Re-emergence of the culture wars
I’m not looking forward to the renewed “culture wars” that Sarah Palin’s nomination seems to have set off.
It’s tough enough to be a journalist - the world is a complex place. It isn’t easy to ask the right questions, sort through a maze of information and put together a clear, crisp story that is fair, honest and accurate.
Add in the cultural biases that are tearing America into two almost equal halves - witness the closeness of the last two presidential elections - and the job becomes even more challenging.
What am I talking about, you ask?
The nomination of Sarah Palin as the Republican candidate for vice president has again pitted the “left-leaning media” against the “conservative right” in an unwinnable Donnybrook.
The social conservative wing of the Republican Party has rallied around Palin, joyously rejoicing in her pro-life, pro-gun values. Any criticism - or even tough questioning - is being labeled as unjustified attacks by the nasty media.
Up to this point, the unusual nature of the two candidates - John McCain’s role as a maverick in his party and Barack Obama’s quick rise from outside his party’s mainstream - have kept the culture wars largely hidden. Every news story wasn’t seen through a left vs. right prism.
Now, I’m afraid it will be impossible to write a news story or produce a TV news spot on Sarah Palin without worrying about whether it will be seen as “left-wing bias” by one side or “too soft because of fear of criticism” by the other side.
There are a lot of unanswered questions about Sarah Palin. And none of them have anything to do with her daughter or husband or former brother-in-law. They have to do with her views on the economy, on Iraq and Afghanistan, on health care and immigration. And with her credentials for making tough decisions when hotspots in the world flare up or when hurricanes strike or flood-waters rise.
Without the culture war stigma, perhaps we could get answers to some of those questions in the next two months.
But if every question is questioned, if Mrs. Palin becomes more of a lightning rod than a serious candidate, she’ll still be a mystery on Nov. 4.
For another look at Palin and the culture wars: http://editor.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-palin-wagging-dog-in-dodge-city.html#comment-form
September 5th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Dan, You do not have to treat Mrs Palin with kid gloves, just report real news about her, come at her hard and with facts. Unfortunately the first news about her came from extremists and sensationalists, just looking to discredit or grab headlines about misleading headlines. Only conflict I have with your opinion is ths, Obama did not come out of the left mainstream, unless you mean his lack of experience in the senate. He was groomed for this run in ‘08 since his speach at the dem convention back in 2004 by the mainstream. I look forward to the next few months to find more about this person, unfortunately I feel a lot more attention will be given to her in these few months left,than what Obam got in the last 18 months.
One point in fact, because the far left extreme didnt really come up with something directly against her, they brought up the hubby’s under the influence driving ticket 20 some years ago. About the same time that Obama claimed he was sniffing coke in his own book? WOW