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April 26, 2010
Liberal NY Writer Hates Sarah Palin and Fox News
Posted by Gregory of Yardale at April 26, 2010 5:18 AM
And in related news, old man resents kids on his lawn
At New York Magazine, Gabriel Sherman churns out a long, brown, curly piece of journalism cataloging the millions Sarah Palin has made and laments the corporate machine that has enabled her to do so.
Nowadays, for both poles of the political spectrum but especially for the right, politics is a business — the entertainment business. The freak show, as Mark Halperin termed it, has been turned into a fully merchandised product. It was Fox's Roger Ailes who had the insight that the American right was an underserved market, one with a powerful kind of brand loyalty. Fox News has turned a disaffected segment of the populace into a market, with the fervor and idiosyncratic truth standards of a cult. Wingnut-ism has been monetized, is one admittedly partisan way of looking at it. Palin stokes the disaffection of her constituents and then, with the help of Fox, offers to heal them, for a price. And — surprise — they're more affluent than most Americans. Fifty-six percent make over $50,000 a year, according to a Times/CBS poll. Running for president is no doubt part of her business model. But forget elections (as many Palin supporters already seem to have done); she's already the president of an alternative America — and also its CEO.
Yes, it truly sucks that instead of going broke fending off nuisance "ethics" complaints about her wearing an Arctic Cat parka at a snowmobile race or allegedly trying to fire a state trooper who smacked his wife around and tasered an eleven-year-old kid … (Oh, and did we mention, her daughter's a slut?) … Sarah Palin had the gall to actually go out and become a successful author and speaker.
Now, which is more likely:
1. A liberal writer is genuinely concerned that the American body politic is being undermined by the crass commercialization of the right-wing point-of-view.
2. A liberal writer is insanely jealous that the only profitable media is on the right, and that Sarah Palin — who didn't even go to an Ivy League school — made twelve million dollars last year.
Which do you think it is?
