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Sarah Palin: MSNBC's Obsession With Her
10:03 AM 1/27/2011 by Paul Bond
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Illustration: Kat Shady
This week's Hollywood Reporter magazine tallies how many times the left-
leaning network discusses her (it's more than Fox) and how a reality star
with sinking approval ratings is vital to its survival.
The following article appears in this week's issue of The Hollywood Reporter
on newsstands Thursday.
Now that Keith Olbermann has left MSNBC, perhaps cable news can begin
weaning itself from its addiction to Sarah Palin. Sure, it will be tough,
even expensive — withdrawals usually are — but we all know that reporters
themselves are aching for some Palin-free airtime, and audiences seem
willing to give it a try as well, judging from her sudden drop in popularity
polls.
From a high of 80 percent a little over two years ago, Palin's approval
rating sits at just 38 percent. That pollsters routinely collect such data
on a woman who doesn't hold office (unless you count being the star of a
nonrenewed TLC reality show a perch) and isn’t running for anything other
than her next private plane for an appearance speaks to the media’s
dysfunctional obsession with her. After all, it’s been more than two years
since she was Sen. John McCain's vice-presidential candidate. Hence calls
from some prominent columnists to publicly declare their intention to ignore
her, at least for a while.
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, in his Jan. 21 column, went so far as to
propose a "Palin-free February" of news coverage after confessing he had
written 42 columns about her since 2008. "Though it is embarrassing to admit
this in public, I can no longer hide the truth. I have a Sarah Palin
problem," Milbank wrote.
Admitting you have a problem and doing something about it, though, are two
different things. The main problem in media? Profitabilty, especially for
cable news. They just can't quit her. She drives ratings, and in an age of
shrinking news staffs and foreign bureaus, she doesn't require much producer
manpower save for a script with some plain old on-air commentary. You don't
even have to pay for a stand-up shot in front of Congress anymore.
And the narrative and conflict is self-perpetuating. Palin is MSNBC's No. 1
target, and Fox News has become her chief protector. CNN does neither to the
extent of its rivals, forever milk-toasting about under the guise of "
balance," and it's probably no coincidence that its ratings are third among
the three. All this talk about civility — especially in the wake of the
Tuscon massacre — is boring in cable-news land. Consider CNN's John King,
who apologized to his audience after a guest used the word "crosshairs" in
an entirely benign context and was roundly criticized for political
correctness run amok. Compare that to Olbermann, who in response to Jon
Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" call for more civil discourse, suspended
his caustic "Worst Person" segment, only to quickly reverse course when
audiences said they missed it.
"Take Sarah Palin, add guests, some hatred, and mix. No other topic can
replace her ... that would require actual reporting." — John Ziegler,
documentary filmmaker
Olbermann first mentioned Palin on his show July 1, 2008, when his guest,
conservative columnist William Kristol, recommended that McCain make her his
vp choice. Since then, he talked about the former governor of Alaska in a
total of 320 separate segments during his former MSNBC show, according to
data compiled by LexisNexis. That's at least one story about Palin for every
two episodes. The ex-governor who has become a lightning rod for left-wing
criticism was such a frequent target of Olbermann's that the news of his
Countdown show being canceled had one blogger joking: "It's Sarah Palin's
fault. I'm sure she's behind this!"
But if the attention Olbermann gave to the diminutive and perky hockey mom
from Wasilla sounds excessive, think again. LexisNexis indicates that MSNBC'
s Chris Matthews has reported on her during a whopping 420 segments of his
Hardball show since she burst onto the scene as McCain's running mate two
months after Kristol's Countdown appearance.
And MSNBC is no cable-news outlier. The hosts at CNN and Fox News are only
slightly less obsessed with Palin, though the coverage at CNN attempts
objectivity, and at Fox it is downright favorable — a given since most of
its hosts lean right and Palin is employed there as an analyst. So basically
, the 24-hour news cycle on any given week might go like this: Olbermann
attacks Palin. Fox then attacks Olbermann for attacking Palin. Olbermann
counterattacks by calling either Palin or Rupert Murdoch the "worst person
in the world." And so on. You see, it never gets tired. Except it does:
Primetime ratings for MSNBC, Fox News and CNN are all down.
Palin didn't respond to requests for an interview. Fox also declined comment
, at least on the record, though several insiders there explained their
theories as to why cable news is so focused on Palin.
"If MSNBC and CNN stopped talking about her so much, Fox would, too," one
insider said. "Then she could behave like any other political analyst at Fox
News and give her opinion about the issues."
Says another Fox insider: "Detractors are more obsessed with her than
supporters are. And they can’t even explain why they hate her. Ask them
about it, and they mumble something about her being stupid. But I'd hook her
up to an intelligence test against Joe Biden any day."
♦♦♦
MSNBC vp primetime programming Bill Wolff maintains that his network covers
Palin because she’s newsworthy. Period. End of story.
"She’s powerful and important, even if all you measure her by is her
ability to raise money," he says. "She matters. Her blessing and her
endorsement mean something.'
Wolff called it "nonsense" that MSNBC is driven by politics or even profits
when it comes to how much airtime it devotes to Palin.
"MSNBC does not have a political agenda. The idea that we’re beholden to
one side or the other is ridiculous," he says. "And if Sarah Palin is so
good for business, why would we want to destroy her? We tell the truth. We
hold up a mirror and say, 'This is what’s going on.' We’re not so crass to
think that she’s good for business, therefore we'll talk about her."
Wolff is also executive producer of The Rachel Maddow Show, which ran 90
segments on Palin in 2009 and 99 in 2010, according to LexisNexis.
Wolff says the uptick isn't a trend but is based on the fact that Palin was
more newsworthy last year than she was the year before (must be that reality
show again).
"Sometimes we hear: 'Oh please don't cover her. We already know what she
thinks,' " he says. "Some viewers say she's not an elected official so we
should talk less about her."
Not happening. At Fox and MSNBC, every major program at those networks has
been ratcheting up the Palin coverage, according to LexisNexis. In 2008,
Olbermann mentioned her in 67 news segments, a year later it was 146 and a
year after that 179. In 2009, Hardball ran 141 stories mentioning Palin and
a year later it ran 184. Over at Fox, Hannity ran 94 stories mentioning
Palin in 2009 and 145 the following year. The O'Reilly Factor ran 82 Palin
stories in 2009 and 108 in 2010.
It appears that only a couple of hosts at CNN are actually trying to wean
themselves off of Palin. Wolf Blitzer of The Situation Room talked about
Palin 123 times in 2010, down from 157 times the year before, and the
discussions of Palin at Anderson Cooper 360 dropped from 144 to 128 year-
over-year.
CNN declined comment.
Despite the few exceptions, Pew Research Center says that Palin was by far
the No. 1 newsmaker in 2010 (President Obama excluded, since Pew lumped him
in with all mentions of his administration). On a percentage basis, cable
news stories about Palin were as prevalent as were stories about the next
two newsmakers on the list combined: Sen. Harry Reid and defeated Senate
candidate Christine O’Donnell (who at times filled a similar punching-bag
role to Palin's on MSNBC). MSNBC led the charge with the most Palin coverage
, followed by Fox News, then CNN, according to Pew.
During the run-up to the 2010 elections — a topic that was second to the
economy as the story covered most by the mainstream press that year — the
biggest story line was the influence of Palin and the Tea Party.
"They accounted for more coverage than the role and impact of President
Obama himself, even though many observers saw the election as a referendum
on the president," Pew noted.
♦♦♦
So perhaps it’s time to dial down the coverage. Political pundit Gloria
Borger, for example, penned an article recently at CNN.com that began, "OK,
you’ve got Palin fatigue. Not to worry. So does much of the country." Eric
Boehlert, senior fellow at the left-wing Media Matters for America, predicts
that "2011 will be a watershed year. The coverage will change and she won’
t be as good for business. We’ve reached a saturation point."
Even comedian and renowned Palin-hater Kathy Griffin has tired of hurling
insults at the Momma Grizzly, and has vowed to attack her 16-year-old
daughter, Willow, instead. "In 2011 I want to offend a new Palin," Griffin
said.
But it won't be as easy for cable news to break its Sarah Palin habit.
The dirty little secret is that Palin has become the go-to topic that
requires very little work and no boring background explanations for
audiences, says John Ziegler, director and writer of the documentary film
Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted.
"She is already known by everyone, which is very rare in this era,” he said
. "She creates beautiful pictures and she riles up the extreme partisans."
Plus, MSNBC and, to a lesser extent, CNN viewers are overwhelmingly partial
to Democrats (73 percent of MSNBC viewers and 63 percent of CNN viewers
voted for Obama, according to a Wilson Research Poll) and like all good TV,
drama is necessary to keep it going. They crave a boogeyman to fill the void
created when President George W. Bush left office, and she’s now the face
of the opposition. Palin fits the bill nicely, given her presentability (
just imagine seeing John Boehner’s face all the time on TV), malapropisms
and endless stream of controversial tweets and Facebook posts. And when
there wasn’t that to rely on, MSNBC, especially, turned focus onto daughter
Bristol’s stint on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, as well as Sarah Palin’
s reality TV series.
"MSNBC will never find anything like Sarah Palin," Ziegler says. "It's much
cheaper than real news. Just take Sarah Palin, add guests, some hatred, and
mix. No other topic can replace her right now because that would require
actual reporting."
MSNBC’S dependence on Palin was best displayed with the recent shootings in
Tucson that left six people dead and Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
critically wounded. MSNBC was crucial in driving the narrative that the
killer was egged on by violent political rhetoric, particularly from Palin.
Even after it was learned that the shooter was an atheist, flag-burning,
Bush-hating, 9/11 Truther who enjoyed joking about abortion (not exactly the
portrait of a Palin supporter), MSNBC still did not let up on that story
line.
"When Sarah Palin puts targets on people’s districts ... when the vitriol
and the rhetoric is so violent, we have to connect consequences to that,"
Matthews intoned on Hardball three days after the shooting.
"Why is it so difficult here for Sarah Palin to say what should be an easy
thing, like, 'I regret my political imagery, that I had a potential to
inspire violence,' " Olbermann said that day.
Indeed, four days after the shooting, the day Obama cautioned the nation to
discuss the issue "with a good dose of humility rather than pointing fingers
," MSNBC over the course of five hours mentioned Palin in connection with
the massacre 166 times while mentioning the alleged killer, Jared Loughner,
only 18 times.
Of particular concern to MSNBC hosts that day was Palin's video response to
those in the media who had been insinuating that she had inspired Loughner’
s killing spree.
"Instead of showing any leadership or taking any responsibility for her ugly
rhetoric, or talking about the real victims, Palin used this opportunity
this time to play the victim," Ed Schultz said on MSNBC’s The Ed Show that
day. "Her game plan all along has been very simple — no apology, no toning
it down, just attack."
Of course, the right maintains it’s Palin who is being unfairly attacked by
progressive journalists at MSNBC, CNN and elsewhere in order to fulfill not
only a business agenda but a political one, as well: the destruction of
Sarah Palin. Naturally, Sean Hannity wasted no time getting Palin on his Fox
show to defend herself some more. And so it goes.
Still, says Boehlert: "Imagine if the press didn’t pay attention to Palin.
The right-wing response would be that they’re ignoring Palin in order to
destroy her."
Conservative author Ann Coulter wrote that on four occasions, Olbermann
complained that Palin was suspiciously quiet. "The next day, Palin posted a
video response, and Keith immediately attacked her for 'the worst-timed
political statement ever.' It's almost as if liberals would attack Palin
whatever she did."
While the left and right hash out the "real" reasons for dragging Palin and
her infamous electoral map with crosshairs on it into the Tucson discussion,
the theory holds that bottom-line business prevailed. (And frankly, filling
hours and days with fresh information on a big story without constant
breaking news, real news, is challenging at best.)
"In the case of MSNBC, ideological bias and smart business are the same
thing. The viewers want Palin-bashing, the network cheerfully supplies it,"
said John Pitney, professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna
College.
♦♦♦
So if the first step in quitting an addiction is admitting a problem, many
in the media are on the right track. Politico wrote a year ago that "it’s a
symbiotic affair — built on mutual dependency and mutual enabling,' and
acknowledged that "clicks go up" when the website publishes Palin stories. "
We know we’re part of the problem," the article stated.
More recently, The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert analyzed a segment of
Morning Joe on MSNBC where co-host Mika Brzezinski acknowledges that she
hates that they are compelled to talk about Palin.
"At what point do we just ignore?" she asked co-host Joe Scarborough.
"Clearly, Mika is experiencing what journo-psychologists call Palin-fatigue,
" Colbert said after playing the clip.
Said Colbert to the camera afterward: "Mika, you need to buck up. I know you
think this story has no purpose other than keeping Sarah Palin’s name in
the headlines for another news cycle. … I know you think Sarah Palin is at
best a self-promoting ignoramus and at worst a shameless media troll. … I
know that when you arrive at the office each day, you say a silent prayer
that maybe, just maybe, Sarah Palin will at long last shut up for 10 f---ing
minutes."
Whether Fox, CNN or MSNBC can successfully wean themselves off of Palin —
or whether they even want to — remains to be seen, but momentum for such a
scenario is clearly building among journalists in general. What happens to
ratings, however, is another question.
Dana Milbank's column followed one from Ross Douthat in the New York Times
five days earlier that made the case that the frenzy to tie Palin in with
the Tucson shootings — an episode he called "a little bit obscene" — was
the final straw.
Douthat began with this: "In every twisted, wretched, ruinous relationship,
there are moments so grim, flare-ups so appalling, that they offer both
parties a chance to step back, take inventory, and realize that it’s time
— far past time, in fact — to go their separate ways. For the American
media and Sarah Palin, that kind of a moment arrived last week."
From his lips to God's ears. |
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