Taking a Look at ABC’s Sloppy Coverage of Governor Palin’s Interviews

By Stacy Drake

Recently, ABC News has descended into the sort of sloppy journalism usually reserved for the entertainment section of any media institution. That stands to reason considering that they have been assigning an entertainment writer to cover political news.

That entertainment reporter, Sheila Marikar (apparently also a writer for ABC’s The Note, which bills itself as being “Washington’s Original and Most Influential Tipsheet“) has been the designated reporter covering Governor Palin’s recent Fox News interviews. Her awful reporting skills became apparent last week, after she wrote a piece on the governor’s interviews with Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren. Marikar started her piece (emphasis added):

In a pair of conservative talk show appearances Wednesday night, Sarah Palin defended presidential contender Newt Gingrich’s criticism of fellow Republican Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan by reiterating her frustration with the “leftist lame-stream media.”

Um, no she did not.

What Governor Palin said in regards to Newt Gingrich during those interviews was:

On Hannity:

I do believe that Newt Gingrich is terribly wrong on his assessment of Representative Ryan‘s plan. It is good fiscally sound and courageous plan. And it’s not all just about Medicare, we have to make sure that we are understanding that Ryan’s budget is a big difference as opposed to the Obama budget, which of course have has us on the road to bankruptcy.

On Greta:

Well, I think that the media — that we all have a right to ask Speaker Gingrich, what in the heck did you mean that Paul Ryan’s budget plan is radical or social engineering? No, what is radical is not proposing a plan to counter Obama’s budget plan that has us on the road to bankruptcy.

[...]

You know what I thought after the whole Newt Gingrich thing in these last 24 hours, Greta, was, “Bless his heart” and every other good ol’ boy’s heart that’s in that political game there in the Beltway. They don’t really know any more than the rest of us. Greta, it was Newt Gingrich who told me in January of this year, Sarah Palin needs to slow down and really think through what it is that she has to say. Well, you know, he stumbles, too. We all stumble. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses.

Clearly the governor’s statements were not an endorsement of Newt Gingrich’s position on Paul Ryan’s plan. Or at least whatever Newt’s position was the day he stumbled, but I digress…

Keeping up with that sort of journalistic standard, Marikar “reported” on Sunday for ABC (emphasis added):

“Anyone who studies history, studies the old testament, studies geography understands that Israel now is surrounded by enemies at all times,” Palin said on Jeanine Pirro’s “Justice With Judge Jeanine.” “It should be now that America takes a stand in defending our enemies in Israel.”

That’s quite the typo you’ve got there, Sheila.

She later changed it by replacing the word “enemies” with “friends” however, nowhere in the article does it mention that she made any changes from a previous version. Which it should have considering other news outlets, like the Israeli media site Ynet, used ABC as a reference to cover the interview. As of right now, Ynet’s article still reads “enemies.”

I’m sure the readers on Ynet can read the rest of the article and conclude that Governor Palin did not mean “enemies” but when placed in quotation marks like that, they may conclude that she said it. Worse, perhaps someone will only read that part of the article and conclude that the governor really meant that!

Do you see how sloppy journalism can effect people’s perceptions? One poorly designated reporter writes up a couple of articles laden with mischaracterizations and misquotes, other reporters pick up the words and repeat them for readers all of over the world. This is how rumors and false perceptions begin. Although the press deeply resents that Governor Palin refers to them as the lamestream media, they are more than deserving of that title. In fact, they should thank her for being so kind.

Sarah Palin's Interview With Judge Jeanine Pirro

In case you missed it, here is Sarah Palin's interview with Jeanine Pirro. They talk about the budget deal, President Obama's ineffectiveness as a leader, and Paul Ryan's budget road map. Pirro also throws in a question about Trump's quest to find Obama's birth certificate.

As you can imagine, Sarah wasn't impressed with Obama's "leadership" in this mess. She was also angered by Obama's use of the military as a pawn in all of this.She had written: Commander in Chief’s Appalling Action with Our Troops prior to the appearance on Pirro's show. Sarah said that Obama deserved absolutely no credit whatsoever for the budget deal.

Sarah talked about Congressman Paul Ryan's budget road map. She called the plan, which cuts $6 trillion in 10 years a "good start." This signals to me that a President Palin will do in Washington what she did in Juneau, and slash spending to the bone.

As our readers know Sarah was one of the first to endorse Ryan's plan, which she did in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal back in December. She's still the leading endorser of this bold plan.

Judge Pirro couldn't resist asking about Donald Trump's "quest" to find Obama's elusive birth certificate. Sarah had the right answer for her.

This subject has been discussed to death everywhere for better than three years. For the record, I agree with Sarah Palin. Obama was likely born in America, but it's odd that he has spent over $2 million paying lawyers to fight any attempt to force him to produce his actual birth certificate. We can leave it to the conspiracy theorists to ask why this is.

Personally, I think Obama has an eligibility problem, but it has nothing to do with where he was born. Suffice it to say, since Obama's father, if indeed Barack Obama Sr is his father, this is where the problem lies.

Obama Sr. was not a U.S. citizen. He was a British subject. That means Obama Jr. was not "natural born" as the Founders meant, and the Constitution insists on. The birth certificate nonsense is nothing but a distraction.

Anyhow, Sarah sounds reasonable here with her answer. From the way she answered the questions about "The Donald" I got the impression she had her tongue firmly planted in her cheek. By that I mean she seemed to be amused that Trump is spending time and effort on this useless exercise, rather than discussing the serious issues of the day.

As she said: "More power to him." I wonder if that's Alaskan for "Well bless his heart"!

Trump's nonsense aside, great interview. Enjoy.

Sarah Palin: I Support Paul Ryan's Roadmap To Reform, And Here's Why

Let's not settle for the big-government status quo, which is what the president's deficit commission offers.

~ Sarah Palin

Writing for the Wall Street Journal Sarah Palin takes a bold stand along with Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan for serious comprehensive fiscal reform.

The publication of the findings of the president's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform was indeed, as the report was titled, "A Moment of Truth." The report shows we're much closer to the budgetary breaking point than previously assumed. The Medicare Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2017. As early as 2025, federal revenue will barely be enough to pay for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on our national debt. With spending structurally outpacing revenue, something clearly needs to be done to avert national bankruptcy.

The commission itself calculates that, even if all of its recommendations are implemented, the federal budget will continue to balloon—to an estimated $5 trillion in 2020, from an already unprecedented $3.5 trillion today. The commission makes only a limited effort to cut spending below the current trend set by the Obama administration.

Among the few areas of spending it does single out for cuts is defense—the one area where we shouldn't be cutting corners at a time of war. Worst of all, the commission's proposals institutionalize the current administration's new big spending commitments, including ObamaCare. Not only does it leave ObamaCare intact, but its proposals would lead to a public option being introduced by the backdoor, with the chairmen's report suggesting a second look at a government-run health-care program if costs continue to soar.

It also implicitly endorses the use of "death panel"-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board—making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare.

The commission's recommendations are a disappointment. That doesn't mean, though, that the commission's work was a wasted effort. For one thing, it has exposed the large and unsustainable deficits that the Obama administration has created through its reckless "spend now, tax later" policies. It also establishes a clear bipartisan consensus on the need to fundamentally reform our entitlement programs. We need a better plan to build on these conclusions with common-sense reforms to tackle our long-term funding crisis in a sustainable way.

In my view, a better plan is the Roadmap for America's Future produced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.). The Roadmap offers a reliable path to long-term solvency for our entitlement programs, and it does so by encouraging personal responsibility and independence.

On health care, it would replace ObamaCare with a new system in which people are given greater control over their own health-care spending. It achieves this partly through creating medical savings accounts and a new health-care tax credit—the only tax credit that would be left in a radically simplified new income tax system that people can opt into if they wish.

The Roadmap would also replace our high and anticompetitive corporate income tax with a business consumption tax of just 8.5%. The overall tax burden would be limited to 19% of GDP (compared to 21% under the deficit commission's proposals). Beyond that, Rep. Ryan proposes fundamental reform of Medicare for those under 55 by turning the current benefit into a voucher with which people can purchase their own care.

On Social Security, as with Medicare, the Roadmap honors our commitments to those who are already receiving benefits by guaranteeing all existing rights to people over the age of 55. Those below that age are offered a choice: They can remain in the traditional government-run system or direct a portion of their payroll taxes to personal accounts, owned by them, managed by the Social Security Administration and guaranteed by the federal government. Under the Roadmap's proposals, they can pass these savings onto their heirs. The current Medicaid system, the majority of which is paid for by the federal government but administered by the states, would be replaced by a block-grant system that would reward economizing states.

Together these reforms help to secure our entitlement programs for the 21st century. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Roadmap would lead to lower deficits and a much lower federal debt. The CBO estimates that under current spending plans, our federal debt would rise to 87% of GDP by 2020, to 223% by 2040, and to 433% by 2060. Under Rep. Ryan's Roadmap, the CBO estimates that debt would rise much more slowly, peaking at 99% in 2040 and then dropping back to 77% by 2060.

Put simply: Our country is on the path toward bankruptcy. We must turn around before it's too late, and the Roadmap offers a clear plan for doing so. But it does more than just fend off disaster. CBO calculations show that the Roadmap would also help create a "much more favorable macroeconomic outlook" for the next half-century. The CBO estimates that under the Roadmap, by 2058 per-person GDP would be around 70% higher than the current trend.

Is Rep. Ryan's Roadmap perfect? Of course not—no government plan ever is. But it's the best plan on the table at a time when doing nothing is no longer an option.

Let's not settle for the big-government status quo, which is what the president's commission offers. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to make these tough decisions so that they might inherit a prosperous and strong America like the one we were given.

Most people one talks to about a possible Palin presidency tend to think that repealing ObamaCare immediately, getting the economy going, creating jobs, and of course setting a path toward total energy independence would be President Palin's top priorities, leaving things like entitlement reform for her second term.

What Sarah does here is show she is a bold leader who is ready to do the hard, painful stuff first. And make no mistake, reform is gonna hurt a bit before it helps, but the continued viability of the Republic is at stake.

Unlike others, she understands at the gut level we don't have time to mess around. We are in big financial trouble. We need action. Bold action.

We simply don't have time for political posturing.

As Sarah points out, no plan is perfect, and there are some tweaks I'd love to see made myself, but overall, Paul Ryan has come up with by far the best, most workable plan out there. One that does not honor big government and continue to subsidize failed policies.

With Sarah's strong support this plan might even get put in place before January of 2013 rolls around.