Commentary: Katie Couric's Sarah Palin moment? (Semi-Barf Alert)

CNN.com ^ | October 1, 2009 | Hamid Dabashi

[rightwingintelligentsia]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- One of the most memorable episodes of the U.S. presidential election of 2008 was the much-publicized September 2008 interview that CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric did with Republican vice presidential candidate and then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Quite a number of embarrassing revelations dawned on the American presidential election scene after that interview, including the fact that the person potentially a heartbeat away from U.S. presidency could not name a single newspaper or magazine that she regularly read.

The interview turned out to be so crucial a piece in the course of the presidential campaign that it garnered for Couric the much coveted Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism, with the judges considering that interview a "defining moment in the 2008 presidential campaign."

As fate would have it exactly a year after that fateful interview, Katie Couric was destined to have an embarrassing Sarah Palin moment of her own.

[goodnesswins]

HA...that Sarah Palin couldn’t name a newspaper or magazine she read regularly is a BADGE of HONOR to wear!!! But it pisses off the Hoi Polloi...

[Puppage]

the fact that the person potentially a heartbeat away from U.S. presidency could not name a single newspaper or magazine that she regularly read

And, that's a bad thing?

[ETL]

Related...

(WABC's) Charlie Gibson on Acorn Scandal: I Don't Even Know About It
BigGovernment.com ^ | Publius

Posted on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 4:02:59 PM by ETL

This morning, the ACORN scandal was raised to Charlie Gibson in an interview on WLS AM Chicago’s “Don Wade & Roma Morning Show.”

TRANSCRIPT:

Don: Ok here’s my question, Senate bill yesterday passes cutting off funds to this group called ACORN. Now we got the…we got that bill passing, we got the embarrassing video of ACORN staff giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel with 13 year old hookers. It has everything you could want corruption and sleazy action at tax funded organizations that’s got government ties. But nobody’s covering that story why?

Charlie Gibson: (laugh) I don’t even know about it. Uh, so you got me at a loss, I don’t know. Uh, uh, but, but My goodness if it’s got everything including sleaziness in it we should talk about it this morning.

Roma: This is the American way…

Charlie Gibson: Well maybe, maybe that’s one you just leave to the cables.

Roma: Well I think that this is a huge issue because there’s so much funding that goes into this organization and it’s a multi…

Charlie Gibson: Well, I know we’ve done some stories about ACORN before but uh, uh this one I don’t know about.

Roma: Jake Tapper did some blogging on it. I know he’s at least blogged once on this scandal.

Charlie Gibson: You guys, you guys are really up on the uh on the website.

~~

Footage of the San Bernardino investigation was not available at the time of the interview.

Thank you to WLS AM Chicago for providing the audio.

Listen to the audio here:
[begins about 4 minutes, 30 secs into the audio clip. More incredible audio clips from the new Acorn videos later in the audio (apprx 11 mins into it) - total length of audio: apprx 35 mins. you can slide the bar over to the 4-1/2 min mark]
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=8e38a801-07a5-41be-b6a1-fac443716e71

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2341347/posts

[SolidWood]

Why is this broad Couric sitting down with Ahmadinejad in the first place? Commie traitor b****. I honestly got a chuckle out of nutjob taking a jab at her. Two nutjobs sitting together.

[cripplecreek]

I can see Katie Couric’s stupidity from my living room.

[the invisib1e hand]

Quite a number of embarrassing revelations dawned on the American presidential election scene after that interview, including the fact that the person potentially a heartbeat away from U.S. presidency could not name a single newspaper or magazine that she regularly read.

As regards Sarah Palin: Neither can I. Nor a "news" program that I "regularly watch." I haven't owned a TV for 17 years.

This tells me the person isn't being spoon-fed her thoughts.

I can see why CNN would have a real problem with that -- such a person is outside their "demographic dominance."

There's no equivalence between Couric and Palin, incidentally. N.O.N.E.

[Doogle]

Kattie:”Mr Odumbo what is your favorite newspaper or mag to read?”

Odumbo:Pravda

Kattie: How interesting

[YankeeReb]

The fact that CNN and the Obama-fawning media still mock Sarah Palin only reenforces my belief that she scares the cr@p out of them.

[metalcor]

Palin’s book will possibly make her, but only if she is brutally honest about her own part in that disaster and shows that she learned a lesson from it. She also needs to be honest and straightforward about the relationship she had with McCain towards the end of the campaign. She has potential, but only as an anti-politician. If this book is just another phony political spin fiction which is typical of the genre, she’ll just be another politician, but one with little experience and unproven intelligence. People are looking for honesty, integrity and common sense— an anti-politician.

[Overtaxed Patriot]

I can see Katie Couric’s stupidity from my living room.

Never in mine.

[cripplecreek]

Well I didn’t say I do, only that I can.

[traderrob6]

Pardon my ignorance but what exactly did Sarah Palin say to Couric that was so terrible?

[Polybius]

As regards Sarah Palin: Neither can I. Nor a "news" program that I "regularly watch." I haven't owned a TV for 17 years. This tells me the person isn't being spoon-fed her thoughts.

Unless you are a newbie to FR, yes, you can name several news sources that you regularly read.

Unless you are a newbie to FR, you regularly read articles from the New York Times, from the Washington Post, from the San Francisco Chronicle, from the Wall Street Journal, etc, etc. etc., and you read them right here on Free Republic.

You just read an article from CNN.com at the start of this thread and commented about it.

That is what the Free Republic Forum is mostly about: Reading publiched articles and discussing them. .

Here, on Free Republic, we are not "spoon-fed" our thoughts by reading these articles. When need be, we tear the writers apart.

Any FReeper that regularly posts on FR can, without any trouble at all, rattle off a dozen news sources that we regularly read and, if need be, criticize and correct.

The fact that Sarah Palin could not name a single news source is not a "badge of honor". It was an indication that that Palin knew much less about what was going on in the national and international scenes than did the average FR poster. In the Oval Office, that is not a good thing.

If being conservative is the one and only qualification we demand for putting somebody in the Oval Office, then let's just skip Palin and decide wich FReeper has the best chance of being elected in 2012. At least one of us will be better informed than Sarah Palin was in 2008.

[browniexyz]

I hope the MSM, O’s minions, etc., keep on coming at her this way. It has actually heightened my curiousity about her because it makes me wonder why the Left is so fearful of her! Americans LOVE the underdog!! That’s something 0, not being culturally an American, understands!

[FrankR]

Palin was totally ambushed by couric and charlie.

I'm thinking that Sarah could have waxed them both except for the shackles placed on her by the McCain't campaign.

You can always find a question that will stump almost anyone, if you go obscure enough.

[CharlesWayneCT]

It would have been nice if she had thought to answer the question by saying where she did get her input into what was happening in the world, so it was clear to the audience that she was dissing newspapers, and not just failing to read them.

[definitelynotaliberal]

I'm not sure how I would asnwer that question either. She was asked which paper she reads regularly. That's the difference. I don't know that I read any newspaper regularly. I used to read The Herald Tribune and The New York Times with some regularity, but they got to be too much for me. I do give a glance to the Corriere della Sera, but it's just to confirm for myself that Italians don't have a press. On occasion, I look at the headlines of Le Monde. Sometimes, I go to www.derspiegelonline.com.

For the most part, I get my news here. I also like Real Clear Politics. So you tell me, Katie Couric, which newspaper do I read regularly.

[definitelynotaliberal]

I concur.

[definitelynotaliberal]

I don’t think this article warrants a barf alert. I’m glad I read it.