Republicans point fingers at media over Palin coverage

Wolf Blitzer (center) of CNN on the set at the Republican National Convention yesterday. (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

ST. PAUL - With John McCain's campaign leading the way, the nation's top Republicans are accusing news organizations of unfairly piling on vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, riling up delegates to the point where they jabbed their fingers at the press section in the convention hall Wednesday night, chanting, "Tell the truth!"

Speaker after speaker in the prime-time slots cast Palin as the unfairly beleaguered newcomer. Mitt Romney invoked the New York Times and the Washington Post as he decried the "Eastern elites' " takeover of Washington. Rudy Giuliani demanded: "How dare they question whether Sarah Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice president?"

Palin herself offered a rejoinder. "Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators," she said. "I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion."

Some political analysts say the tactic is designed to fend off legitimate scrutiny of Palin, a relative unknown in national politics suddenly vaulted to the second spot on the Republican ticket.

"She's been treated relatively well," said Garrison Nelson, a political scientist at the University of Vermont. "Nobody knows anything about her. This woman is going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, and she's sitting behind a 72-year-old cancer survivor."

But other political strategists say the Republicans are right in charging that the press favors Barack Obama and has attacked Palin illegitimately.

"If she was liberal, there would be no discussion about all these personal issues, but because she's a strong conservative, the media went overboard," said GOP strategist David Carney.

Campaigning against the media is a tried and true strategy for Republicans and a surefire way of rallying the party's base. But Carney said it is also spoke to the huge swath of Americans who see the national media as an elite group with little in common with everyday working-class people.

"When polls show 75 or even 80 percent believe the media's biased and you can press that point, you're talking to the vast majority of the people in this election," he said.

Already there is evidence that the tactic is working. Palin drew about 40 million viewers for her speech. And a Rasmussen survey released yesterday found that 51 percent of Americans believe she is being unfairly attacked by the media. Twenty-four percent said they were, as a result, more likely to support the Republican ticket.

The McCain campaign is also trying to use the media to bolster GOP fund-raising. In a letter to supporters yesterday, McCain, who cannot solicit further donations now because he has accepted public financing, appealed to supporters to donate to the party because "the misinformation and flat-out lies must be corrected."

But at least one Republican was uneasy with her party making Palin into a victim of the media. Conservative leader Phyllis Schlafly said doing so would be a turnoff. "Sarah Palin, like a lot of us, thinks women can do anything."

McCain himself was considered a media darling during his losing 2000 primary campaign; at one point he famously referred to reporters as his base. Journalists basked in his willingness to engage with them in freewheeling conversations aboard his bus, dubbed the Straight Talk Express. Most politicians would never consider such engagement with the media out of fear of saying something politically damaging.

In recent weeks, though, in an effort to impose discipline upon a campaign that seemed to be floundering and disorganized, his aides pulled back and made McCain far less accessible. McCain gave a testy interview in Time magazine last week that reflected the new tension. Asked, for example, to define "honor," McCain snapped, "Read my book."

The tension erupted into confrontation in St. Paul this week as reporters scrutinized Palin, a surprise pick who had not been subjected to the media attention that most national politicians undergo.

"What happened to Palin is what happens when 15,000 journalists get together at a scripted event and news breaks out," said Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which studies media bias in presidential elections.

Part of the campaign's strategy, though, appeared to be to conflate more sensational and scurrilous reports in blogs and tabloids with serious reporting that challenged Palin's credentials. A campaign press release condemning a report in the National Enquirer seemed to lump them all together: "The efforts of the media and tabloids to destroy this fine and accomplished public servant are a disgrace," campaign manager Steve Schmidt said in the statement.

The barrage of antimedia criticism may have had an effect. The McCain campaign noted in a lengthy statement yesterday that Palin's acceptance speech received glowing coverage. "ABC's George Stephanopoulos: 'She Gets An "A," ' the release said. "NBC's Tom Brokaw: 'She Could Not Have Been More Winning Or Engaging.' CNN's Wolf Blitzer: 'And She Not Only Hit A Home Run, It Might Have Been Even A Grand Slam.' "

Asked about the change in tone, Mark Salter, McCain's closest aide, quipped: "Well, you're all back in our good graces."

Sasha Issenberg of the Globe staff contributed to this report.