Joy Behar, a comedian, made an unintentionally humorous line on the September 10 edition of "The View." Behar believes that "the press is in love" with Sarah Palin. Maybe the "View" panelist holds a warped view of reality because the mainstream media has been anything but in love with the Republican vice presidential nominee. [audio excerpt here]
From the day John McCain announced her as running mate, the press has stirred up nearly every negative story it can find about Governor Palin some just internet rumors. Some attacked her family life wondering aloud if she can run a country and a family at the same time. Some ran false stories about her stance on the issues, debunked by FactCheck.org. Even from the day the news broke that Sarah Palin was to be McCain’s running mate, some falsely tied her to the corrupt Alaska Republican establishment.
The absurdity did not stop there. Joy Behar acted as a pot calling a kettle black when she took the McCain campaign to task for spreading "lies." Behar took offense to a McCain ad accusing Obama of supporting sex education for kindergartners. Joy Behar ranted against the "lies" the McCain campaign put out, but she missed that sometimes she herself has issues with the truth. In the past, Behar has falsely accused the Bush "administration" of running the "swift boat" ads, and falsey claimed Vice President Cheney supports the Marriage Amendment.
In fairness to "The View," unlike MSNBC, panelist Sherri Shepherd provided some context in Palin’s Iraq War is "God’s will" speech. Shepherd noted that the Alaska governor actually said that if the war occurs, pray that it is God’s will. Joy Behar did not understand the distinction.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: The McCain/Palin camp has also stirred up controversy, this campaign- with this campaign ad. Check it out.
VOICE OVER: "Education Week" says Obama "hasn’t made a significant mark on education," that he’s "elusive" on accountability, "a staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly." Obama’s one accomplishment? Legislation to teach "comprehensive sex education" to kindergartners. Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama, wrong on education, wrong for your family.
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ): I’m John McCain and I approve this message.
GOLDBERG: Okay, can’t forget that.
JOY BEHAR: That’s the worst part. That’s the worst part of that commercial is that he approved that message.
GOLDBERG: Right.
BEHAR: I mean, he- because he knows, that, that is a lie. The guy- Obama never passed that legislation. And what he is concerned about in that, in that particular piece of legislation was to protect children from pedophiles. And that was the truth of it. And, and, apparently lies are working better than the truth these days. But, but, but let me just finish. I think that the Obama camp, if they wanted to be as vicious as that, they should come out with an ad that says that McCain supports pedophiles. I mean, that is the level of discourse that this ad is promoting.
[...]
BEHAR: The thing about Sarah Palin is that she needs to come out, come out, come out where ever you are Sarah because we need to hear from you. Do you believe in creationism, that it should be taught in the schools? Do you believe that you should be shooting wolves from the air? Do you believe that you want to role back all of the policies of the last 50, 60 years? I’d love to have her on so that she can express herself to the American women out there because there is a lot of stuff going around. I mean, I read yesterday, I read something on the internet, right, that she had shot 40 caribou in one day. Now, I found, I checked my facts, I was on CNN last night, I checked it. It was not true. She does go out hunting caribou and she does shoot wolves from the air. She does not care about the polar bears. In fact, she’s sued the Bush administration because they have said that the polar bears were endangered species and that would interrupt the drilling in Alaska. So she’s not pro-animal. I think people should know that. I want to hear from her. What do you think about all of this? But she is out- she’s going on Charlie Gibson. She should be all over the place defending her positions.
[...]
BEHAR: I just want to say one more thing and that is that this election is between McCain and Obama. This is not between Sarah Palin and Obama. And we’ve got to get off it. The press is in love with this woman. They can’t get enough of her.
[...]
GOLDBERG: Yesterday we ran clips of Sarah Palin talking about tasks from God that Sherri wants to clear up.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: Yeah I, I had a little bit of a problem because I know that when you speak at a church, you tailor things to a church. And I thought that the clip was edited to, you know, I, I wasn’t in agreeance with what Sarah Palin said. But she said "pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right, also for this country that our leaders, our national leaders are sending our soldiers out on a task that is from God. That is what we have to make sure that we’re praying for that there is a plan and that, that is God’s plan." I felt that, that’s a little different from what we saw. I felt me, that she was saying if we- if we’re going to do this, let’s pray that it’s God’s will. But not saying that the war is God’s will.
BEHAR: Where do you see the word "if"?
SHEPHERD: I said that, that’s the way I interpreted it.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Hearing that full statement I would agree with that. Like if that is what it’s supposed to be, let’s pray that it is, coming from the right place.
GOLDBERG: Right, but so, but she also said, I thought I heard her say that the, that the war was God’s plan. I thought that, that was
BEHAR: She said that national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God.
SHEPHERD: She said let’s pray about that. Let’s pray about that. She’s not saying that it’s from- that the war is God’s will. I don’t think that, that’s what she said. Now, I can’t explain the pipeline-
BEHAR: A task that is from God. Those- what part of that doesn’t-
HASSELBECK: She’s saying let’s pray that this task is one that is-
SHEPHERD: Let’s pray for his will that is-
HASSELBECK: -handled correctly.
GOLDBERG: The greatest thing about this, the greatest thing about this is it now opens up to an interpretation, everything that everybody says because, you know, when we listen to- you were smart enough to go and find out what she actually said. But we’ve had discussions about God, about who believes in what where we haven’t been as clear. So I’m just glad to see that it’s, it’s sparking in our heads to say you know what? Maybe we should double check and make sure that we are, we are reporting the right thing as opposed to getting on board with everything else. That’s all.
