Democracy Has Prevailed.

June 19, 2011

Jack Kelly Sunday

Oh, the stuff Jack leaves out...

In his column in the Post-Gazette this week, Jack Kelly defends, yet again, his favorite ex (because you know she quit) Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

Specifically he's writing about the pile of emails of hers recently released by the State of Alaska. And he starts with three examples of praise from the media. Take a look:
Emails from Sarah Palin's time as Alaska governor "show a double-fisted Blackberry user fully comfortable with handling nearly every aspect of state government," wrote the McClatchy Newspapers.

The emails paint "a picture of her as an idealistic, conscientious, humorous and humane woman slightly bemused by the world of politics," said Toby Harnden of the London Telegraph.

"She comes across as practical and not doctrinaire," wrote Molly Ball in Politico. "She was hands-on and adverse to partisan politics."

This was not what some journalists expected to write. "If critics were hoping to see Palin revealed as a hypocrite, they're out of luck," said Ms. Ball. "Her private statements are in line with her public ones."
The point he's trying to make, of course, is that the emails showed Palin to be anything other than what the lame stream media portrays her to be and now once they've been made public even that same lame stream media is forced to be honest and to show her in a good light.

Oh the stuff Jack leaves out. Take a look at what in the very next two paragraphs in that McClatchy piece:
But long before she became a national figure, the documents also hint at the obsession Palin had with managing her image - and the frustration the prolific e-mailer had with the news coverage of her governorship.

She came into office with a January 2007 reminder to members of her staff that they should feel free to "share your opinions, speak freely to the press, public, legislators, one another, etc." But that changed as time went on. A little more than a year later, she ghostwrote a proposed letter to the editor of the Anchorage Daily News - quoting herself - in reply to a complaint that she had failed to appear at the 2008 Miss Alaska pageant.
Or this from Harden of the Telegraph:
To an extent, the emails remind Americans of the person they saw take the stage at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota nearly three years ago – refreshing, plain-speaking, open and uncomplicated.

Since then, her image has hardened into one of a brittle, even paranoid, politician who seethes with resentment, feels aggrieved and entitled and is intent on pursuing celebrity even at the expense of her family.
Or this from Molly Ball at Politico:
Once, there was a different Sarah Palin.

She was hands-on and averse to partisan politics. She championed openness in government and had normal relations with the media. She was a little starstruck by her interactions with national politicians but unafraid to do battle with the chief executives of the world’s largest oil companies.

The emails from her governorship, released Friday, brought back the memory of a long-lost Palin: the popular, charismatic, competent woman of the people.

This was the vice presidential candidate John McCain’s team thought they were getting, before her darker tendencies — defensiveness, thin skin, grudge-keeping — hardened into tics. Together with the newly released, pro-Palin documentary “The Undefeated,” which focuses on her rise to the spotlight, the emails are reminders of a sympathetic figure who was not yet the brittle, divisive caricature Palin has become.
Such praise.

His larger point is that any positive coverage of Palin (like his) is a reliable picture of reality and any negative coverage is just so much more of the Palin Derangement Syndrome. Coverage that doesn't need to be taken seriously.

Jack is certainly reliable in his support of the failed Governor of Alaska but how realistic is he?

When has have to selectively quote his positive coverage in order to make it, in fact, postive, what does that say about the subject matter?

7 comments:

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

Nice of the LA Times to release Sarah's emails.
Now how about them releasing this?
The Sarah Palin-Rashid Khalidi Party Tape
In 2008 The LA Times withheld a video that contained footage of Barack Obama celebrating with a group of Palestinians who were openly hostile towards Israel.

rich10e said...

O Davey, i love it when ya take down a woman! 24,000 emails and all you can come up with is that Jack likes her! Now that's Progressive!

EdHeath said...

Oh rich, you are such a sexist. I guess you are telling us women should be treated differently than men, that they should stay home and not work (you know, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen). Or if women do work, they can work in jobs like dress making (with their clever fingers) or poultry processing.

Actually it was 24,000 emails and all Jack Kelly could come up with was that he likes her. But you can always be counted on to misread and mis-characterize a post (now that's regressive!).

rich10e said...

Eduardo, you've must get a salary being O Davey's mouthpiece.Just another hack piece from a hack.Oh by the way, your fawning support of the pervert Weiner post-resignation only emphasizes your character flaws!!

EdHeath said...

Way to not respond to my point about the content of your comment, dude. Typical conservative, deflecting from uncomfortable issues.

By the way, I will stand by my comments about Anthony Weiner. I think he showed/shows poor judgment, but as far as I know he broke no laws (the lawyer Glenn Greenwald said this, but only midway through the whole thing). I think Maria's point that Weiner did lie to everyone (including his constituents) is well taken. I wonder, though, if Weiner runs in 2012 for whatever NYC congressional seat, whether he might win despite all this.

rich10e said...

He's a piece of .... he asked his former gf Kirsten Powers,a democratic operative, who would be on Hannity to tout what a great guy he was and that he wouldn't do those things...and threw her under the bus...he lied to Chuck Schumer his mentor and friend...he blamed anonymous people for his deeds and then stood by when the liberal press attacked his pseudo hacker...of course you support him Ed because you are HIM!!! you embrace and embody all that he stands for !!

EdHeath said...

Hey rich, I wrote what I wrote and you wrote what you wrote, and everyone else can decide for themselves.

You sure spend a fair bit of time researching things that upset you like Anthony Weiner and Sharia. You know a lot more about these things than I do (although they are easy enough to research on the web). I'm sure it's that you believe eternal vigilance et cetera, et cetera, not that you are obsessed with the scandalous.