Talk about a trash fest.
It’s one thing to opine against former governor and potential presidential candidate Sarah Palin in the press. It’s another thing to attack her family and cheap shot her children. But this – this so-called “News Story” written by an official “News Reporter” — just takes the cake.
Look at this headline, posted at Huffington Post on May: “Fox News Chief Roger Ailes Thinks Sarah Palin is ‘Stupid’: New York Magazine.”
Really? On surface, this appears a must-read, especially since Ailes presides over the cable station that hired Palin as a contributor.
But scroll down and it’s soon evident that A) Roger Ailes did not call Palin stupid and that B) nobody, in fact, was on record in this particular story as calling Palin stupid. So how did that headline find its way at the top of the story? Call it sheer reporter guesswork-slash-fabrication-slash-spin-slash-bias.
Michael Calderone, the creator of this piece, begins his tall tale with a run-down of a just-released New York magazine cover story by Gabriel Sherman – the same writer who is now researching a book on Fox News for Random House, as Calderone mentions. Calderone then writes how Sherman’s magazine piece covers the fact that Ailes isn’t optimistic about the Republican Party’s chance of winning back the White House in 2012. And now, in Calderone’s own written words:
“That’s the takeaway from Gabriel Sherman’s New York magazine cover story,” he writes. “Ailes doesn’t speak on record in the article, but several Republicans close to the Fox News chief describe his concerns going into an election year.”
Calderon then goes on to quote this section from Sherman’s New York magazine story.
“’He thinks things are going in a bad direction,” another Republican close to Ailes told [Sherman]. “Roger is worried about the future of the country. He thinks the election of Obama is a disaster. He thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid.”’
That’s it – that’s the killer quote that justifies the headline. An unnamed source tells a New York magazine reporter that Ailes called Palin stupid – and suddenly, the Huffington Post is reporting it as fact. And not just any New York magazine reporter, at that. A New York magazine reporter who admittedly didn’t even interview Ailes for the article.
Apparently, the bias was evident to more than a few. On May 23, Calderone added an “Update” to his story that explained his decision to re-quote an anonymous source.
“I have worked with Sherman in the past … and am very familiar with his coverage of the media,” Calderone writes, at the bottom of his story in the update section. “And I am confident that if Sherman reported he spoke with a “Republican close to Ailes” that he indeed spoke with a “Republican close to Ailes.”’
All right, everybody go home, folks. Nothing to see here.
The biased media guy says he’s not biased. Case closed. And by the way, have you heard the latest? Sources say – or sources of sources say, whatever – Tim Pawlenty’s called Palin stupid, too. Stay tuned to The Huffington Post for the full report.
Cheryl Chumley is online editor of Tea Party Review Magazine.
