DSPQ

September 2, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under DSPQ 

I must be a glutton for punishment because I’ve just spent a couple of hours listening to the radio and ambling around the blogosphere, where it’s All Palin All The Time and the blood lust is almost pornographically palpable.

Of course Senator McCain’s Veep nomination, sailing in as it did from out of right field, is legitimately the biggest story of the moment and deserves the most intense coverage and scrutiny.  

In journalistic terms, perhaps the most important thing about the Palin story is that it’s a new story.
Instead of the usual reportorial business of trying to find shiny new angles for tarnished old facts, Sarah Palin presents each reporter —from Bob Woodward to the humblest stringer— with an ostensibly equal opportunity to break new ground, uncover new stories, and garner new glories. Exposing a major scandal would guarantee a promotion; bringing her down would lock down a Pulitzer. (I see Holly Hunter in the major motion picture based on that story.)

In media terms, the Palin story is like Alaska itself: vast, uncharted, virgin (ok maybe that’s a poor choice of words but you see what I’m saying), challenging, exciting, and invigorating.  But it’s also risky and dangerous when you venture into the wild, because it’s possible to go too far too fast and say or write something that’s incorrect or that sounds sexist and that turns around and bites you like a grizzly.

All that granted and all that said,  I still think Jim Geraghty has the best line of the day at NRO’s Campaign Spot:

In 72 hours, the media has subjected Bristol Palin to more scrutiny than they’ve given to Barack Obama in two years.

Mr. Geraghty qualifies it in his next sentence —”Perhaps that’s a mild exaggeration.  But pretty darn mild”— and I consider both his point and his qualification extremely well taken.

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