Quote:
Originally Posted by KSig RC
It's important because perception is shaped in a massive way by how things are reported, and which things are given the greater weight by the person/entity doing the reporting. SNL focusing on her being a vapid, ignorant soccer mom-cum-hillbilly means that, for many people, they accepted Palin as a vapid, ignorant soccer mom-cum-hillbilly, so much so that they believed the SNL skit's language was hers, exactly, no matter how stupid.
Did Palin contribute to this herself? Of course. In fact, you might even argue that she was actually a vapid, ignorant soccer mom-cum-hillbilly, and I might not even disagree on a macro level. However, the national discussion did not focus on her ideas for America - it focused on her being a moron, her being hot, her being an attack dog, her having a pregnant daughter. The SNL skit and ensuing media blitz played a role in this. Perception is real.
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I think this is my field coming into play, but I'm a root-cause kinda gal.
If Palin hadn't said/done any of those things, she wouldn't have been portrayed as a crazy hillbilly whatever because none of that would have come to light.
She could have been a closet vapid soccer pit bull hillbilly if she wanted to and actually had good ideas out there, but she demonstrated no knowledge whatsoever of what was going on.
All of the rally speeches seemed so written-out and rehearsed and when it came time for people to ask questions and receive answers from her, she had nothing good to say because she didn't know what she was talking about and that scared a lot of people.*
I agree that the media played a part in it, but I don't think it was necessarily their fault that they reported her missteps. There was crap being flung about all the candidates -- Obama was a "musilm" and he had a crazy pastor, Many don't think Hillary should have counted her days as First Lady as "experience", McCain was W2.0... etc etc. but when the news started reporting in Palin, she cried foul and blamed the 'liberal media elite" for attacking her because she's a woman
Wah wah.
I don't think Palin just "contributed" to it... I think she
caused it. If she hadn't done any of that, the media wouldn't have had any reason to portray her like a dumb hillbilly vapid whatever.
* and FWIW, I think all of the rally speeches sounded written/rehersed, but at least the other 3 candidates actually had intelligent things to say when asked questions at random. It just sounded so much more fake with her, because up there it sounded like she might actually know what she was talking about, but get her in an interview or any other scenario, and she didn't have the slightest clue.