The BBC’s Matt Frei is surely a worthy successor to Justin Webb. Take a listen to Sunday’s “Americana” on Radio Four – although I must warn you that you will never get those 30 minutes of your life back (fortunately I had a long drive to do on Sunday).
“As Sarah Palin kicks off her book tour around the nation this week, Americana takes time to learn more about the women that represent America as well as the women who work each day to make it run.”
Otherwise known as ‘let’s find a succession of women to take a pop at Sarah Palin‘.
I particularly liked the woman chosen to give us the more sympathetic take on Palin, the BBC’s idea of a ‘devil’s advocate’, one Amy Alexander, whose website shows, er, an interesting sensibility.
“Demonising Sarah Palin solidifies Sarah Palin’s base – the same crowd that calls President Barack Obama a socialist, a totalitarian sleeper and worse. The Left’s relentless demeaning of Palin gives more fuel to this crowd’s perverse, puritanical sense of victimisation. Palin, after all, is a human being – she is therefore worthy of respect. And for the liberal feminists out there of any gender, it is foolish not to admit that Sarah Palin posesses a high degree of ambition, self-confidence, and what we Americans call moxie – gumption to everyone else. Those are qualities we say we want to cultivate in women. I think it’s time we stopped fretting about Palin’s hypocrisy, contradictions, mangled syntax and stagey flag-waving, and acknowledged the postive parts of her persona. They do exist, and recognising them does not require you to dismiss her obvious shortcomings“.
She really came out fighting for Palin, didn’t she … the main guest, one ‘Cokey’ Roberts (I won’t hazard a guess how she got that name) turned out not to have actually read Palin’s book – but she apparently knew what was in it without reading it !
(One Republican representative was interviewed – and Frei opened by opining that Palin was a wake-up call to the ‘white old men’ of the party. And so it goes …).
Just for the record, “Cokie” Roberts is a graduate of Wellesley College (Hillary Clinton’s alma mater) and has been a respected journalist in Washington for more than 20 years. “Cokie” is her nickname, obviously, but it’s easier to use than her maiden name, which is Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs. She covers politics, with specific attention to Congress. Her father was Hale Boggs, who was Majority Leader of the US House of Representatives. Her mother also served in Congress. She is very well-connected and her sources are quite good. She is certainly liberal in her outlook I would say, but I think she tries to keep an open mind.
This edition encapsulates perfectly the BBC’s inability to cover right-of-centre politics without being either patronising or outright abusive, or both. And they don’t even know they are doing it. Frei genuinely thinks that he is being even-handed, but his long list of liberal commentators just gives the game away.
‘Cokey’ Roberts (I won’t hazard a guess how she got that name) turned out not to have actually read Palin’s book – but she apparently knew what was in it without reading it !
A bit like the oh-so-clever commenters on Slate who mocked what they thought was the opening line of Palin’s book only to discover it was from Dreams From My Father by Obama.
From the same Americana, here’s Christiane Amanpour (privileged background, private education) on Sarah Palin:
“I strongly believe in qualification and quality and unfortunately in the United States there seems to be a [pause] worship of – how can I put this – a worship of ordinariness and lack of credentials and I think that’s a shame particularly for so many women all over the world who have worked so hard to prove themselves in so many areas of professional endeavour.”
Palin stood for and won elections for the city council, mayor, and governor, taking on the male-dominated establishment of her own party in the process. Yes, such a bad role model for women around the world. Asked to name a female role model she admires, Amanpour says Queen Elizabeth I. Royalty – much more acceptable for a regal CNN correspondent.
Amanpour is extremely partisan, and a personal friend of Matt Frei.
DB 9:50
Thanks for that link. So the lefties read the first sentence of a book being told it was written by Palin and slate it. Then it turns out it was written by Obama ! Brilliant. You couldn’t make it up !