Palin Update
Yesterday afternoon I posted on what I thought was a glaring deficiency in the traditional media reportage on the resignation by soon-to-be-former-Gov. Sarah Palin. I lambasted the press for not digging a little to find out the reason for the abrupt and stunning announcement which was made early in the afternoon on Friday (at least for those of us on the West Coast).
I also pointed to the digging done by bloggers, some of whom contacted sources for information, something the mainstream media is supposed to do. It turns out that the bloggers who suggested a federal indictment was on the way were wrong, but we know this only because some canny reporter at the Los Angeles Times did something he and his cohorts should have done Friday afternoon. He picked up the phone. Here's what he found out:
A day after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resigned, a federal official in her home state dismissed one potential explanation for her sudden and unexpected resignation: a rumored FBI investigation into the former Wasilla mayor on public corruption charges.
Despite rumors of a looming controversy after the Republican governor's surprise announcement Friday that she would leave office this month, some of them published in the blogosphere, the FBI's Alaska spokesman said the bureau had no investigation into Palin for her activities as governor, as mayor or in any other capacity.
"There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we're investigating her or getting ready to indict her," Special Agent Eric Gonzalez said in a phone interview Saturday. "It's just not true." He added that there was "no wiggle room" in his comments for any kind of inquiry. [Emphasis added]
There, now. Was that so hard?
If not, why did it take until Saturday for that phone interview to be made? It appears that it was only after the bloggers started to look into the reasons for the resignation that the "real" press decided that it should as well. The press didn't act, it reacted to the fact that it might have been scooped by a bunch of "amateurs." Only then did the press do its job.
The whole episode stinks.
I also pointed to the digging done by bloggers, some of whom contacted sources for information, something the mainstream media is supposed to do. It turns out that the bloggers who suggested a federal indictment was on the way were wrong, but we know this only because some canny reporter at the Los Angeles Times did something he and his cohorts should have done Friday afternoon. He picked up the phone. Here's what he found out:
A day after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resigned, a federal official in her home state dismissed one potential explanation for her sudden and unexpected resignation: a rumored FBI investigation into the former Wasilla mayor on public corruption charges.
Despite rumors of a looming controversy after the Republican governor's surprise announcement Friday that she would leave office this month, some of them published in the blogosphere, the FBI's Alaska spokesman said the bureau had no investigation into Palin for her activities as governor, as mayor or in any other capacity.
"There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we're investigating her or getting ready to indict her," Special Agent Eric Gonzalez said in a phone interview Saturday. "It's just not true." He added that there was "no wiggle room" in his comments for any kind of inquiry. [Emphasis added]
There, now. Was that so hard?
If not, why did it take until Saturday for that phone interview to be made? It appears that it was only after the bloggers started to look into the reasons for the resignation that the "real" press decided that it should as well. The press didn't act, it reacted to the fact that it might have been scooped by a bunch of "amateurs." Only then did the press do its job.
The whole episode stinks.
Labels: Free Press
posted by Diane at 3:00 PM
2 Comments:
May I ask why Alaskans would elect a crook like her as governor????
Oi, oi, oi, Terry, because Alaskans think all politicians are crooks, carpetbaggers, and connivers.
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