Greg Mitchell misleads about MSM smears of Sarah Palin ("Why Obama Won")

Greg Mitchell - editor of Editor and Publisher and author of the new book "Why Obama Won" - puts on his mainstream media apologist hat to offer the incredibly misleading "Hit or Myth: Did the Media 'Destroy' McCain's Chances By Mocking Sarah Palin?" (link):

In the months after the November election, and then gaining even more attention as Barack Obama became president, are charges that the media helped elect him by attacking, of mocking, Sarah Palin. Numerous pundits and conservative activists have alleged that she had given John McCain a big boost in the polls when first named and that she would have help drive him to victory if not for the later treatment by Katie and Tina and Charlie Gibson and all the rest.

But this is not true.

She did breathe new life into the McCain campaign, and as of September 12 (link) she did help him at least nationally. However, Mitchell intentionally misses the point: Palin could have helped McCain in the polls if the MSM had not almost immediately started lying and misleading about her. His is just a strawman argument intended to divert attention from the disgraceful MSM coverage she received and continues to receive. With impartial coverage, she no doubt would have helped McCain once most voters knew who she was, but the MSM stood in the way of that.

In fact, there's a couple examples of that bias in his article, one from Mitchell himself, the other from CNN. Mitchell quotes a CNN poll that showed 50% saying Palin wasn't qualified to be president. What he fails to note is this:

So far, according to the poll, four in 10 Americans are not familiar with Palin.

Obviously, there was a lot of room for her to introduce herself to voters and raise her qualification rating above 50%. However, she was introduced to those voters through a loosely orchestrated smear campaign by the MSM. And, asking whether she was qualified and not asking whether Obama was qualified was just a minor part of that campaign. See the Sarah Palin smear page for a partial list.

Sun, 02/15/2009 - 06:47 · · Importance: 4