Sarah Palin will not go away! After yesterday's release of footage from a documentary in which she bashes Katie Couric and Tina Fey, she’s back at it again.
Today, Palin’s office has accused the media of taking her remarks out of context “to create adversarial situations.” She continues to blame “independent bloggers” for the persisting (are they?) rumors that Trig is not her child. In a statement released by her office, Palin was quoted as saying: “As a public official, I expect criticism and I expect to be held accountable for how I govern, but the personal, salacious nature of recent reporting, and often the refusal of the media to correct obvious mistakes, unfortunately discredits too many in journalism today, making it difficult for many Americans to believe what they see in the media.”
Palin is particularly bothered by the press coverage of her interview with John Ziegler, clips of which were released yesterday. She claims that her comments were taken out of context and distorted to made it appear as though she was accusing the media of being “soft” on Caroline Kennedy, when she was actually commenting on the “arbitrary ways in which news organizations determine the level and kind of scrutiny given to those who aspire to public office," a distinction that is still unclear to us.
In an interview with MSNBC's David Shuster today, Ziegler responded to Palin’s newest complaints. He claimed that “what is posted on YouTube is fully in context, and puts the governor in her exactly accurate light. I don’t think that there is any remotely accurate accusation that anything was taken out of context here, and I think that will be very clear when we make the entire interview available.” Ziegler went on to accuse MSNBC of “character assassination” and taking the Katie Couric clip “out of context” (despite the fact that he just refuted Palin’s claims of being taken out of context, but whatever). As the interview continues, Ziegler became more and more irate, eventually calling Shuster a “joke,” to which Shuster responded: “John, the joke is the fact that you and Sarah Palin can’t take any responsibility for the fact that she wasn’t prepared to run for vice president.”
Palin Accuses Media Of 'Personal, Salacious' Reporting [CNN]
Shuster Vs. Palin Interviewer on MSNBC [Mediabistro/TV Newser]