Monday, October 20, 2008

In The Tank: With Greta Van Susteren

Greta Van Susteren in her most recent interview with Sarah Palin served up more soft balls than a middle-aged fat guy with a beer gut. Her visible admiration for Governor Palin was like watching a 15 year-old music critic for a school newspaper getting an interview with the Beatles. And Palin succeeded in answering only in generalities and feel-good answers. Who could possibly argue with her when she says things like, “job creation…that’s a good thing”? In the interview she repeated once again that “Barack Obama voted 94 times to raise taxes,” something that has been debunked numerous times since she said it in the debate last week, first noted on Factcheck.org:
Palin also repeated the exaggeration that Obama voted 94 times to increase taxes. That number includes seven votes that would have lowered taxes for many, while raising them on corporations or affluent individuals; 23 votes that were against tax cuts; and 17 that came on just 7 different bills.
In her own sort of “gotcha” question Van Susteren apologized before asking what she called a “pop quiz question,” and asked Palin what the hardest decision she’s ever had to makewas. Palin responded, “Hmmm. I don't know. The best decision was about five weeks ago, though, being asked if I wanted to join Senator McCain in this opportunity ...And that was the best decision that I've made was saying yes.” Wow! Sarah Palin could have described the emotional anguish she suffered when having to choose between Cap’n Crunch with Crunch Berries and Cap’n Crunch without Crunch Berries the morning of the interview, and it would have been a more acceptable answer than the one she gave. Of course, Van Susteren, who has proven herself to be rooting for McCain and Palin never asked her to actually answer the question she was asked. I haven’t heard so much BS in an interview since… well since Sean Hannity’s interview with Palin and McCain earlier that same evening.


VanSusteren is just one of many people on Fox News who have shown that they’ll do anything to make Palin look like a perfect genius. Days after Palin’s embarrassing interviews with Katie Couric, Fox News “reporter” Carl Cameron coddled Palin and was nice enough to allowed Palin to have a second chance by asking Palin the exact “gotcha” questions Couric had asked her days before. Even Cameron says it seems like she studied up before the Interview



The interview gets even better. Cameron then gives Palin the opportunity to correct any mistakes she made. Other than calling General McKearnan "McClellan" she said she had nothing to clear up. Then Cameron asks her about when she incorrectly claimed that troop levels are now below Pre-Surge levels. Notice in her answer she speaks about troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, but never once mentions the actual subject of the question: Pre-Surge and current troop levels in Iraq. She has no idea how to answer a question other than what her handlers have told her, and when she's asked a question they haven't covered she comes up with a semi-related answer so that it sounds like she knows what she's talking about.

No comments: