The MSM's Biased Hypocrisy on Palin

Carol Platt Liebau | September 02, 2008 12:08 PM

Many in the MSM, perhaps alarmed by the energized and enthusiastic response to Governor Palin, have been working overtime to insinuate that her status as a mom renders her somehow unfit to serve on the McCain ticket.

As Matt points out below, there's the Campbell Brown-Tucker Bounds exchange on the topic of Bristol Palin. And last week on CNN, Newbusters flagged a remarkable commentary by John Roberts, suggesting that Governor Palin's service might adversely impact her youngest child.

If longtime social traditionalists had raised these concerns about a liberal woman, they'd have been shouted down, ridiculed and completely marginalized. Since at least the '70's, we've been told again and again that it's unfair to consider a woman's children in considerations about who is the most qualified for any particular professional position.

People of good faith can debate whether this is a good thing. After all, it does suggest that a significant presence of a child's mother isn't particularly important or necessary. And when -- as Dana Bash responds in the John Roberts exchange above -- people point out that Joe Biden wouldn't be asked such questions about his family situation, it certainly plays into the whole idea that there are no inherent differences between men and women and that fathers and mothers are essentially interchangeable.

So as I say, people of good faith can hold their own opinions on any of that. But what's so despicable is that, after years of spouting the feminist line without any critical thought, all of a sudden the MSM has adopted a social traditionalist line that it would treat with vituperative scorn in any other context. And they're clearly doing it for political reasons -- making the attacks the Obama camp would, if it dared.

In my view, if the feminist movement meant anything, it meant that women were entitled to shape their own professional and personal destinies -- and to decide for themselves what kind of work commitment they could undertake in light of the unique needs and issues in their own individual families. By all accounts, Governor Palin has done an excellent job as Alaska's chief executive. And that's where press and public concern when it comes to voting properly lies.

Any concerns about the impact of Governor Palin's service on her family are hers and her husband's alone. And to the extent that the MSM argues anything to the contrary, they are completely contradicting everything for which they have professed to stand over the last three decades.