Tigerhawk makes an apt comparison of the media treatment of Sarah Palin to former Senator and VP/Presidential candidate John Edwards, now facing federal prosecution for misuse of campaign funds.
Edwards got a complete pass from the media for years, which avoided reporting the details of his illicit affair for as long as they could, which was until the National Enquirer released the news. Even then, the liberal Democrat base screeched that it was a personal matter, until the news surfaced that Edwards was paying his mistress hush money with campaign funds funneled through an adviser, a man who falsely claimed to be the father of the illegitimate child fathered by Edwards in order to protect the then presidential candidate.
The story eventually made its way into the mainstream press, which pursued it mainly for the human interest of Edwards wife Elizabeth going through this humiliation while simultaneously battling the breast cancer that eventually killed her.
Yet, even at this, the press was remarkably restrained and incredibly objective in reporting these details, and certainly did not dwell on them for an inordinate amount of time.
And this brings us to Tigerhawk's comparison to the Palin coverage.
I have long thought that the media's disparate treatment of John Edwards and Sarah Palin was the most powerful evidence of structural bias toward the left. Edwards was having an affair and the media turned a blind eye. Palin was pregnant by her husband, and the media accused her of faking it and swarmed Alaska with investigators. Edwards had no useful experience -- he was a trial lawyer, which is training for essentially nothing important, and a one-term Senator -- and nobody in the press questioned his qualifications. However one might weigh Palin's resume, she was no less experienced than Edwards (that would be difficult) and the press hammered her constantly for it. Edwards was vain as can be and the press did not even suggest that he was a narcissist (which he obviously is). Palin bought some better looking clothes for campaigning and the whole press pool jumped on it. Edwards could not make a speech without reminding us he was the son of a "mill worker" who had gotten rich and the media ate it up as evidence of humble beginnings. The Palins actually built a successful small business and the media mocked it as a stunt. One could go on.
The disparate treatment of Edwards and Palin is a warning to all Republicans, or at least Republican women -- the non-Fox mainstream media will pretty much do anything it can to destroy you.
Truer words were never spoken. In fact, its so obvious the media doesn't really even try to deny it anymore. Its almost as if they feel if you aren't with them, they don't give a damn what you think. That's the sign of a media that's brought and paid for. And that begs the question, who's writing the checks.
