits right in."
And Sekoff added: "When she graduated from the six
colleges she attended, she became a sportscaster . . . As long as the teleprompter doesn't break, she's gonna be great." Which seems a bit unfair to sportscasters, especially if they're not hockey moms wearing lipstick.
But it was Erika Bolstead in the Anchorage Daily News in Palin's home state who pointed out, factually if meanly, that Palin's new job established her as an official member of the mainstream media.
And the commentators have gleefully been welcoming their new colleague by dredging up some of the more hilarious gaffes and gaps in basic sense, common sense, and indeed geographic knowledge. Her campaign claim to expertise in foreign policy because she could see Russia from her bedroom window is part of folk legend now. Less well known on this side of the Atlantic is the remark she made which proved she didn't know Africa was a continent.
And on fiscal matters, she had a pronouncement as late as last November that "it worries me in my simple little world" that the motto "In God We Trust" on the border of the American dollar coin had been moved closer to the edge in recent mintings. This had been brought to her attention by a friend, and her concern was that there was a conspiracy to ensure that when the coin became worn, the motto might disappear. This aspect of "simple conservatism" was the basis of an entire speech (at a Right to Life Conference in Wisconsin). And now, suggests Howard Kurtz in the influential Washington Post, "she has just acquired a far more potent media megaphone for her political views than her Facebook page".
Interestingly, though, some of the most spiteful barbs have come from Republicans, which may indicate that if Palin is down, but doesn't see herself as out, her party has other ideas.
The Republican strategist David Carney thinks that the "limited role" Palin has been given at Fox is sensible, because it is "probably safer for keeping her presidential possibilities open than a daily show where she'd have to come up with something innovative and entertaining and provocative for 42 minutes, five days a week". He didn't add "and not make a thundering fool of herself every hour on the hour", but the thought reverberates through the air. His view is surpassed by John McCain's senior adviser Steve Schmidt, who, interviewed in a book about the 2008 election, called McCain's winsome running mate a "stunningly inept and ill- prepared contender for the vice-presidency".
But there has also been some serious speculation as to whether Palin sees the job as a precursor to further political ambition, and, if that is the case, whether or not it will indeed prove to be a boost to her ambitions.
Matthew Kerbel, of the (Catholic) Villanova University and a respected political commentator, believes it is hard to judge whether the fundamentalist Palin sees the Fox job as a stepping stone for national politics, or what he describes as her "brief flirtation with national politics" was "a stepping stone for Fox News".
There might not be too many people who would see a vice-presidential nomination, however disastrous, as a brief flirtation, but maybe Kerbel is a Democrat. CNN, Fox's rival, believes Palin is sending a clear signal that she is unlikely to run in 2012. The station's Ed Hornick quoted the Democratic strategist Paul Begala as agreeing with him. (Begala also added, apparently, the bitchy aside that "sadly for the Democrats, she might not be running".
The most neutral, even deadpan comment on the national phenomenon that was Palin's contractual debut with Fox probably came from the political analyst Darrell West of the Brookings Institute in Washington DC. He suggested that it would be hard for her "to use the job with Fox News . . . a channel which claims neutrality but is widely seen as having a conservative bias . . . to broaden her political base".
God bless their little cotton socks. They still haven't fathomed their Sarah: she hasn't the slightest intention of broadening her political base. Palin is going to convert the world to her way of thinking. Because God is on her side. And where have we heard that before? Be afraid, be very afraid, of the pretty lady with the bird-brain and the passionate conviction that she has a direct line to God.
Originally published in
