Palin’s Gripe with Couric Speaks Volumes

Last Updated on January 14, 2018

In her new book Going Rogue, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin reveals her anger with Katie Couric over the debacle of an interview that aired last fall on the CBS Evening News.

In the book, which will be released this Tuesday, Palin recalls that a John McCain campaign aide urged her to sit down with the anchor because Couric “liked and admired her,” according to an Associated Press report.&nbsp  The interview would be a favor for Couric, who had the lowest ratings of the three major network news broadcasts.&nbsp  (A McCain aide, incidentally, totally denies Palin’s claims on this subject.)

Palin claims, according to the report, that once the cameras were rolling, Couric acted “condescending, biased and badgering.”

She then claims that her best statements were left on the proverbial cutting room floor while Couric pieced together only the “gotcha” moments, creating a finished product that made Palin look bad.&nbsp  She then whines that Couric went easier on Joe Biden, her Democratic rival for the vice presidency.

It’s always funny to me when a politician claims the media is being too hard.&nbsp  You can bet, whenever it happens, it’s only because they didn’t have a good answer ready.&nbsp  For Palin, if her “good” moments were left on the cutting room floor in favor of the “bad” ones, she certainly handed Couric a lot of bad ones to choose from.&nbsp  At least one, it seems, for every question.&nbsp  In some cases, more than one.

And her assertion of “doing Couric a favor” makes so little sense that it’s laughable.

If you’re the newly-selected running mate of a candidate who’s neck-and-neck in the polls, you don’t agree to sit down for an interview with the lowest-rated anchor to do her a favor.&nbsp  You sit down across from whoever is bringing in the most ratings to get your point out there as quickly as possible to as many people as possible.

Think about it:&nbsp  you’ve got one interview to do and this is your big chance to reach a national audience.&nbsp  Which show would you want to be on?

Her reason for choosing Couric, I believe, had nothing at all to do with just being nice to a fellow mom.&nbsp  It was all about her belief — or a McCain aide’s insistence — that Couric “liked” her.&nbsp  If Couric was a fan, maybe she’d go easy on her.&nbsp  She wanted softballs going in.&nbsp  She wanted the outcome to be a case of Biden whining about how much harder Couric was on him.

How many times has Palin criticized the media for its coverage?&nbsp  How many times has she accused them of favoritism?&nbsp  Yet she pretty much implies that she granted Couric the interview because she believed Couric would favor her?

That sound you hear is the Double Standard Alarm going off.

And did you actually watch that interview?&nbsp  Couric wasn’t asking Palin to solve algebraic equations.&nbsp  Here are a few of the questions that Palin seemed to have no clear, easily-flowing answers:

“You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience.&nbsp  What did you mean by that?”

“[Other than Roe v. Wade] what other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?”

“Can you think of any?”

“When it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read, before you were tapped for this, to stay informed and understand the world?”

“If a 15-year-old is raped by her father, you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion. Why?”

“But ideally, you think it should be ideal for a girl who was raped or the victim of incest to get an abortion?”

“But, like, which ones specifically?”

“Can you name a few?”

When answers to simple questions, specifically, like the second and third, requiring essentially a yes or no answer, or like the last two, which require naming publications you’ve claimed to have read all these years leading up to your selection as a running mate, don’t come right off the top of your head, the blame isn’t in the reporter asking the questions.