No Media Sexism Here, Says Alessandra Stanley
No media sexism here, says the suddenly blasé TV critic Alessandra Stanley in "Ending a Dangerous Silence, Palin Confidently Makes Her Own Case," her take on Wednesday night's Republican Convention speech by McCain's running mate Sarah Palin.
In June, Stanley said Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton in 1992 had experienced "antifeminist hazing." Yet on Thursday, Stanley huffily rejected the idea that the despicable false charges and tawdry press coveragedirected atSarah Palin and her familywere suffued with a sexist double standard. That coverageincluded questions raised by Times reporters about her judgment in taking the job with a new baby and a grandbaby on the way. And isn't including long-time Bill Clinton ally Dick Morris among the "fiercest conservative pundits" a bit overstated?
Before she made her own case, his campaign didn't always reassure the doubters. Many of the attacks on Ms. Palin's qualifications were heated, but so were the rebuttals, and those did little to convey serene confidence in the candidate. Carly Fiorina was one of many McCain surrogates who huffily declared that Ms. Palin had been "demeaned and belittled" by liberals and the news media.
And some of the fiercest conservative pundits sounded a bit patronizing, though not solely at Ms. Palin's expense. "I know this lady," Dick Morris, a Republican strategist who once served as a consultant to the Clintons, said on Fox News. "I met her in Alaska, and spent some time with her, which is more than McCain ever did."
