Palin Abuse

Watching Charlie Gibson squeeze answers out of Sarah Palin has got me wondering - why is he doing this, why is he getting away with it, would he do this to one of the other candidates?

Mark Penn: I think here the media is on very dangerous ground. I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Governor Palin ever filed, if they don't do that for all four of the candidates, they're on very dangerous ground. I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems.

Is it because she's not confident enough, yet, to simply say - "Enough on this topic, Charlie. Asked and answered - let's move on."

Mark Penn: And I think that that's a real problem growing out of this election. The media now, all of the media — not just Fox News, that was perceived as highly partisan — but all of the media is now being viewed as partisan in one way or another. And that is an unfortunate development.

Or is it because he feels so superior to her, so much the dad explaining to the teenager why she has to more studying, that he can't help himself?

CBSNews.com: So you think the media is being uniquely tough on Palin now?

Mark Penn: Well, I think that the media is doing the kinds of stories on Palin that they're not doing on the other candidates. And that's going to subject them to people concluding that they're giving her a tougher time. Now, the media defense would be, "Yeah, we looked at these other candidates who have been in public life at an earlier time."

Or maybe he's just so pissed at her for not having gone to Harvard - how demeaning for old Charlie to have to apply his 25 years of experience on a beginner.

Whatever the cause of Charlie's, and the rest of the mainstream media's, disdain for Sarah and worship of Barack, they are damaging their candidate's chances of winning, but worse, they're ravaging the nation's trust in journalism.

Mark Penn: What happened here very clearly is that the controversy over Palin led to 37 million Americans tuning into a vice-presidential speech, something that is unprecedented, because they wanted to see for themselves. This is an election in which the voters are going to decide for themselves. The media has lost credibility with them.