Saturday, September 13, 2008

Sharp comparison of Palin vs. Obama Gibson interviews

In this commentary from the Journal of Feminist Insight comes this insightful review of the Gibson interviews: Palin and Obama.

I compared Charles Gibson’s interview of Palin with his interview of Obama and there is much evidence that Gibson was prejudiced against Palin. He interviewed Obama right after he became the presumptive presidential nominee and he interviewed Palin shortly after she became the vice presidential nominee. So the situation of the interviews is similar. And because the situation of the interviews is similar Gibson’s extreme prejudice against Palin is very obvious.

For example, Gibson asked Obama a lot of questions focused on the positive aspects of Obama being a champion and breaking a glass ceiling for African Americans. Yet he didn’t ask Palin about her potential of breaking the infamous glass ceiling and the benefits that would create for women who are a much larger percentage of the U.S. population than African Americans.

Furthermore, Gibson often questioned Palin’s ability to lead, but he never questioned Obama’s ability to lead. This is outrageous because Palin has more political executive experience than Obama and far more political accomplishments. Another reason why it was prejudiced for Gibson to question Palin’s ability to lead and not Obama’s ability to lead is that Palin is seeking the much less powerful job of VP. And to add insult to injury Gibson even asked Palin if it was conceited of her to accept the vice presidential nomination, yet he did not insult Obama with that question even though Obama is applying for a much more powerful job.

Also Gibson maintained an almost constant sour face when interviewing Palin and his tone of voice seemed to imply that he was disappointed in her. I haven’t watched the entire Obama interview but the part I watched showed Gibson with a pleased expression on his face and the transcript shows that there was frequent laughter during his interview with Obama.

Even the camera angle was designed to be prejudiced against Palin. She is filmed from the side and slightly with her back to the camera. Although there are close ups of her face the long shot shows her back to the camera. It seems filming her with her back to the camera was meant to make her appear less likeable. In contrast, the film crew placed the long shot camera facing Obama so at all times when he is speaking the camera looks him in the face rather than looking at his back.

And Obama was asked much easier questions mostly about feelings about winning, breaking the glass ceiling and 2008 campaign decisions. In contrast, Palin was asked numerous specific policy and military strategy questions that required extensive knowledge about treaties, U.S. anti-terrorism strategy and world history. And Gibson misquoted Palin falsely stating that she said our troops were in an alleged holy war when what she said was that she prayed that we were doing God’s will.
I was particularly annoyed with Gibson asking a question repeatedly, as if he were digging until he could embarrass Saracuda into a gaffe. She was brilliant in her reponses.

An interesting comparison are the questions asked of Obama and Palin.

Obama interview:
How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?
How does it feel to win?
How does your family feel about your “winning” breaking a glass ceiling?
Who will be your VP?
Should you choose Hillary Clinton as VP?
Will you accept public finance?
What issues is your campaign about?
Will you visit Iraq?
Will you debate McCain at a town hall?
What did you think of your competitor’s [Clinton] speech?

Palin interview:
Do you have enough qualifications for the job you’re seeking? Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders?
Aren’t you conceited to be seeking this high level job?
Questions about foreign policy
-territorial integrity of Georgia
-allowing Georgia and Ukraine to be members of NATO
-NATO treaty
-Iranian nuclear threat
-what to do if Israel attacks Iran
-Al Qaeda motivations
-the Bush Doctrine
-attacking terrorists harbored by Pakistan
-Is America fighting a holy war? [misquoted Palin]
Read the entire article here. Kudos to the 'feminist' who wrote this piece. Obviously a real woman, not a mouthpiece for the liberal establishment.

You can view the two interviews at Youtube

Obamessiah


Saracuda


Totally missed in this opinion piece is how the original airing of the interviews on September 11 were edited to cut her answers short and make her less appealing.

At least the Leftmedia doesn't pretend to be objective anymore.

5 comments:

  1. Oh now that's probably incorrect.

    Look at the editing job on Palin's interview (first one so far).

    http://marklevinshow.com/gibson-interview/

    Maybe he did ask Obama really tough questions, but then edited them out before airing... how could you know?

    Someone definitely chopped and sliced Palin's answers with a goal in mind (beyond time constraints)...

    I wonder what that goal is?

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  2. The palin interview is edited on this page. Weird. When I saw this interview the other day for the first time, when she said "you can see Russia from Alaska", it was followed by a statement from Palin along the lines of "this is significant only because it points out that we live in a small world".

    In the clip shown here, that is missing from the interview.

    But all in all, I think Gibson's tone was fairly consistent between the two interviews. Palin was simply more nervous and her answers were more rehearsed. I think what we saw was an honest interview of a candidate (Palin) who is experiencing the heat of a national candidacy for the first time, and her inexperience is being revealed.

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  3. I disagree that Gibson's tone was consistent. In the Obama interview, he was noticeably more conciliatory, much more friendly, just as two pals sitting down having a chat.

    He was downright condescending to Palin.

    Whatever your view, I think Gibson helped the McCain/Palin ticket more than he knows. There are a lot of outraged consumers out there tired of watching the media hatchet job on the Governor of Alaska and the pass for the obamessiah. It will result in lower ratings, the correct candidate getting elected, and (hopefully) the ultimate demise of broadcast news.

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  4. I am a republican and I have doubts about Palin's ability to lead this country, if something were to happen to (Presiden)McCain. Forget political parties, we are Americans first. Obama has surrounded himself with smart people. Palin is govenor of Alaska. I have more people in my city than Alaska! McCain should have chosen a better running mate. He chose her just to get H. Clinton voters. He is a sell out to all true conservative republicans like myself. It just pisses me off. She is qualified to lead. She's just a female version of Obama. True conservatives know this!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am a republican and I have doubts about Palin's ability to lead this country, if something were to happen to (President)McCain. Forget political parties, we are Americans first. Obama has surrounded himself with smart people. Palin is govenor of Alaska. I have more people in my city than Alaska! McCain should have chosen a better running mate. He chose her just to get H. Clinton voters. He is a sell out to all true conservative republicans like myself. It just pisses me off. She isn't qualified to lead. She's just a female version of Obama. True conservatives know this!

    ReplyDelete

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