Norah O'Donnell just can't stop condescending to supporters of Sarah Palin. Appearing on Morning Joe today, the MSNBC correspondent rehashed a line she has used before: that fans of Sarah Palin are just too darn busy to know what's happening in the world. According to O'Donnell, Sarah supporters don't have "30 minutes to an hour to read the newspaper."
As I reported here, O'Donnell sounded the same theme a couple weeks ago, when interviewing Palin fans waiting on line at a book-signing in Michigan. By coincidence, Jackie Seal, a high school senior and Palin supporter whom Norah had ambushed with some prepared notes, was a guest last night on Right Angle, the local TV show this NewsBuster hosts. We discussed O'Donnell's condescension, Jackie making the point that most supporters are well-informed about Palin's positions.
View the Right Angle segment after the break.
When O'Donnell began dispensing her slur on Sarah supporters, Mika Brzezinski tried to warn her of the reaction sure to come . . .
NORAH O'DONNELL: [Palin] does represent a significant portion of this country, that may not be reading the newspaper every day in and out, or have the time to do that because they're working too hard.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh boy.
O'DONNELL: No, really.
BRZEZINSKI: Just don't log onto Twitter today. Just don't do it.
O'DONNELL: No, no, really. Most people don't have the luxury of spending 30 minutes to an hour to read the newspaper every day. Because they've got to take care of their kids, they've got to get to work, and they're [inaudible] second job, and they think this goverment is too big, and they think taxes are too high--even though taxes are about a 70-year low in this country--but nevertheless they don't like the government.
So Palin supporters are uninformed, Norah? Unlike those Obama voters, you mean? You know, the ones that a Howard Stern staffer interviewed? The folks who expressed support for Obama on the basis of his supposed positions which were in fact those of John McCain? The people who liked Obama when told he was: pro-life, opposed to stem cell research and had picked . . . Sarah Palin as his running mate? How much time do you figure those folks spend poring over the New York Times, Norah?
