Charlie Gibson interviewed Sarah Palin earlier tonight. I didn't watch the interview, but I've been reading transcripts and looking at clips since putting Thomas and Jane to bed. Gibson was playing a game of "gotcha," and I don't fault him for that. As a journalist, that's part of what he should be doing. But he also committed at least one serious lie of omission, when telling Palin that she had said "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God."
Palin rightly called him on that dishonesty (he'd omitted a key introductory clause in the quote), but Gibson decided to double down on his lie by assuring her that those had been her exact words.
Gibson is and was wrong. Ace took notes, and Allahpundit knows where ABC got its damaged goods. Laer will probably have something up about this soon (and now he does).
Tom Maguire has details.
I hope the folks over at "Get Religion" watched the interview, because it's a prime example of religious ignorance in the mainstream media (which is even more pronounced among academic leftists), and it's hard to see that ignorance as fueled by anything other than contempt for devout Christians.
Praying that your actions conform to the will of God is not the same as asserting that they do. The first attitude bespeaks Christian humility, and the second bespeaks pride.
That Gibson would ac-cen-tu-ate the negative is no surprise, because his intial questions for her showed that he was predisposed to interpret any decisive action on her part as hubris.
UPDATE: M.Z. Hemingway of "Get Religion" is on the case, and did a beautiful job of explaining the issues involved (thanks for the link, too!). ABC is now playing CYA.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H-btXPfhGs&feature=related
Gov. Palin does talk about a mission from God....
"Enough," that YouTube clip actually makes my point rather than yours. The argument is not whether Governor Palin ever uttered the phrase "mission from God," it's whether she declared that war in Iraq was such a mission. And what she says is "that's what we have to pray about, that our leaders, our national leaders, are [acting as God wants us to act]. I hope the paraphrase helps. Praying for conformity to God's will is NEVER wrong...remember, "let this cup pass me by, Father, but your will and not mine be done"?
It continues to amaze me how, in this campaign unlike any other, different people can hear or see the exact same thing and one can immediately think "see! gotcha! you're guilty!" whereas the other is thinking, "um, dude... it makes my point, not yours; look at it again..."
'Enough's comment and PF's response are a case in point.
We saw this also yesterday with the 'Palin Doesn't Rule Out War With Russia' headline. Of course it makes no sense at all for a U.S. President or VP (much less a prospective one!) to peremptorily rule out the use of military power on a speculative basis. Anyone who would tie their hands in such a way is either lying or utterly naive and thus dangerous. (Maybe both.)
Yet you could almost hear the left collectively grinning and calling their Hollywood buddies over it, discussing commissioning a re-make of the infamous 'Daisies' ad that LBJ used against Goldwater.
Come to think of it, maybe the 'say-what' phenomenon isn't so new after all. (As my elementary school teachers used to say: listen.)
Dear Sirs,
Some are looking to parse the answers and quibble about the editing. That matters not.
Remember that a large majority of voters are either religious or had parents and grandparents who were religious. They know exactly what Palin was saying even if they have strayed a bit.
It wasn't just obvious, but viscerally obvious, that Gibson was not doing just a regular gotcha but was attacking their beliefs too.
Although church attendance has dropped a bit the people who do attend tend to be more involved in the community. They've been attacked and they're going to tell people about it.
Regards,
Roy
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