The Sarah Palin explosion: Has the Web seen anything like it?

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LA Times Entertainment
04:01 PM PT, Sep 5 2008
Why do I now know more about Sarah Palin’s life than I do about Abraham Lincoln’s? It just doesn’t seem right.

In addition to the hours of Palin-oriented TV and radio coverage I consumed this week, and the dozens of Palin-focused online videos I watched, I must have read at least 50 stories about John McCain’s VP pick in the last few days (not to mention the ones I wrote and edited). It's worth pointing out, too, that except for one or two of those stories, everything I read was on a computer screen. With respect to my colleagues down at the printing press, this is a saga not designed for the morning paper. Who'd want to wait that long?

Palin, it seems, has a magical quality that makes you want more Palin. It's sort of like Johnny 5, the robot from the “Short Circuit” movies who zoomed through an entire shelf of books in mere seconds, braying "More input!" as he went. We may not be robots yet, but the Web, unlike any of the 20th century media, allows us to engage in a level of info-gorging that Johnny would be proud of.

Adding to the mass appetite was Palin's strange radio silence early in the week -- without a single interview, televised biography or press conference to tide us over. Give the Web a vacuum and it will instantly be filled with rumor, fact and wild speculation. Palin was a Russian doll of mysteries, the bigger ones hiding more and smaller ones, ad infinitum. By my own incomplete count, there were 17 different scandals and sub-scandals swirling this week -- from the political (earmarking, book banning, funding for pregnant teen mothers), to the personal (pregnant teenager, trooper brother-in-law, broken-water drama), and back again.

Palin has lighted up the Web in a way few stories ever have -- dominating the home pages and popularity lists of just about every news and culture website you could think of. On the left, DailyKos users have made an opera of the Palin family drama. Slate.com has been churning out Palin stories, blogs, videos and Cliffs Notes nonstop -- at one point Wednesday, the site was featuring a cluster of seven different stories devoted to her. And on the right, the National Review's commentators were chiming in five at a time. The lists of most-emailed and most-viewed articles on the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Wall Street Journal websites were dominated by Palin stories, as were community news sites such as Digg and Reddit. Mommy blogs were buzzing, Twitter was squawking --and even gossip artist Perez Hilton caught the bug. The Web's thousand and one media islets were all pointing toward Palin like iron filings toward a magnet.

So it seemed odd when McCain and company used an old trick from the Republican playbook and tried to blame the “elite media” for the nation's Palin obsession and rumor-mongering. With hundreds of bloggers and untold thousands of commenters trading opinions and searching out facts, Palinmania looks less top down than it does side to side to side.

A more realistic concern--and one likely not high on either candidate's priority list--is how we're all supposed to make sense of the flood of undigested factoids and bloviations coming in from every direction. As the noise level rises, it gets more difficult to divine a nugget of real truth from a fourth-hand bit of twisted speculation. Worse yet, even if you can figure out what's correct and what isn't, there's no guarantee what you've got is worth knowing. If you catch my drift.

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September 5, 2008 | Permalink


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It is all too good to be true; too good for the media especially abroad.

Here we are in the US getting closer and closer to November 4th.

Here we have the soundest blue candidate (yes, we are now a nation divided once again by color); the most futurist Democratic possibility for the Oval Office.

And all of a sudden comes along the side show.

All be said, McCain once held respect with even Democrats in the US. Now, we get the older, distracted version: once a man with a good heart, a good brain; but, now only shell of a man in many ways. Add to that a spunky, balls-out Alaskan valley girl.

Even though the Democrats may have seen it coming, they still can’t believe it. And they may be unable to pull out their own American caricature to one up it. Yee haw; fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Whether you are Republican, Democrat, Independent or Other, when you look at the facts and the fiction, you know how the story ends. In your opinion, the better person won’t win if you find yourself on the loosing team. However, this election, the circus is in town and there’s a show to watch.

Get some popcorn. The show may not be intelligent, but it, no doubt, will be entertaining.




Posted by: American | September 05, 2008 at 04:33 PM

Don't you think there is a game changer here? She is the one with the ball in her hand. She outshine Joe Biden already. Guess what? all the headline now are between the 3 candidates - Obama, McCain & Palin. Where is Biden? Invisible! Why Obama is trying to bring Hillary! Does he try to tell people that Biden can't take Palin????

Posted by: ThatWoman | September 05, 2008 at 04:37 PM

Why do I now know more about Sarah Palin’s energy plan than I do about Barack Obama's? It just doesn’t seem right.

Posted by: mark | September 05, 2008 at 04:40 PM

Why do I now know more about Wasilla pollitics than I do about ACORN? It just doesn’t seem right.

Posted by: mark | September 05, 2008 at 04:47 PM

Sarah, Sarah, Please go back home.

Posted by: Mary Haas | September 05, 2008 at 04:50 PM

Wow, How proud to be a woman today! You are truly on track with all woman, I am glad that you are V.P. cause I would be proud to have you as leader of this country if something shoud happen to John... I am the same age as you and wi th four children. I am proud to be a woman today.. We can multi task as all moms do..You go girl... I am proud of you... What a great family and leadership and your faith... God Bless you Sarah... You have my vote lady.
May God Bless you and John...

Posted by: Maureen | September 05, 2008 at 05:16 PM

Sarah Palin does have a magical quality, as a psychiatrist I would say there has to be something archetypical about her to elicit this type of fascination. We are looking at the future of the republican party and I suspect this woman will be president of the United States before Hillary Clinton.

Posted by: Brad Williams, M.D. | September 05, 2008 at 05:34 PM

Give me a break. The media has been in the tank for Obama , first starting in on Hillary and now they are doing the same thing with Palin. Yes we know more about Palin's personal life than we do about Abraham Lincolns, and WAY WAY WAY more than we know about Obama (except for those who have researched him).

Posted by: J9 | September 05, 2008 at 05:38 PM

What I am looking for in a President:

Do I respect him?
Does he respect people?
Can he make a decision?
If a terrorist was standing on the other side of my President would I feel safe?
Does he has character?
Is he strong?
Do I respect his choices in his friends and those he surrounds himself with?
Does he have experience?
What does his resume look like?
What types of choices has he made in his life?
BTW Sarah Palin is icing to the cake...

Posted by: Meter Maid | September 05, 2008 at 05:42 PM

Nice Piece Mr. Sarno. I've never liked the term “elite media”. You are very correct to point out that this story has broken far too fast to be part of a left-wing media conspiracy. In some cases, publications that lean left were very unfair to Sarah Palin, but some were also asking very relevant questions about her background. Republicans have tried to lump it all together.

Troopergate is a legitimate issue, as is whether or not she was for the "Bridge to Nowhere" before she was against it. John Kerry has to be laughing about that one.
Whether or not she has fished without proper identification along with her husband’s DUI from 22 years ago are also not issues. Barack Obama's cocaine use from about the same time period is not an issue either. Whether or not Sarah and Todd Palin were married when they conceived their first child is no more of an issue than the circumstances surrounding Mr. Obama's conception.

This race has been full of stories that no United States Citizens should care about: Whether or not Mr. Obama can handle speaking without a teleprompter, why Sarah Palin doesn't choose to stay home with her kids and why Senator Biden didn't quit politics and stay home with his surviving children after his wife died in a car wreck? These are all non-relevant issues that have no business being mentioned during this campaign.

I've been particularly amused by Democrats who've suggested that Sarah Palin should withdraw from the campaign. If McCain needed any further confirmation in his mind that he had chosen the best person for the job, this was it...LOL

I'm about 90% sure I will vote for the McCain / Palin ticket simply because I believe that Senator McCain is most qualified to be President out of the four people on both tickets. I'm counting on Big John living the next four years. If he doesn't, I don't see Sarah Palin as being much less qualified than the top of the democratic ticket.

I actually voted for George H.W. Bush when he was elected for his term, Ross Perot when he ran against Bush and voted for Bill Clinton when he ran for his second term. I voted for "W" when ran for his first term, and didn't vote at all when he ran for his second term because I realized my first vote for him was a mistake and Kerry did not appeal to me at all. I always vote the person and not the party, so I am someone who could have easily been pulled to the Obama, if I believed in his vision for the future. I don't.

I think he's a brilliant speaker who will be in over his head if elected. He is the equivalent of someone who talks a mean game in the interview but performs poorly once they get the job. The world is too dangerous to have someone as inexperienced as Obama in the White House right now. If John McCain is elected, I will in fact be praying that nothing happens to him because Palin isn't qualified to lead during these times either.

Of course in that situation, Nancy Pelosi would be the Vice President. Talk about fun times...LOL Palin vs. Pelosi. If you think the coverage is sensational now...





Posted by: Mark | September 05, 2008 at 05:53 PM

Palin is putting this country in danger. She obviously placed her personal needs over the country. She did a snow job on McCain and now he is stuck with her and all of her lies, dysfunctional family and baggage.

She is a joke and makes the Republicans look like fools.

McCain really showed his true colors. He want to win by any means necessary. He cracked in Viet Nam and now he has cracked again to save his own skin. He has no morals. He used Palin and her family and now she is using the "baby daddy" to stay in the limelight. What a shameless bunch! We do not need these people running the country.

Clearly, there were three people in the conversation discussing McCain's VP choice and not one adult. Sarah and Todd Palin, and John McCain did not care what all of this negative attention would do to the family, especially to the pregnant 17 year old Bristol. They only thought about their own selfish needs.

Why do we need these people in our lives? Palin's hateful words and petty speech make her unfit to lead not to mention her fake resume. She is a disgrace.

McCain needs to go back to Arizona. He is not fit to serve in the U.S. Senate. He so screw up that his VP is now in hiding. What a joke!

Posted by: Marie | September 05, 2008 at 06:03 PM

"soundest blue candidate"?

Biden/Obama represent the most liberal ticket ever.

Obamamania has officially bitten the dust.

Posted by: L. LaFontaine | September 05, 2008 at 06:14 PM

Sarah Palin has galvinized not only the republican party, but many American voters of all parties. The big "why?" is both complex and simple.

Complex, because on the surface she is not the ordinary politician coming up the ranks of big government machines. She has no real Washington allies, no political mentor, with the exception of the prsidental nominee who chose her to run with him on the R ticket. She is not well known outside of Alaska and the governor circles. She cooks her own meals, sells the governor's jet, goes against fraud in her own party, confronts big oil -- what is with this woman, some will say?

And, that is where the simplicity to Mrs. Palin becomes so apparent. She is a working class woman, who rose to power through the power of her own conflictions, rather than the power brokers like, let's say, Barak Obama, who had Mayor Daley and Emil Jones, two of the major players in Chicago less-than-fair machine politics, pulling strings for him.

I think people respond well to ethics, truth, genuineness, and Sarah palin is saturated with all these traits and more. I sincerely hope she and McCain can win over "The One" and his crony VP. It will be a victory that could turn the tide of America Culture away from the precipice of a raging entitlement orient, self centered society we have become!

Posted by: Jan | September 05, 2008 at 06:32 PM

Marie~

funny how a pregnant 17 year old makes her mother unqualified when serious family dysfunction makes the top of the dem ticket:

In my February 26 profile, I called Obama "the political equivalent of a sociopath", without any derogatory intent. A sociopath seeks the empathy of all around him while empathizing with no one. Obama has an almost magical ability to gain the confidence of those around him. Perhaps it was the adaptation of a bright and sensitive young boy who was abandoned by three parents - his Kenyan father Barack Obama Sr, who left his pregnant young bride; his Indonesian stepfather Lolo Soetero; and by his mother, Ann Dunham, who sent 10-year-old Obama to live with her parents while she pursued her career as an anthropologist.

Combine a child's response to serial abandonment with the perspective of an outsider, and Obama became an alien species against which American politics had no natural defenses. He is a Third World anthropologist profiling Americans, in but not of the American system. No country's politics depends more openly on friendships than America's, yet Obama has not a single real friend, for he rose so fast that all his acquaintances become rungs on the ladder of his ascent. One human relationship crowds the others out of his life, his marriage to Michelle, a strong, assertive and very angry woman.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JI03Aa02.html

Posted by: mark | September 05, 2008 at 06:37 PM

I am SO NOT wanting more Sarah Palin. I wish she would just stay in Alaska and not add her "attack dog" performance to this election. This is an important election with critical issues to be examined. I have not heard Palin tackle even one. All she appears able to do is deliver barbs about Biden and Obama. This will get old fast.

Posted by: Carlin | September 05, 2008 at 07:17 PM

Marie you are so far to the left that you may fall off the flat side of the Earth while Mark you are spot on with your comments. I too vote for the individual and not the party.

In fact, our voting record is very similar. All of the minusa that is being spread about both parties is just that worthless information that does not allow one to drill down to the real issues facing our nation.

Thanks for laying out the facts.

Posted by: Mike | September 05, 2008 at 07:19 PM