No, I’m not describing myself.
Sarah Palin was off and running, bashing the media for relying on anonymous sources and practicing yellow-tinted reporting. “Those who are impotent and limp and gutless and they go on their anonymous—sources that are anonymous—and impotent, limp and gutless reporters take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references,” Palin said in her criticism of the press. “It just slays me because it’s so absolutely clear what the state of yellow journalism is today that they would take these anonymous sources as fact.”
Admittedly, Palin is an idiot. CNN questioned her sexually-sparked language, but I don’t—because she’s dumb. She’s been proven dumb 1,000 times, so to slam a dolt’s word choices seems silly (though I’ve certainly done it before). What bothers me here, to be honest, is Palin’s point. Is relying on anonymous sources the ideal way to go? Certainly not. But when politicians/public figures like Palin and Barack Obama and John McCain and Chris Dodd and on and on offer us nothing but spin and fluff and PR bullshit, what choice does the media have? We dig. We examine. We look for every usable piece of information that hasn’t been wahsed and lathered by some so-called “handler.”
Don’t like anonymous sources sullying your rep? Hell, be honest and forthright. Tell the truth. Don’t spin.
Problem solved.
