Palin/Obama Double Standards

When Obama made his gaffe about visiting 57 states, his slip of the tongue about “my Muslim faith“, and displayed his ignorance about the military when mispronouncing “corpsman” (particularly embarrassing for the Commander in Chief), none of the incidents was reported by the BBC. When he appeared on Jay Leno’s show in March 2009, Obama’s description of his own bowling skills as “like Special Olympics” created many headlines and much comment around the world, and yet it wasn’t even mentioned in Rajini Vaidyanathan’s gushing account of the evening. (There was an online report later, but only after Obama had apologised.)

But when Sarah Palin misspeaks the BBC decides it’s news. (World Service journo Robyn Bresnahan couldn’t resist declaring her shock on Twitter and, inevitably, Richard Bacon was banging on about it on his show today.)

Perhaps someone from the BBC – or one of its drive-by supporters – could explain this double standard.

(Hat-tips all round)