Going Rogue by Sarah Palin is the
number one book on the Amazon.com
bestseller list today.
Sarah Palin and Barack Obama seem to have a lot in common, although you wouldn't know it at first glance.
Their ideology couldn't be more different and they are of different genders and races to name some obvious contrasts.
But the biggest difference that becomes more apparent with every passing day is how they are treated by the media.
Palin's much-anticipated autobiography "Going Rogue" - which is still flying off shelves and already an enormous sales success after less than three weeks in release - is seen by many as a way for the former Alaska Governor to "stay in the game", keep her star bright, get her personal story out unfiltered and - possibly - help position her for a future Presidential run.
The supposedly non-biased Associated Press had 11 fact-checkers look at "Going Rogue".
Which would be only slightly unfair and overboard if one didn't remember that President Obama - who is also a political rock star who rose fast without many knowing much about him - wrote TWO books about his life and the Associate Press never had one fact-checker look into either one of them. To this day.
Think about that. A man without a long public career wrote two books and no one at the Associated Press thought it might be helpful or informative or beneficial to the public to assign one fact-checker to his book. Not while people were getting to know him in Iowa. Not through the long primary campaign. Not when he had clinched his party's nomination. Not during the general campaign. And he is now the most powerful man in the world, and they still haven't.
Yet Sarah Palin is currently a private citizen and POSSIBLE future candidate. No one knows if she will run for anything as of today. Yet the Associated Press felt they had to make sure they went over her book with the finest of fine-tooth combs and drafted eleven individuals to make sure there were no misquotes, mistakes or factual errors in her book. They feel it is that important to the public.
Yet to this day, they don't feel the most powerful man in the world's life story should fall under the same scrutiny.
Do we really think Obama is that wonderful and perfect and important? Are we in the media that terrified to puncture the myth of a transcendent, perfect Obama that we don't want to know the truth about him?
At the same time, are we so scared about Palin, what she believes and what she possibly represents that it is acceptable to try to destroy her at all costs?
The Associated Press seems to have answered both questions with their etreme reactions in opposite directions to Obama's and Palin's tomes. If this is a sign that the media truly is choosing who they want to build up and who they want to destroy and who gets a pass, that should disturb everyone of all political stripes.
