The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Right-Wing’ Sarah Palin?

Posted on | March 7, 2011 | 16 Comments

A story from the British Daily Mail about a deranged teenager stalking Sarah Palin brought me to a screeching halt in the first sentence:

A teenager who sent threatening letters to right-wing US politician Sarah Palin has been arrested in her home state of Alaska.

What is it about that phrase, “right-wing,” that obtrudes? It’s mainly because I have trouble imagining a scenario where a reporter would use “left-wing” in a similar context. Surely if Palin is “right-wing,” Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer and many other Democrats must be judged “left-wing” by the same measure, yet that label is never applied to them.

Sarah Palin is a Republican and, like most Republicans, is generally conservative. Barack Obama is a Democrat and, like most Democrats, generally liberal. Yet studies by the Media Research Center and others show that reporters apply the labels “conservative” or “right-wing” to Republicans far more often than they apply “liberal” or “left-wing” to Democrats.

Why is it that Republicans can win an enormous electoral landslide, a political indication that GOP views are closer to the mainstream “center” than the views of Democrats, and yet supposedly neutral reporters still feel the need to apply the label “right-wing” — suggesting an extreme “fringe” ideology — to one of the most popular figures in the Republican Party?

…

Just askin’

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Category: Media Bias, Sarah Palin

Comments

  • Anonymous

    If Sarah Palin is Right Wing, wonder what that makes the likes of folks like me.

  • Great Gig

    “Ignoramus Wingnut”

  • http://www.rightviewfromtheleftcoast.blogspot.com Mark Goluskin

    Funny thing is that the Daily Mail is a right-wing newspaper. Just sayin!

  • Anonymous

    I categorically dispute being an ignoramus as for being a right wingnut…… well duh.

  • http://www.redstateeclectic.typepad.com AngelaTC

    Indeed. Why didn’t the paragraph read “A left-wing teenager who sent threatening letters to US politician Sarah Palin ….?”

  • Anonymous

    Mary Katharine Ham gets the essence of the new tone.

    http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/07/hammertime-the-new-tone-is-finally-here/

  • Joe

    Glee is apparently going to have dirty fag hag Kathy Griffins on to mock Palin. Stupid Glee.

    Glee should get the actual Sarah Palin (if the context was right I bet she would do it).

    Glee one time has the father of the cheerleader who got pregnant throw her out and denounce her (while making clear he is a Glenn Beck fan). It was poor writing because most Glenn Beck fans would not do that to their daughters.

    It is just ham fisted and a missed opportunity.

  • Joe

    Glee is apparently going to have dirty fag hag Kathy Griffins on to mock Palin. Stupid Glee.

    Glee should get the actual Sarah Palin (if the context was right I bet she would do it).

    Glee one time has the father of the cheerleader who got pregnant throw her out and denounce her (while making clear he is a Glenn Beck fan). It was poor writing because most Glenn Beck fans would not do that to their daughters.

    It is just ham fisted and a missed opportunity.

  • Nospam

    Go back to the Daily Mail article and dig the number of commentors who’re down with the entire idea of someone stalking and attacking Sarah P. and/or her family.

    Class, all the way.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1385852725 Richard Mcenroe

    Have you MET Louis XVI? *g*

  • http://ak4mc.us/2c/2011/ McGehee

    Barack Obama is a Democrat and, like most Democrats, generally illiberal.

    FTFY.

    For the sake of Pete, Stacy, it’s 2011, not 1981.

  • Anonymous

    Can’t we just go back to calling them filthy commie pinko hippies and have done with it?

  • Anonymous

    I’m sure I could reintegrate filthy commie pinko hippies back into my vocabulary.

  • Roxeanne de Luca

    The term, according to my grandfather, is “Pinko commie bedwetter”, so no.

  • Joe

    Red Diaper Doper Babies works also.

    H/T to Savage for that gem.

  • Anonymous

    I’m okay with that formulation too.

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