Bill O'Reilly consulted the wisdom of the Oracle of Wasilla last night on the civil war that's erupted on the Right between the Tea Birchers and the Establishment GOP. And -- I know this will be a shock -- she sagely advised O'Donnell to be just like Sarah Palin:
O'REILLY: Look, Ms. O'Donnell could be on here tonight, could be presenting herself in front of the nation. Her people don't want her to be, because this is a tough--
PALIN: Okay, I grant you that. No, I grant you that. She's going to have to learn very quickly--
O'REILLY: Right.
PALIN: --to dismiss what some of her handlers want. Remember what happened to me in the VP.
O'REILLY: Absolutely.
PALIN: Remember, I used to have to sneak in my phone call to you guys--
O'REILLY: I remember getting the call from you--
PALIN: --and say hey, I'm here.
O'REILLY: -- like 11:30 on a Sunday night. I thought it was a prank call, but it was you. Absolutely. I know exactly what you're talking about.
PALIN: So she's going to have to learn that, yes, very quickly. She's going to have to dismiss that, go with her gut, get out there, speak to the American people. Speak through Fox News and let the independents who are tuning in to you, let them know what it is that she stands for, the principles behind her positions.
Yes of course -- don't bother with the "lamestream media," because they'll just ask you tough question you don't want to answer. Far better to go to the Propaganda Channel, because they'll just toss you softballs all day and let you spin uninterrupted.
Karl Frisch has an excellent column about that:
Since prematurely leaving the Last Frontier State’s governorship in 2009, Sarah Palin has avoided potentially devastating repeat performances of her sit-down disasters from 2008 with Katie Couric and Charles Gibson by rarely if ever subjecting herself to questions from serious journalists.
Insulated by her role as a Fox News contributor, Palin instead turns to Twitter and Facebook to communicate with the legitimate media. Rather than tearing down the walls that shield the powerful, the medium is instead being used as a cudgel of self-preservation by Palin.
...
When Palin does avail herself for an interview it’s usually with the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, or Greta Van Susteren — her Fox News colleagues. Lord knows they’ve never pitched a softball she wasn’t able to hit over right field.
Laughably, Palin had the gall to attack the “lamestream media” recently for supposedly failing to ask President Obama “those basic questions” by which I’m assuming she means the press hasn’t been hard enough on him. The irony of such a charge was obviously lost on her.
Palin often tells her followers “don’t retreat, instead reload!” Perhaps she should take her own advice and “reload” for another round of interviews with real reporters who will ask her “those basic questions.”
Of course, I’m not holding my breath. Palin prefers to hide behind her keyboard, showing her cowardice 140 characters at a time.
Lamestream indeed.
This, by the way, has also been Jan Brewer's strategy in Arizona: appear endlessly on Fox and refuse to do any interviews with real reporters, local or otherwise.
