Posted on 01/08/2009 5:47:46 PM PST by Nachum
On Thursday night's "Hardball," Chris Matthews played several clips from documentarian John Zeigler's interview with Sarah Palin, in which the former GOP VP candidate criticized Katie Couric and the press as a whole for bias against her but his guest, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, dismissed Palin's charges as "So lame," and called her "a Nixonian Nanook of the North."
The following exchanges were aired on the January 8, edition of "Hardball":
First up, after Matthews aired a clip of Palin criticizing the McCain campaign for forcing her to conduct continuing interviews with Couric, Alter called the Alaskan governor: "So lame."
CHRIS MATTHEWS: There ought to be a law against politicians blaming their handlers. What do you think Jonathan?
JONATHAN ALTER, NEWSWEEK: Yeah this was just so lame, Chris. I mean why didn't it go well the first day? It wasn't because Katie Couric was asking awful questions. Her questions were very straight, no spin on the ball. The problem was Sarah Palin couldn't answer the questions in a way that showed the knowledge that is required to be Vice President and quite possibly President. So if she had decided not to go back for the rest of the interview she would have been conceding that she simply wasn't qualified to be Vice President if she couldn't answer Katie's questions.
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Then after a clip of Palin wondering if Caroline Kennedy would get better coverage in her quest for the New York Senate seat because of a "class issue," Alter insulted Palin as acting like a "Nixonian Nanook of the North."
ALTER: Chris you wrote the book on Kennedy and Nixon. You know this is Sarah Palin acting kind of like a Nixonian Nanook of the North. She's trying to play that class argument against the Kennedys. That goes back a long way. It's had some success in American politics. But you know this, at this point it's kind of comparing apples and oranges. She was on the threshold of becoming Vice President and possibly President. Caroline Kennedy hasn't even been, you know, chosen yet for the U.S. Senate, as one of 100. So you know the standards in covering them aren't quite comparable. Not to mention the fact that Caroline's had a pretty tough press so far. She has hardly been handled by kid gloves in the last couple weeks.
MATTHEWS: You're right.
Finally right before the close of the show, Alter denied Palin's claim of liberal bias that she would've positive coverage if she was on the Democratic ticket:
MATTHEWS: Jon, Jon would she have gotten better treatment had she been on the "D" ticket instead of the "R" ticket?
ALTER: Well first of all, first of all Chris she never would've been on the Democratic ticket. I mean John McCain said that the first requirement for his pick was that, that person be qualified to step in at a moment's notice and deal with terrorism and all the big international issues. So he violated his own standards. That was also Barack Obama's standard for who he would put on the ticket and he chose somebody with, with the requisite experience. But if she had been – the, the subtext of this is that somehow the Democratic candidates are treated better by the press. Ask Bill Clinton the way he was treated, you know, by the press. I mean it's just not true.
MATTHEWS: Okay, ask Jimmy Carter.
ALTER: Jimmy Carter! Yeah.
MATTHEWS: Anyway. Ask Jimmy Carter, he got a terrible press.
—Geoffrey Dickens is the senior news analyst at the Media Research Center.
one way is to not grant interviews to known enemies.
a win for the liberal writer
a loss for our gal
in today’s world, learning to handle the media is essential
Sorry, Alter. As a modern “journalist” there is absolutely no one in the universe with less intellect than you and your cohorts.
Oops, gasp, I have erred.
I forgot about our congress critters.
Never mind.
I can’t wait for all these pricks to lose their jobs and have to stand on a street corner with a sign saying “Will be unbiased for food” my greatest pleasure in life will be in 2013, God willing Sarah Palin becomes our next President, and as she stands in front of the microphone to answer questions from the press she tells them all F U
Some of us were actually alive in 1976, Chris, and remember the truth.
What do you expect from a guy who worked for the Carter Administration and thinks he was a wonderful President. Good God, if Carter was “wonderful” with Obama we might just have a 30 percent Unemployment rate before all is said and done
“Nixonian Nanook of the North”....I’ll bet he worked on that all week.
Preferably on screen, so we can all see it happen and cheer!
Hey Alter, aren’t you the one who was complaining that BUSH was talking DOWN the Economy in 2000-2001?
You need to get back on it— because your GOD— Obama-Osama has been talking down the economy as of late, so you need to make sure he talks it up!!
You know why they’re doing this, because they see Sarah as a threat. They know that once Americans see what a poor leader Obama is, he will have a real fight on his hands in 2012. And with Sarah at the top of their ticket, the Republicans can’t lose.
Wives of liberal men must feel like lesbians.
Now, that is a phrase to remember and use often.
Worst.president.ever.
Will Obama steal the crown from Jimmy?
I remember the media swooning over this genius "Nuclear Physicist" when the truth was that as a USN officer on boomers he took a few required courses.....
I’ll bet a tenner that he had Peggy Noonan write that little bit for him.
Circle Jerk
Good point but you can lay odds that Jonathan Altered plays the wife with a husband named Lanny J. or Pinch, with occasional interludes with Tyrone, all of whom he met at Plato's a while back. Whatever the case, Jonathan's lifestyle after hours is probably pretty sad and lonely.
“Nixonian Nanook of the North”....I’ll bet he worked on that all week.
LOL Chrissy is comparing Sarah to Nixon. Wait I bet there is a tape of Sarah at a Pro-Palestinean’s house toasting him and saying how The Jews are the cause for all the problems in the world, no wait, that’s Obama, Obama. My mistake.
Wait, Sarah Palin was involved with Rod Blagojevich to sell Obama’s senate seat, oh wait, that was Rahmbo Emmanuel, buddy buddy with Obama, my mistake
If anyone else had said it (Spiro Agnew?), he’d be deriding the speaker as a pompous wannabee.
Sarah was the ONLY one that had the guts to call out Obama for who he really is. The media never got over that and will never forget it. No one says anything naughty about their beloved and gets away with him. They truly think Obama is the messiah, soon enough, like Jim Jones and David Koresh, Bamby Obama will be proven to be another false prophet
It’s amazing how much they fear Palin . . . and they should . . . they haven’t heard the last of Sarah . . . they’re trying to do their best to totally dismiss her from 2012 or whenever she gets going . . . just incredible . . . if our Kenyan-born illegal alien president-elect was asked any of those questions, he would have caved like the cheap suit he wore.
They just won’t stop!
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