# Palin to media: So how about in honor of the American soldier, you quit making up things **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 28, 2009, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540 "2009-07-28T12:47:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/41 "2009-07-28T17:05:13Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > O.K., I can see that now … but in my defense, I _was_ blinded by her torturous rhetoric, after all. You just loved her resignation announcement, didn’t you!? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/42 "2009-07-28T17:06:14Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Oh man, the whole thing was hilarious. I was particularly fond of the bit on Colbert’s show where they showed a 30 second clip of her speech which appeared to be a string of words randomly put together. > > In answer to the OP, nobody knows, including her. Hell, even Bill Kristol, one of Palin’s most slobbering proponents admitted yesterday on TDS that he didn’t know why she quit. > > Which is funny, given the number of people I’ve seen insist that she was perfectly clear, it was just the Librul Media distorting things and making it sound like she was speaking nonsense. > > -Joe I don’t think you’re talking about the same thing the OP is talking about. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/43 "2009-07-28T17:11:15Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by **Spiff** > > O.K., I can see that now … but in my defense, I was blinded by her torturous rhetoric, after all. > > You just loved her resignation announcement, didn’t you!? 😃 Well, sure! 'Cos you know what else makes you go blind? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/44 "2009-07-28T17:12:30Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > If a press is to be trusted with so-called “freedom of the press”, the reason for that has to do with the value of that press shining a spotlight on ugly truths for all to see. I’m aware of what the intended function of the press is, and yes, plenty of nonsense about Palin and Obama has been reported. Her commentary - our troops are great, so the press should report the truth - is still rambling nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/45 "2009-07-28T17:15:18Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > No, she’s not claiming the media lies about US soldiers. She’s saying that American soldiers fight and die to protect freedom of the press, and so journalists have a responsibility to tell the truth in their reporting in general (and in specific, I’m sure, their reporting on her), to be worthy of the sacrifices the soldiers have made. It would be lovely if she would adhere to the same standard. Soldiers fight and die to protect her right to free speech; does that mean she has to lie while exercising it? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/46 "2009-07-28T17:17:18Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > And that’s why she’s out there tearing apart all the Birthers. I’m just describing her position, not defending it or saying she’s not hypocritical. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/47 "2009-07-28T17:23:55Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > …She knows how to manipulate conversations so as to try to put critics constantly on the defensive… This may be a good reason she has such a problem with the media in a national campaign. She can’t manipulate the conversation the way she can in local politics. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/48 "2009-07-28T17:25:42Z")
All I know is there was a time when I really _wanted_ to like her. When I heard the GOP VP candidate was a female governor from Alaska, I had high hopes for a tough no-nonsense pragmatism mingled with the ability to consensus-build. Now if I listen to her for more then ten seconds, I become irritated on an instinctive level. Whether or not she _is_ dumb, she sure _sounds_ dumb, and it puts me off. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/49 "2009-07-28T17:26:46Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > She constantly employs a rhetorical strategy (which probably has a formal name, but I don’t know what it is), of invoking sacred cows in order to intimate that any criticism of her (or even an innocent question that accidentally exposes her stupidity, like “what do you like to read?”) is really a criticism of THAT. If it doesn’t already have a name, I propose “cow-dropping.” Or maybe “straw-mining.” ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/50 "2009-07-28T17:28:49Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Again, nonsense. And you should know it. You are usually a more rational person. > > If a press is to be trusted with so-called “freedom of the press”, the reason for that has to do with the value of that press shining a spotlight on ugly truths for all to see. Else, government can simply keep its citizens in ignorance (as has happened in any number of places in recent history). But if the value you have as a member of the media is that you display ugly truths, then it is vitally important that the things you say ARE truths. It is imcumbent upon you to avoid spreading things you know are untrue, or strongly suspect are untrue, just as it is incumbent upon a police officer to always tell the truth so that, on the witness stand, the finder of fact can believe him in situations of “he said, she said.” > > Now, in the process of shining that spotlight, you don’t have to be particularly nice. If you want to rant about how the President is going to socialize medicine, that’s fine. If you want to highlight irrelevancies about what is going on in our military actions overseas, fine. But continuing to spread the nonsense that the President is not a “naturally born citizen” because he really was born in Africa, or that Trig Palin’s mother is really Sarah Palin (note that one, it’s germane to the discussion 😉 ) is NOT fulfilling that role. And that is what Sarah Palin is talking about, though as I pointed out, I doubt that she’s really upset about media lying in a general sense, but rather as it personally involves her, in her viewpoint. The media ddid not report the Trig Palin thing. That was a single public post on a blog (by a public poster, not the website), which was immediately denounced by other readers and quickly removed. That was the entirety of any “media” involvement with spreading that story. The rest of that news cycle was about how horrible it was that Daily Kos was spreading lies. It actually served to soften the story that her daughter really was pregnant. I suspect that McCain/Palin planted the Kos post itself just for that reason. In any case, the media has not been making things up about Palin. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/51 "2009-07-28T17:37:34Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > I don’t think you’re talking about the same thing the OP is talking about. 😉 I kind of am, actually. Sarah Palin’s entire speaking repertoire seems to consist of a stream of consciousness that goes “Me me me talk about me wait I don’t like where this is going let’s use a distraction that every real American/Alaskan unthinkingly bows down before like the troops or Jesus or mother nature or something okay that worked now back to me me me”. Plumbing it for more depth is silly. In her future as an author (ugh) or a commentator (first indirectly-linked hate crime will be within a year of her official start on Fox), expect her to do the same thing, but she’ll feel more secure to throw in a few random dogwhistles. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/52 "2009-07-28T17:41:06Z")
It’s like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure where the jock gets up to give an incoherent speech then says “San Dimus football rocks” to thunderous applause. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/53 "2009-07-28T17:46:36Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m aware of what the intended function of the press is, and yes, plenty of nonsense about Palin and Obama has been reported. Her commentary - our troops are great, so the press should report the truth - is still rambling nonsense. Her comment would be nonsense, if that was her comment. But you are misquoting, missummarizing, and mischaracterizing it, because of your feelings about ex-Gov. Palin. A better summary: our troops fight to keep democracy strong in America; democracy also requires a free press, which is why you get to print what you want without much interference from government, so do so responsibly, in honor of those who keep you able to do it. Just because Sarah Palin is an idiot doesn’t make everything she says idiotic, just as the fact you are a Moderator doesn’t make everything you do jack-booted. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/54 "2009-07-28T17:50:30Z")
At best, it’s a giant non-sequitur (what specifically is she alleging that media is making up?). On its most basic demagogic level (and I honestly believe she HAS no other level), it’s an insinuation that criticism of Sarah Palin is disrespectful to the military. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/55 "2009-07-28T18:08:55Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > A better summary: our troops fight to keep democracy strong in America; democracy also requires a free press, which is why you get to print what you want without much interference from government, so do so responsibly, in honor of those who keep you able to do it. Well, that’s a fine sentiment, particularly when it’s apropos of something, like an address to a convention of journalism professionals. What was Mrs. Palin’s speech apropos of? Wait: I already have a perfectly adequate response to that question: \*She is not important enough to bother with. There are many other subjects that are far more worthy of your time and attention. \* So :smack: to me for feeding the troll. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/56 "2009-07-28T18:22:42Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > A better summary: our troops fight to keep democracy strong in America; democracy also requires a free press, which is why you get to print what you want without much interference from government, so do so responsibly, in honor of those who keep you able to do it. I actually agree with you about her intent in the statement. I disagree with you on the clarity of it. Your “summary” is actually far more coherent than anything she said. Does it make sense? Sure, in a way, but so what? It is certainly something we should all be cognizant of, I would guess. But it is clear that she is using it as a rhetorical device to defend herself from some vague pressindeiscretions. It is a broad accusation clearly leveled at the press with nothing behind it. SO her invocation of the troops is clearly pandering to create an equivalency between her struggles with the press and the troop scarifices. If she had equated soldiers sacrifice with the broad responsibilities of being Americans, that would be one thing, possibly. But the way she framed it is ridiculous. BTW, I wonder how she feels about the gay troops who sacrifice so much for their country, only to be summarikly discharged from service. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/57 "2009-07-28T18:25:49Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > It’s like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure where the jock gets up to give an incoherent speech then says “San Dimus football rocks” to thunderous applause. [nitpick] The line was “San Dimas High School football rules!” [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/58 "2009-07-28T18:45:49Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Just because Sarah Palin is an idiot doesn’t make everything she says idiotic Agreed. The things she says are idiotic because she’s an idiot, not the other way 'round. Palin was probably shooting for something like what you said. Nonetheless, the way she said it, it’s a hash. That’s why I said it’s a typical jumble of ideas for her: even when you know what she means, you have to translate for her and do a better job making her case. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/59 "2009-07-28T18:53:50Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > I actually agree with you about her intent in the statement. I disagree with you on the clarity of it. Your “summary” is actually far more coherent than anything she said. > > Does it make sense? Sure, in a way, but so what? It is certainly something we should all be cognizant of, I would guess. But it is clear that she is using it as a rhetorical device to defend herself from some vague pressindeiscretions. It is a broad accusation clearly leveled at the press with nothing behind it. SO her invocation of the troops is clearly pandering to create an equivalency between her struggles with the press and the troop scarifices. If she had equated soldiers sacrifice with the broad responsibilities of being Americans, that would be one thing, possibly. But the way she framed it is ridiculous. Well, yes, I think I did point out it wasn’t exactly Lincolnesque in its quality. :o ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540/60 "2009-07-28T18:55:50Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Agreed. The things she says are idiotic because she’s an idiot, not the other way 'round. > > Palin was probably shooting for something like what you said. Nonetheless, the way she said it, it’s a hash. That’s why I said it’s a typical jumble of ideas for her: even when you know what she means, you have to translate for her and do a better job making her case. 😉 I’d assert that I had no trouble understanding the meaning, but I’m not sure that’s something I want to admit. :eek: :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palin-to-media-so-how-about-in-honor-of-the-american-soldier-you-quit-making-up-things/504540.md?page=4)