The Associated Press this morning did a short and sweet hit piece on Sarah Palin, criticizing the Alaska Governor for acting as, well, the Alaska Governor.
Anne Sutton of the AP essentially mocks Palin for governing the state by ‘remote control.’ It’s not so much the criticism as it is the reality that if Sarah Palin wasn’t doing her job, the AP would be hammering her for that instead. The headline would go from ‘Palin manages to govern Alaska from afar’ to ‘Palin manages to neglect Alaska while campaigning.’
Sutton goes on to offer these hard-hitting examples of journalism that have come to define the AP, using such concrete descriptors as ‘almost a month’ and ‘probably’ to define lengths of time and cost respectively. The entire article follows (emphasis mine):
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A state that is remote from the U.S. mainland is essentially being run by remote control.Aides say Gov. Sarah Palin is still calling the shots in Alaska government even as she campaigns as Sen. John McCain's presidential running mate. Her Anchorage office director and hometown friend, Kris Perry, has been with Palin for almost a month to help facilitate communication between the governor and her staff back home.
Perry travels at the expense of Alaska residents — probably at a cost of more than $1,000 every day.
Such a lengthy absence by the acting head of state is unprecedented in Alaska. One of the authors of the state constitution believes that Palin should have turned her duties over to the lieutenant governor.
Bearing in mind that according to the MSM to English translator, ‘almost a month’ can fall anywhere between a couple of days and several months. Hard to nail that one down.
And Sutton’s use of the phrase ‘probably at a cost of more than $1,000 every day’ is not only proof positive of such an assertion, but also allows the reader to wonder just how much more it could be. Again, consulting the MSM to English translator, one finds that such a statement really means anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000 per day, unless the article is referring to a Democrat, in which case the phrase ‘at a mere $1,000 per day’ would be used.
Continuing with the article’s theme of ambiguity, Sutton ends with a sentence which cites ‘One of the authors of the state constitution’ as her source. Um, which of the 54 authors were you referring to, Anne?
Hey, this is the AP, we’re not concerned about facts and specifics here...
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
