The most vicious attacks on Palin (week 1)

I wanted to collect some of the most vicious attacks against Sarah Palin, for those who insist there is no left wing media bias.

• Mr. Snuffleupagus talks about "questions Republicans are asking themselves" about Palin. He of course, brings up all sorts of allegations (without backing them up) in the guise of Republican concerns, but doesn't cite any Republicans voicing those concerns. Did he talk to any, or did he just make up the fact the Republicans are concerned to attack Palin?
• Eleanor Clift says that journalist were laughing at the Palin pick.  Here is a real knee-slapper.  "Eleanor Clift is a serious, hard-hitting, fair, objective, well-respected journalist."  Ha!

From the Politico:

Liberal Bloggers Questioned Whether Gov. Palin's Fifth Child Was Actually Bristol Palin's Child. (Andrew Sullivan, "Things That Make You Go Hmmm," The Atlantic's "The Daily Dish" Blog, Posted 8/31/08)

"CNN's John Roberts Questioned Whether Governor Palin Would Be Able To Care For A Child With Down Syndrome As Vice President. (CNN's "Newsroom," 8/29/08)

The Washington Post's Sally Quinn Questioned Whether A Woman With Five Children And One Having Down Syndrome Would Be Able To Make Her Family A Priority If She Were Vice President. (CNN's "Newsroom," 9/2/08)

On MSNBC, Headlines Beneath The Live Coverage Included "SOME WORKING MOTHERS WORRY THAT PALIN IS TAKING ON TOO MUCH" And "SOME VOTERS CONCERNED IF PALIN, A MOTHER OF FIVE, HAS TIME TO BE VP."

"Two recent headlines underneath the talking heads at MSNBC: 'SOME WORKING MOTHERS WORRY THAT PALIN IS TAKING ON TOO MUCH.' Moments later, it changed to, 'SOME VOTERS CONCERNED IF PALIN, A MOTHER OF FIVE HAS TIME TO BE VP.' So good of them to express the concern in headline form." ("MSNBC Worries About Sarah Palin's Time Management," National Review's "Campaign Spot" Blog, Posted 9/2/08)

Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) Said That Gov. Palin Was A Supporter Of Pat Buchanan Who He Called A "Nazi Sympathizer."

The Obama Campaign Linked Gov. Palin As A Supporter Of Pat Buchanan Who They Called A "Nazi Sympathizer." (Marc Caputo, "Obama Camp Connects The Dots For Jews: McCain ... Palin ... Buchanan ... Nazis," The Miami Herald's "Naked Politics" Blog, Posted 8/30/08)

CNN's James Carville Said That Gov. Palin Is "Almost Absent Qualifications For The Job." (CNN's "Larry King Live," 9/1/08)

Liberal Radio Host Ed Schultz Said That Gov. Palin Was An "Empty Pantsuit" Who Had Started A "Bimbo Alert." (Howard Kurtz, "A Blogger, A Baby, A Cry Of Concern," The Washington Post, 9/2/08)

Sherrod Brown Criticized Gov. Palin For Being Mayor Of A Small Town. (Steve Kemme, "At Picnic, Brown Slams Palin," Cincinnati Enquirer, 9/2/08)

The Washington Post's Richard Cohen Said That Gov. Palin Was A "Sitcom" Candidate And Would Be A "Disaster Movie" If She Became President. (Richard Cohen, op-ed, "Republicans Rush In," The Washington Post, 9/2/08)

Tom Daschle Attacked Palin As Having “Absolutely No Experience” And Being “Extreme Right Wing.” (“Politico Arena — Palin Edition,” The Politico, 8/31/08)

From the Culture and Media Institute:

1) Palin-Bashing in the Supermarket Checkout Line
US Weekly, a tabloid owned by an Obama supporter, impugns the character of the GOP vice presidential candidate in this week’s cover story.

Media Attacks Palin's teen daughter; ability to be mother while having career:

The New York Times alone ran three stories focused on the pregnancy: “Palin’s Teen Daughter Is Pregnant, New G.O.P. Tumult”; “In Political Realm, ‘Family Problem’ Emerges as Test”; and “Palin Daughter’s Pregnancy Interrupts Script.” On Tuesday’s front page, the Times also used these “shocking” revelations about Palin to attack McCain’s judgment. The story “Palin Disclosures Raise Questions about Vetting” suggests that the McCain campaign failed to investigate Palin adequately before putting her on the ticket.

Bristol Palin’s pregnancy has also opened the door to attacks on abstinence education, which Sarah Palin supports. On Monday afternoon, CNN’s Kyra Phillips repeated an Alaskan pro-abortion organization’s statement citing Bristol as an example as to why “comprehensive” sex education, with its emphasis on contraception, is needed. On Good Morning America Tuesday morning, ABC’s Diane Sawyer asserted that the “Journal of Adolescent Health probably you know in March of this year said that kids who receive comprehensive sex ed in school are 60% less likely to be pregnant or to have gotten someone pregnant than those receiving abstinence-only education.”

Neither CNN nor ABC bothered to report whether Bristol Palin had received abstinence education, comprehensive sex education, or both, and ABC failed to acknowledge that other studies have found that abstinence programs have successfully persuaded teens to delay sexual behavior.

The untimely pregnancy has added ammunition to attacks on Palin’s ability to serve as Vice President and also serve as mother to her children, especially the newborn son with Down syndrome. This line of attack began Friday, the day McCain selected Palin, with CNN’s John Roberts saying: “Children with Down's syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of Vice President, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?"

On Saturday, ABC’s Good Morning America co-host Bill Weir jumped on a McCain campaign spokesman with obvious anger: “She has an infant – she has an infant with special needs. Will that affect her campaigning?” On Tuesday morning, The New York Times launched a front page attack on the motherhood front. The article, “A New Twist in the Debate Over Mothers,” states: With five children, including an infant with Down syndrome and, as the country learned Monday, a pregnant 17-year-old, Ms. Palin has set off a fierce argument among women about whether there are enough hours in the day for her to take on the vice presidency, and whether she is right to try.

The newfound media concern about a politician’s ability to be a devoted mother might be touching, if it weren’t such an obvious political ploy. One wonders whether all those feminist in the newsrooms are comfy with this line of attack. “What do you mean, a woman can’t have it all?”

From NRO:

The New York Times’s webpage on Tuesday led with no fewer than three stories about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy. CNN has tried to exploit Miss Palin as a laboratory specimen for a high-profile examination of sex-education. MSNBC and the Huffington Post are titillating viewers with exposes on Miss Palin’s boyfriend. Slate, owned by the Washington Post, is running a “Name Bristol Palin’s Baby” contest. US Weekly has “Babies, Lies, and Scandal” on its cover. But unsavory as all this is, it can’t hold a candle to Andrew Sullivan.

Once a respectable journalist, The Atlantic’s self-declared champion of respect for privacy and of civil discourse now obsesses over Miss Palin, airing baseless and abhorrent questions about the motherhood of Trig, Gov. Palin’s infant son, born this year with Down syndrome. One wonders if David Bradley bought The Atlantic — a venerable institution that once published Mark Twain and Martin Luther King — so that he could associate it with the most despicable ravings of the left-wing blogosphere. What price in reputation is Bradley willing to pay for increased unique-visitor numbers from among the fever swamps?

Conn Carroll delves deeper into Sullivan's  frothing at the mouth attacks on Palin (and I too once thought of his as a respectable blogger).