Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) is Politico’s “go to” guy when it comes to trying to create – yes, create – news about Republican’s who might be in the running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012. This means, of course, that Sarah Palin is a regular target for the young “journalist.”
Suppose you haven’t seen Palin’s appearance at the tea party event in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday, the 16th. What would your impression be if the first analysis – he’d call it “reporting” – you read about it was Andy Barr’s Politico piece?
Sarah Palin unleashed a withering critique of congressional Republicans Saturday, lambasting them for not cutting spending deeper and faster, and saying the party needs to “fight like a girl.”
“We didn’t elect you just to rearrange the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic,” Palin said during a rally in front of the Wisconsin statehouse in Madison. “What we need from you, GOP, is to fight.” Pointing to the national champion University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team, Palin said the GOP could learn from its resolve and “needs to learn how to fight like a girl.”
Palin took issue with the GOP leadership for promising $100 billion in cuts from the current budget, trimming that pledge to $60 billion and finally settling for $38 billion in the recent budget battle.
Make note of the setup: Palin “unleashed a withering critique of congressional Republicans.” Again, pretend you hadn’t seen the speech yet. Right away you’re left with the impression that Palin devoted the bulk of her 15 minute speech to giving Boehner and company the business. Surely she talked about Obama, right? It was a Tea Party event, after all. Here’s how Barr describes her comments about the President:
The former Alaska governor also painted President Barack Obama as unserious about cutting government spending. “Our president isn’t leading, he’s punting on this debt crisis,” Palin said. “Win the future? The only future he wants to win is his reelection.”
No “unleashing” and it apparently wasn’t a “withering critique” in comparison to what Palin had to say about Republicans. Now, if you had watched the speech, you’d know Palin devoted the majority of her speech to criticizing Obama and the Left and it wasn’t tame by any stretch. Palin unloaded on them. But that’s not the picture little Andy wants to paint. He wants Politico’s readers to come away with the idea that there’s tension between Palin and “the establishment” because, as John Nolte has pointed out, the Left is going to do whatever they can to make 2012 anything but a referendum on Obama’s Presidency. One can almost see the strategy sessions going on inside the editorial rooms or on the Journolist, if it still existed (wink wink).
Barr’s article is a textbook example of bias. If you reside inside the Left’s media echo-chamber, though, Politico is considered a “mainstream,” even “centrist” news source. Those of us who don’t play the pretend-we’re-not-biased-while-we’re-being-biased game know that Politico is at best center-left. Figuring out the professional Left’s games isn’t hard if you know what to look for. Andy Barr provided a great example.
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