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ABC: Palin's Speech Might Politicize Son's Service; Biden's Won't?

By Scott Whitlock | October 03, 2008 | 13:15

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On September 11, 2008, in anticipation of a speech that Sarah Palin would be giving at a ceremony for her son's deployment to Iraq, "Good Morning America" correspondent John Berman filed a report speculating that the Republican vice presidential candidate might be politicizing her child's military service (see picture at right). On October 3, 2008, Senator Joe Biden will be giving an address at a similar ceremony for his child's deployment to Iraq. The ABC program made no mention of this on Friday and certainly had no segments on whether the Democratic vice presidential candidate was guilty of politicizing his son, Beau Biden

During the September 11 piece, reporter Berman critiqued in advance Palin's speech: "And it [the speech] will be open to television cameras. It's such a drastic difference from the way her own running mate John McCain handled his own son's deployment." After observing that Jimmy McCain's tour of duty went unnoticed and that Senator McCain didn't discuss it, Berman added, "That stands in stark contrast to what Governor Sarah Palin told more than 40 million viewers about her son during the Republican convention last week."

The journalist also cited John Nagl, a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security. He complained that Palin's references to her son's deployment date could "impose, conceivably, some risks on the soldier and the unit."

The Washington Post on October 2 quoted an interview Senator Biden gave to "Entertainment Tonight" about his son where he acknowledged, "I'm proud, but I have to admit to you, I wish he wasn't going, I wish he wasn't going." Heartfelt sentiments, obviously. But considering that Biden has done interviews mentioning his son, that his son introduced him at the Democratic National Convention, why did ABC bring up the question of politicization only in regard to Palin? (It will be interesting to see how the Saturday edition of "Good Morning America" covers Biden's address to the deployment ceremony.)