Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Friday that the McCain campaign in 2008 prevented her from talking about Barack Obama's controversial background or his lack of job experience for fear "the media would eat us alive."
Fox News's Greta Van Susteren responded by saying, "I think at some point [people are] going to look at us in the media and think we're just a bunch of fools. We don't have any credibility anyway" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
SARAH PALIN: The only fans that aren't going to bail on this stall play that we're all observing is still the media, the mainstream media. They're going to stick with this because they're part of the problem, and it's going to be to the detriment of the profession of journalism, and it will be to the detriment of a free America as we know it!
And we saw what happened back in 2008 -- I believe that's when it started -- when the media decided to just go along to get along with Obama, ingratiating themselves with him and vice versa. What we saw was these attempts to destroy the whistleblowers, those who were telling the truth even in the campaign, those who were bringing up the name Jeremiah Wright and the racist church that he leads that Obama was a member of for over 20 years.
Though I was during the campaign running for VP, I was banned from talking about Jeremiah Wright and Obama's friend, Bill Ayers, who is the character that he befriended and kicked off his political campaign in the guy's living room.
Couldn't talk about that. Couldn't talk about Obama's lack of knowledge and job experience and the things that he said, like America had 57 states, things like that.
In the campaign -- Greta, this is important for Americans to understand -- I was not allowed to talk about things like that because those elitists, those who are the brainiacs in the GOP machine running John McCain's campaign at the time, said that the media would eat us alive if we brought up these things.
So what did that get us, though? What that got us, this kind of complacency and self-censoring of a campaign where we weren't allowed to tell the truth about who this candidate was, Barack Obama. What it got us was a list of these scandals. This is kind of the redneck version of one of those elitist tactics of Karl Rove, how he uses his whiteboard. This is the redneck version of a whiteboard. And on this list, the scandals that are destroying America, Greta!
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: You know what, though? I'll tell you what I think is somewhat different as time goes on is I think that, you know, the credibility of the media, and I include, you know, myself in the media, that we're hovering about around near where Congress is, which is not very impressive.
And I think that the American people have discovered search engines and more and more have computers, and when they Google one, they see that the president said in early May, for instance, that this tax thing was -- this tax targeting by the IRS was a very serious matter, and then they see that Lois Lerner takes the 5th, and now they see the president's making fun by saying it's phony -- is the American people just aren't that stupid!
You know, I don't think they're going to -- I think at some point, they're going to look at us in the media and think we're just a bunch of fools. We don't have any credibility anyway.
PALIN: Well, no kidding!
VAN SUSTEREN: And they're going to rely on...
PALIN: No kidding!
VAN SUSTEREN: They're going to rely on themselves, I would think, you know, because, you know, they're just not going to buy it. They -- you know, the check -- they fact check us.
PALIN: Of course! Of course! That goes without saying! Americans are smarter than what the lamestream media is giving them credit for. They're doing their own homework and they're figuring out the hypocrisy and the lies coming from this government because as you just have listed some of the problems of this hypocrisy and the lies coming from the Obama administration, I think, So what? What's going to happen? What are the ramifications of this corrupt and overburdensome government of Obama's?
Nothing is going to happen because the referee in all of this is supposed to be cornerstone of democracy, our media, and they won't do their job. They're lapdogs for Barack Obama. And very unfortunate, very, very dangerous, but the American people full of hope, full of knowledge, full of patriotism and good intent -- we are the ones doing the job that the media could, should be doing! For shame that the media's going to continue what they're doing!
Actually, I think people are already doing that.
That's why we continue to see the ratings at ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and PBS decline.
America is realizing that these outlets provide nothing but Democrat-approved propaganda, and are turning to other sources for information.
The genie is thankfully out of the bottle, and there's no turning back now.
