links for 2010-07-22

From a remote location on an island off Alaska’s coast, former Governor Sarah Palin is blasting what she describes as the “sick puppies” in the media who immediately and ruthlessly attacked her when Sen. John McCain picked her as his running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign.

In exclusive remarks to The Daily Caller, Palin described “hordes of Obama’s opposition researchers-slash ‘reporters’” descending upon Alaska in the days after she was picked by McCain.

She said the media became a key reason she decided not to finish out her term as governor and faults, in part, the McCain campaign for failing to vigorously defend her.
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The effort to discredit and demonize Sarah Palin after her VP nomination was quite coordinated and profound.

A week after financial statements showed Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer with more than 11 times more cash on hand than her Republican rival, a consultant for GOP candidate Carly Fiorina this morning predicted Fiorina would about match Boxer's spending and might be set to write her campaign a check.

In a panel discussion at a meeting of the American Association of Political Consultants in Sacramento, Fred Davis said, "I think, at the end of the day, both of these campaigns are going to end up with roughly similar budgets."

Boxer last week reported having $11.3 million on hand. Fiorina had about $950,000.
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Fiorina will not be wanting of funds in this race.

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story.

But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president. The tone was more campaign headquarters than newsroom.
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NOT
When I was writing about Palin, the negative comments were coordinated and profuse.

Everyone knew most of the press corps was hoping for Obama in 2008. Newly released emails show that hundreds of them were actively working to promote him.
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shocking….NOT

Now, after learning I'd been targeted for a smear attack by a member of an online clique of liberal journalists, I'm inclined to amend my response. Not to say there's a media conspiracy, but at least to note that hundreds of journalists have gotten together, on an online listserv called JournoList, to promote liberalism and liberal politicians at the expense of traditional journalism.

My guess is that this and other revelations about JournoList will deepen the distrust of the national press. True, participants in the online clubhouse appear to hail chiefly from the media's self-identified left wing. But its founder, Ezra Klein, is a prominent writer for the Washington Post. Mr. Klein shut down JournoList last month—a wise decision.