THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 234, September 17, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
PALIN PHENOMENON ACCELERATES DOWNFALL OF OLD MEDIA
By Christopher G. Adamo
TRADITIONAL MEDIA & THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN OF 2008: THE CURRENT INABILITY OF THE OLD
MEDIA TO SUCCESSFULLY FUNCTION IN THE ABSENCE OF THEIR FORMER ALMOST TOTAL DOMINATION OF INFORMATION
-- SARAH LOUISE HEATH PALIN AS THE TARGET OF THE CURRENT CROP OF NASTY & SMALL MINDED LIBERAL LEFTISTS
THROUGHOUT THE "NEWS" & ENTERTAINMENT BROADCASTING NETWORK MEDIA -- THE ONGOING FAILURE OF MEDIA
EFFORTS TO OBLITERATE SARAH PALIN'S POPULARITY
FULL STORY:
The 2004 presidential election contest between President George Walker Bush and Massachusetts Senator John Forbes
Kerry marked the beginning of the end for the old media monopoly. On the one hand, clumsy media attempts to fabricate a
story, complete with phony documents hastily fabricated using modern word-processing software, clearly indicated that
CBS bigwig Dan Rather and his minions were stumping for John Kerry. Meanwhile, the old media failed miserably in their
shameless attempts to discredit the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth. That organization’s thoroughly documented evidence
completely unraveled Kerry’s baseless claims of heroism in Vietnam. By so doing, the Swift Vets struck the fatal blow to
his inept campaign.
Of course, the old media (e.g., CBS, ABC, NBC, and the other broadcasting networks), devoted
exclusively to Liberal ideology, are wholly incapable of admitting their outrageous Leftist political slant. Nor can they
fathom their current inability to successfully function in the absence of their former almost total domination of information.
Not surprisingly, the current crop of nasty and small minded Leftists throughout the “news” and entertainment media
(and, to an ever increasing degree, the two institutions are becoming indistinguishable) are at it again. This time, their
target is Alaska Governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Louise Heath Palin.
The entire dynamic of the 2008 presidential race changed dramatically, the moment Republican presidential candidate John
Sidney McCain III announced his pick of Palin for Vice President. Grassroots Republicans, who, at best, had previously
been lackluster in their support for John McCain, were suddenly enthused. And Sarah Palin has since become the most
notable and influential political figure on the national scene.
Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has had to completely alter its strategy in order to hold any hope of challenging Palin’s
spectacular rise in national renown. Formerly, Barack Hussein Obama was all about “hope” and “change,” a message
which resonated with those Americans who were otherwise blind to the realities of his political philosophy, but have
understandably grown tired of business as usual inside the Beltway.
No real substance was necessary to support Obama’s rhetoric. He simply sounded better than more of the same from
Washington. But, in the wake of Palin’s arrival on the national stage, everything changed. In stark contrast to Obama’s
vacant oratory, Palin does indeed intend to shake things up in the U.S. national government, and has an impressive and
inspiring track record to prove it.
So, the Obama campaign has had to regularly switch from his vacuous message of “change,” to denigrating Palin’s
supposed “lack of experience,” in order to cast her as somehow unfit for the nation’s second highest office. Yet, this
strategy poses its own risks, and requires a great deal of dexterity by Obama, since any real scrutiny of experience
among the candidates reveals him to be, by far, the least qualified among them. Thus, the Democratic Party and the Liberal
political machine are forced, once again, to rely heavily on media complicity in order to pull off this ruse. And, of course,
their minions among the “news” and entertainment industry are fully willing to comply.
For starters, the level of discourse on national “news” programs has seriously degenerated, while members of the
“entertainment” industry are becoming ever more vocal with their opinions. As a result, it has become increasingly
difficult to tell the two entities apart.
Political commentators and their “analyses” sound increasingly like what one might expect from English Leftist
artist-and-repertoire executive, television personality and producer, and insultingly controversial talent critic Simon
Phillip Cowell, with far more focus on style than substance, and on “presentation,” rather than policy. But, in contrast to
the shallow cheesiness of “reality TV,” Americans ought not care if, according to media elites, Sarah Palin “looked
flustered” during the Charlie Gibson interview on ABC, September 7, 2008. Instead, they should be more
concerned with her core principles and resulting policy positions on key issues.
Nevertheless, Sarah Palin’s competence and fitness as Vice President is currently deemed lacking by such colossal
intellects as Matt Damon, Susan Sarandon, and Lindsay Lohan. Sadly, while these talented individuals can capably
stand in front of the cameras and deliver lines sounding as intelligent as their script writers intend them to sound,
nobody warned them not to attempt such things at home. But, to be fair, their diatribe no longer sounds markedly
different from the shallow observations offered by the likes of Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson, among other “old media”
stalwarts.
So, as the incredible level of venom directed at Sarah Palin continually proves to be an ongoing failure, media efforts to
obliterate her popularity have only increased in their shrillness. And, in so doing, they increasingly highlight their own
moral and philosophical bankruptcy. In the midst of such a disgraceful firestorm, Palin’s steadfastness is, if anything,
underscored in the eyes of the public. Meanwhile the tenor of the media grows progressively more desperate.
Perhaps the most stunning example of this desperation was a September 15, 2008, article by Jon Friedman, first appearing
in Market Watch, though it has enjoyed wide circulation since. According to Friedman, Palin’s skyrocketing
popularity of the past few weeks was principally a product of the media attention given her. Upon this sham of an
assertion, he goes on to confidently predict that the same media which “made” her will now be the cause of her undoing.
Friedman gives no consideration to the reality that Palin’s popularity among America’s grassroots derives from her
down-to-earth wholesomeness and, above all, her unabashed devotion to Conservatism and the traditional values of
heartland America. In his world, she is simply the result of media attention, as if it was ever positive in its assessment of
her. Thus does he maintain, in the vanity of his own imagination (along with the equally empty contemplations of his
fellow media minions), that the ebb and flow of America’s political landscape is really all about him and his kind.
Mainstream Americans are overwhelmingly angered by the flagrant audacity of such a self-absorbed appraisal, lacking
so thoroughly in evidence as it is. Nevertheless, a new wind is blowing across this nation. Friedman, Couric and Gibson,
along with those pretty, but empty, mouthpieces of the Hollywood Left, will continue to offer their venom and drivel to
an ever diminishing audience, oblivious to the fact that their sphere of influence is in danger of eventual extinction.
In its place, the force and character of courageous individuals such as Sarah Palin, along with the grassroots network of
true Conservatives whom she so well represents, will begin the long task of restoring the dynamism, energy, and virtue
of America.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The News & Entertainment Media: Political & Ideological Bias
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, & Special Interest Groups
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
Liberalism Versus Conservatism in American Politics
-------------------------
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES:
COMPETING SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Conservatism
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer who lives in southeastern Wyoming and works in the field of industrial instrumentation.
He is actively involved in Wyoming's political process, serving as a delegate to successive Wyoming State Republican Conventions
and as a member of the Wyoming State Republican Central Committee. He has assisted Republican candidates for local and state
legislatures and for the United States Congress. His articles, which appear regularly in The Progressive Conservative, U.S.A.,
and on a number of other websites, reflect a major concern with the damage being done to Conservatism and Conservative causes by
the Liberal Leftist faction in the Republican Party as well as by the much larger and more powerful Liberal Leftist faction in the
Democratic Party. During the early and middle 1990s, Adamo was Editor of the Wyoming Christian Coalition's official news organ,
The Wyoming Christian.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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