Fox News’ Martha MacCallum Whitewashes Palin’s Paul Revere Gaffe
Reported by Ellen - June 7, 2011 -
Martha MacCallum again looked more like a GOP mouthpiece than what was supposedly an “objective news” host on Fox yesteday (6/6/11) as she did her best to explain away and defend Sarah Palin’s jaw-dropping description of Paul Revere while in the middle of her bus tour supposedly celebrating American history. Although MacCallum insisted that historians back up Palin, the claim was belied by the fact that instead of an actual historian as a guest, Fox News trotted out Michelle Malkin. Even Malkin minced her words about Palin’s comments. But she quickly deflected attention from Palin’s "grasp" of history by going on the attack against those meanie leftist media-types that somehow keep hoodwinking Palin into making an ass of herself.
MacCallum began the segment by calling the uproar over Palin’s Revere comments a “back and forth” and helpfully noted that “a bunch of historians have weighed in, several of them have said that they actually agree with her account.” MacCallum didn’t say how many disagreed. But she did note, “Lots of folks said that she got it wrong, he didn’t warn the British, but those historians have in some ways backed Sarah Palin’s version of the whole thing.”
MacCallum added, “What was revealed by these historians is that when (Revere) was captured he told the British, he said, ‘Look, there’s hundreds of people coming to protect those stashes of ammunition’ and that bears out that part of the story. So what say you, Michelle?”
What “objective” MacCallum forgot to mention is that while Palin may have been technically correct in what she said, the thrust of her description of Revere’s ride was wrong. Palin at the least suggested that the purpose of Paul Revere’s famous ride was to warn the British when there’s really no dispute that the purpose was to clandestinely warn the patriots of the British movements.
Malkin did not exactly offer a full-throated defense of Palin’s historical cred. Malkin said, “I think I defer to all those Boston-area colonial historians who seem to conclude that she was more right than wrong and of course you’re not gonna get any retractions or apologies from all of the anti-Palin snarkers who were playing a gotcha game. She’s absolutely right about that.”
Malkin went on to rave about how Palin knows how to “push the media’s buttons… She does her own thang.”
So isn’t it about time savvy Palin learned how to deal with those “gotcha” questions? Or is she only brilliant and button-pushing when she’s off mike?
