Posted on 09/23/2013 8:12:50 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This is not some sort of bait-and-switch where the Palin-hating liberal swoops in with a zinger, this is for real: Sarah Palin is actually right about something. Furthermore, she’s not just a little bit right, she doesn’t just have a point, the former Alaska Governor is absolutely, 100% right. While you arrange your lambs in snuggly positions with your lions, let me explain. Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace revealed, yesterday, that “top Republicans” had sent him unsolicited oppo research and questions for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Former Governor Palin (R-AK) tweeted, on Sunday, that Wallace ought to reveal which sources had sent him the dirt on Cruz. She tweeted “@FoxNewsSunday Keep it TRULY fair & balanced. Release the GOP names encouraging you to trash @SenTedCruz. No more anonymous sources.”
Many Republicans are angry with Cruz for engineering a strategy that has the House GOP demanding a government shutdown and/or default if Obamacare is not de-funded. Presumably, the research sent to Wallace was intended to undercut Cruz, and perhaps trip him up. Palin’s tweet appears to have been motivated, in part, by affinity for Cruz, but also a well-earned contempt for anonymously-sourced news. Regardless of her motives, though, Palin is on firm journalistic footing with her demand.
Oppo research like this typically makes its way too a reporter in one of two ways: either as a general blast to journalists, with no attempt to hide the source, or as a specific package delivered to a particular reporter. Wallace’s is obviously in the latter category. Oppo deliveries like this are usually appended with language like “off the record” or “not for attribution,” or are generally understood to be off the record. They don’t need to be on the record because they typically don’t consist of new reporting, but rather, point the reporter toward existing reporting that he can verify independently.
The catch is that an unsolicited email, even if marked “off the record,” or understood to be off the record, isn’t actually off the record until the reporter agrees it is. We generally don’t burn sources in these cases because it isn’t usually newsworthy, and a source that feels burned won’t ever be a source for you again. There are rare exceptions. It was less newsworthy that Barack Obama once wore a Muslim-y outfit than it was that Hillary Clinton‘s campaign wanted people to know that.
This might be the reasoning that Wallace used in not revealing the source of the information, that even if it wasn’t technically off the record, he wished to honor the spirit of that unspoken agreement. If that’s the case, though, then he had no business revealing that the research even existed; that, in and of itself, would be a violation of off the record communication.
The reason he revealed it was that the source itself was newsworthy, that “top Republicans” were trying to undercut Ted Cruz. If the public has an interest in knowing that, then they surely have an even greater interest in knowing which top Republicans were doing it. Simply put, something can’t be a little bit off the record, any more than you can be a little bit pregnant. If Wallace concealed his source because they were off the record then he shouldn’t have mentioned it at all. If he was serving the public interest in revealing it, then he abdicated that interest by not revealing the source of the oppo research, and the contents of it. Sarah Palin is right, he should come clean.
Totally agree. Wallace won’t release them though. He’s a stool pigeon for the established Washington political elite on both sides. He’ll protect them for as long as he’s getting invited to cocktail parties and spa rendezvous.
I just witnessed O’Bloviator and Tokyo Rove double teaming Cruz. Fair and balanced? Pfft. Apparently Ted doesn’t consult leadership enough before he does things.
Yeah, he consults WE THE PEOPLE instead, because that’s who he represents, and we want Obamacare TERMINATED! I’m glad Ted Cruz is ‘breaking away’ as Blow Riley puts it. His caucus needs to keep its distance from the Cornyn clowncar. I’m hoping to send Cruz reinforcements in 2014.
Wallace admitted he’s got the bag, now he should let the cat out of it.
That's a damnable lie. Obama/Reid are threatening the shutdown.
If you don't, we know you're spewing more leftist propaganda about a fine patriot.
Exactly.
Go along to get along Republicans are worse than the libs.
Fixed it.
Not much of a fan of Wallace, but his saying this live on the show is tantamount to giving Cruz more wind at his back. Those of us backing Cruz are disgusted by the DC GOP’s business as usual. His statement is adding gasoline to the fire. If he was completely in the tank for the DC establishment, he never would have made this statement, and instead would have grilled Cruz or used this oppo research to damage him. Instead Cruz comes out stronger.
How it must have pained Tommy to write this headline!
Saw that too, O’Really should have just had Reid give his opinion rather than Rove.
Pray for America to Wake Up
Yeah, he’s not exactly the president of her fan club.
Juanita McCain, perhaps?
Yes!!! I don't understand the FR anger at Wallace. In my opinion, he did the right thing. A journalist simply cannot reveal confidential sources. To do so would end his career as a journalist.
But Wallace did give Cruz a heads-up. Wallace didn't have to do that. But he did. End result? Thanks to Wallace, Cruz looks better, and the GOPe looks like a bunch of cowards.
Establishment republicans - doing a job that is so filthy even democrats won’t do it.
If you’d (directed at the author, not the poster) been paying attention, and not been blinded by ideology, you’d realize that Sarah Palin is right far more often than not.
That's a damnable lie. Obama/Reid are threatening the shutdown.
That line stuck out to me, too. The House bill specifically funds the government, the ONLY thing not funded is Obamacare. Lies are told, lies are reported. It's left up to us to counter those friggin' lies.
Cornyn did not get Cruz’s endorsement. So this is how he tries to push back. If one of his opponents has anything on the ball, then he is in trouble. Cruz is probably the most dynamic radical to hit the senate since Huey Long. Huey came to the senate with a lot less polish than Cruz, but by August, 1935, he was shiny enough to worry Roosevelt.
Sarah is the only one that can beat Hillery for President!!!
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