Sarah's 3/24/2011 FB Post: "Lamestream Media: Reload or White Flag?"

by Sarah Palin on Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 9:06pm

“Let’s keep pivoting around media bias, and not get distracted with the vulgar personal shots. Call out lies and set the record straight, but always keep the ball moving. No one ever won a game only playing defense.”

Upon my return from an outstanding and productive trip to India and Israel, I’ve been inundated with requests to respond to petty comments made in the media the past few days, including one little fella’s comment which decent people would find degrading. (I won’t bother responding to it though, because it was made by he who reminds me of an annoying little mosquito found zipped up in your tent; he can’t do any harm, but buzzes around annoyingly until it’s time to give him the proverbial slap.)

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I’d like to share my thoughts on the never-ending issue of media bias.

When it comes to responding to the media, the standard warning is: Don’t pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel because calling out the media and holding them accountable is a risky endeavor. Too often the first instinct is to ignore blatant media bias, crudeness, and outright lies, and just hope the media instigator will grow up and provide fairer coverage if you bite your tongue and not challenge the false reporting of an openly hostile press. But I’ve never bought into that. That’s waving the white flag. I just can’t do it because I have too much respect for the importance of a free press as a cornerstone of our democracy, and I have great respect for the men and women in uniform who sacrifice so much to defend that First Amendment right. Media, with freedom comes responsibility.

Friends, too often conservatives or Republicans in general come across as having the fighting instinct of sheep. I don’t. I was raised to believe that you don’t retreat when you’re on solid ground; so even though it often seems like I’m armed with just a few stones and a sling against a media giant, I’ll use those small resources to do what I can to set the record straight. The truth is always worth fighting for. Doing so isn’t whining or “playing the victim card”; it’s defending the truth in fairness to those who seek accurate information. I’ll keep attempting to correct misinformation and falsehoods about myself and my record, and I will certainly never shy from defending others who are unfairly attacked. This is in the name of justice.

But two decades in politics have taught me that when it comes to picking battles, often it’s best to ignore the truly petty, ugly personal media shots because engaging in a counter argument with disreputable, intolerant people doesn’t vindicate me; it merely gives those people the attention they seek. It wastes my time and it distracts from what we should focus on.

We must always remember the big picture. The media has always been biased. Conservatives – and especially conservative women – have always been held to a different standard and attacked. This is nothing new. Lincoln was mocked and ridiculed. Reagan was called an amiable dunce, a dangerous warmonger, a rightwing fanatic, and the insult list goes on and on. (But somehow Reagan still managed to win two major electoral landslides, and this was in the days before the internet and talk radio when all he had were three biased network news channels spinning reports on him. If he could do so much with so little and still be such an optimistic and positive leader, then surely we can succeed with the new media tools at our disposal.)

Let’s just acknowledge that commonsense conservatives must be stronger and work that much harder because of the obvious bias. And let’s be encouraged with a sense of poetic justice by knowing that the “mainstream” media isn’t mainstream anymore. That’s why I call it “lamestream,” and the LSM is becoming quite irrelevant, as it is no longer the sole gatekeeper of information.

Let’s keep pivoting around media bias, and not get distracted with the vulgar personal shots. Even with limited time we can try to call out lies and set the record straight, but always keep the ball moving. No one ever won a game only playing defense.

I’ll keep correcting false reporting, and I’ll defend others to the hilt; but I won’t spend any more precious, limited time responding to personal, vulgar, sexist venom spewed my way.

Today, our country is faced with seemingly overwhelming challenges. We have an unsustainable and immoral $14 trillion debt problem which, combined with a self-inflicted energy crisis, could bring America to her knees. The President of the United States is manipulating an energy supply by refusing to develop our U.S. energy resources. Shouldn’t that be the media’s focus today? Wouldn’t you like more information on the deficit that for last month alone was the highest in our history at $223 billion? That single month’s deficit was more than the entire deficit for the year 2007! We still have a 16% real unemployment rate. We had 2.9 million home foreclosures last year alone, with this year predicted to be even worse. Americans who are struggling to make ends meet are now hit by rising food and energy prices – exacerbated by the Fed’s decision to drop that $600 billion money bomb known as QE2 on us. Gas has already hit $4 per gallon in some areas. And let’s not forget that our men and women in uniform are deployed far from home today. From Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, to who-knows-where tomorrow under a clouded, confused Obama Doctrine, our armed forces are in harm’s way, defending our interests and protecting our freedoms.

Now these are the real concerns to Americans. These are times when real leadership is needed. We must never be distracted from these real concerns.

Petty comments from the small-minded are used to distract. Stay focused, America. Don’t wave any white flag. Simply put, let’s spend our precious time on causes that are worthy.

- Sarah Palin

A Foreign Policy Doctrine Echoing Reagan’s

Original essay by Benyamin Korn

(Benyamin Korn, former executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, is director of Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin andJewsForSarah.com.)

A Republican former governor, solidly pro-Israel, is running for the White House, but mocked by the pundits for allegedly lacking foreign policy expertise – yet ends up time and again being proved right on the major international issues of the day. Thinking Ronald Reagan?

Try Sarah Palin.

Nearly one month ago, the incumbent GOP vice presidential candidate became the first major American political figure to call for imposing a no-fly zone over Libya. Finally, in the past week, Palin’s idea was adopted by – in quick succession – the Arab League, the UN Security Council, and President Obama. Finally this week allied ordnance began striking Moammar Qaddhafi’s forces. Let’s hope it’s not too late.

Libya is just the latest major foreign policy challenge where Gov. Palin has confounded her detractors and demonstrated that, just as with Reagan, good instincts and a sound worldview are what count when a leader’s telephone rings at 3:00 a.m.

The Palin Doctrine –

allies should be supported,

dictators reviled,

terrorists hunted down

and enemies defeated

We call it the Palin Doctrine. It’s based on the principles that allies should be supported, dictators reviled, terrorists hunted down and enemies defeated. It also means the western world will not stand by at the bloody repression of a democratic revolution.

These notions might be self-evident to some, but they’re not to President Obama, who cannot bring himself even to utter the words “Islamist” and “terrorist” in the same sentence. One of his top intelligence officials actually told Congress last month that the Muslim Brotherhood is a “largely secular” organization. Ms. Palin, by contrast, denounced as a “shame” the administration’s offer to the Brotherhood of a seat at the table of power in Egypt’s newly evolving system.

Last week Governor and Mr. Palin were in New Delhi where she delivered the keynote address at a high-level political conclave. As the first visit to south Asia by a potential 2012 GOP contender, her attention was welcomed in a democracy justifiably concerned about the unstable behavior of Pakistan, its nuclear-armed neighbor to the northwest, and a China rapidly arming, under a regime where state capitalism and rigid control of political power go hand-in-hand.

The Palins’ stopover in Israel likewise came at a critical moment. In the wake of the Itamar massacre and the renewed rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, Gov. Palin expressed only solidarity, even wearing a Star of David during her tours. She promised to return soon for a longer visit.

Contrast that with the behavior of Mr. Obama, who has yet, as President, even to visit the Jewish state, pays only lip service to the threat of ceaseless Palestinian incitement, and has returned to carping about the “illegitimacy” of Jews building houses where they already live.

Most important for the long term, Mrs. Palin has extensive experience administering energy policy, and proven success in tough negotiations with the giant energy firms, and the former Alaska governor always links U.S. security interests with “responsible development” of America’s abundant fuel resources.

The president’s most effective critic recently declared that his “war on domestic oil and gas exploration and production has caused us pain at the pump, endangered our already sluggish economic recovery, and threatened our national security.” In her India address Mrs. Palin chastised the White House aversion to energy development as a form of “social engineering.”

Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy was marked by indecision, weakness, and a the abandonment of long-standing U.S. Allies. The resolute Reagan Doctrine of peace through strength restored America’s standing in the world and brought down the Soviet empire without firing a shot. Barack Obama’s foreign policy is looking more like Carter’s every day. And Sarah Palin’s looks more and more like Reagan’s.

h/t: http://jewsforsarah.com/?p=8121