Sarah Palin makes the press crazy.
Palin’s emails were released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request that was made after Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate. An inquiry targeted to specific controversies or time periods of her tenure as governor might have been relevant during the 2008 campaign. But devoting major journalistic firepower to thousands of old emails seems misguided today. Palin holds no formal position, and her current platform as political celebrity without portfolio derives largely from the excessive blast of media attention she is able to generate with every tweet or motorcycle ride.
Palin has learned to exploit the media to advance her own agenda. But the media also seem to have no boundaries when it comes to stalking her.
Stalking her? Reading her e-mails sent with public equipment from her public role as a public official is stalking her? Palin herself could not have crafted a better victimhood narrative.
Is there excessive interest in this (most likely trivial) stuff? Yes, but Palin herself has fueled that interest by refusing to release them, and also by a recurring pattern of less than transparent behavior. Not to mention a flip-flop or two on a certain bridge.
Most importantly, though, Palin is a probable and (somewhat) popular candidate for President. She could win. Her conduct in office as governor, despite what the Globe claims, is more relevant now than it was in 2008, when she was running for Vice President.
If the Globe decides it doesn’t have the resources to do this, and declines to ask for volunteers like the New York Times and Washington Post did, I have no problem with that. But let’s lose the moral posturing, please. It might be a huge waste of time to review those e-mails, but it might not. I thought journalists were supposed to spend time finding things out.
The first sentence of the editorial
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Tell that to your spotlight team. Please.
Loads of emails were withheld from release because they threatened privileges, or did not affect state business. These emails are inherently the public’s business. In some places (Denmark comes to mind), this would be far from unusual.
I’m sorry the media thinks the media is too obsessive with Palin, reflecting on it while taking a break from obsessing about Palin. Then again, it all seems to me that it works out rather well for Pain’s bank account, and the media’s audience numbers. The only people who lose are the voters who frankly don’t have much interest in her, it would appear.