Yahoo cites random FOX News viewers from across the country as a "panel of experts"

[Bjorn Against]

Today Yahoo News took time out from their normal obsession with celebrity gossip to tell us about the scrutiny Sarah Palin has been getting lately. A short four paragraph article which received prominent placement at the top of Yahoo's web page today briefly went into Sarah Palin's recent comments on the role of the Vice President.

When asked by a third grader to describe the job of vice president, Palin said she would be "in charge of the Senate." It's a tremendous oversimplification of her potential duties, and many were quick to point this out. Some even insinuated that perhaps Gov. Palin doesn't even know what a VP does, while others pointed out that these were third graders, not a room of political science majors. A panel of experts wonders: Is the media being sexist?

An oversimplification? The Vice President is not even in the same branch of government as the Senate and is unable to cast a vote unless there is a tie, this is basic high school civics. To suggest that the VP is in charge of the Senate is no oversimplification, it is a completely false statement. It doesn't matter who she made this false statement to, if Sarah Palin believes that the Vice President is in charge of the Senate then it is clear that even after her admission that she needed someone to explain to her what the Vice President does no one has given her that explanation yet. It is very convenient for Yahoo to dismiss this as an oversimplification though because she was talking to third graders and people always oversimplify things when they are talking to third graders, in fact people are expected to oversimplify things when they talk to children. Yahoo falsely uses the word “oversimplification” to describe a completely false statement in order to portray this in the best possible light for Sarah Palin, but then they go a step further to demonize those who are criticizing Palin for her false statement.

Yahoo tells us that a panel of experts wonders whether these attacks on Palin are sexist. Ignore the fact that there is nothing about gender in this story, Yahoo says experts think it is a sexist attack and if experts say it then there must be some validity to the claims. Yahoo does not name these experts, but they do provide a http://elections.foxnews.com/search-results.html?searchString=palin+senate+in+charge">link so we can go hear them for ourselves. Now you might be suspicious when you see the link goes to FOX News, but even seeing a link to a right-wing site does not prepare you for just who this “panel of experts” is. When you watch the FOX News story what you get is a bunch of e-mails sent by FOX viewers being read on the air. Yes, this “panel of experts” that Yahoo cites is nothing more than random FOX News viewers from across the country. Alright so after we heard from experts like “Linda”, “Rachel”, and “Rose” we do see a FOX panel speak about the Presidential race. But during this panel only one of the panelists was asked about sexism, and that panelist did not “wonder” whether or not Palin was receiving sexist treatment. In fact the one panelist that was questioned on sexism said that she did NOT believe that Palin was the victim of sexism. After she dismissed sexism a factor the panel moved on to other issues. The only people who “wondered” about sexism were the FOX News anchors and the FOX viewers who sent in e-mails.

Of course Yahoo is not content with merely citing random FOX viewers as experts in order to defend Palin, they also have to get a swipe at Joe Biden in.

Gov. Palin is doing her best to point out that she is bearing the lion's share of the bad press. In an interview with CNN, the governor mentioned that Sen. Biden, her vice-presidential rival, once remarked there would be an international crisis during an Obama presidency. Palin said during the interview that had she made that remark, she would be "held accountable," but that Sen. Biden got a free pass. Points go to Palin since the interviewer agreed.

Of course no mention was made of the fact that in her interview Palin completely misrepresented what Biden actually said, but that is beyond the point here because at least Yahoo does not misrepresent Biden's statement in the same misleading way that Palin did. Yes Biden did suggest that there would be an international crisis during an Obama presidency, and considering international crises happen quite frequently that is a pretty safe bet. We have had multiple international crises in the Middle East these past several years, and the crisis in Darfur has been going on for several years now and is unlikely to end before inauguration day. What Biden stated was simply reality, and yes Palin could have said the same thing and no one would have blinked an eye. But Palin denies she could get away with stating the obvious, and the interviewer agreed with her so therefore according to Yahoo Palin must be right.

What Yahoo does not tell us is who this person interviewing Palin is, and why his agreement with Palin means anything. Well the person conducting the interview is a man by the name of Drew Griffin, a man who recently ran a report on ties between Barack Obama and William Ayers that according to Griffin “went much deeper, ran much longer, and was much more political than Obama said.” It probably won't come as much as a surprise that right-wing websites were praising Griffin's “journalism” right before Palin agreed to do the interview with him. It should also come as no surprise that Griffin's report was very misleading, and even used not so subtle racist overtones when it criticized Obama for giving money to a “school where the focus was African-American studies.”

But according to Yahoo we should give Sarah Palin points because she was able to get an anti-Obama reporter to agree with her. This is the type of argument that Yahoo finds worthy of being front-page material. Next time you read the news on Yahoo consider their standards of what constitutes journalism, because those standards could not go any lower.

[LiberalFighter]

1. Is Yahoo saying that women are too stupid to comprehend the workings of government

and therefore we should give them some slack?

[Bjorn Against]

2. I don't know how else they could get the idea that this is sexism.

It really is insulting to women to label something like this sexism, and it undermines what real sexism is. Most women who would be running for public office would be smart enough to know that the VP does not control the Senate, Palin is just an extraordinarily stupid candidate and that has nothing to do with her gender. If a male candidate made those same remarks they would be mocked just as heavily.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Yep!!