It's the Right-Wingers Who Are Unloading the Harshest Critiques About Palin’s Bizarre Departure

By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America. Posted July 8, 2009.

Meanwhile, unveiling an unlikely coalition, The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol announced that the liberal media were in cahoots with the "GOP establishment" to bring Palin down. (I kid you not.)

And just days before Palin announced her exit, The National Review's Jim Geraghty and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt huddled to discuss why liberals hate Palin so much; what is it about her that drives them to distraction? (It's because Palin's so pretty, Geraghty posited.)

So the familiar outlines were all in place and the pity party hummed in high gear: the unhinged liberal media had it in for Palin and wanted to drive her off the national stage. Liberals were smearing her.

But then a funny thing happened -- scores of conservative commentators broke ranks with the "liberal media" brigade and decided Palin's political problems were of her own making.

In other words, the beloved liberal media meme completely fractured under the weight of the Palin story. The front-line, knee-jerk troops were ready and eager to lob the ever-ready accusations, but it turned out that lots of Noise Machine generals weren't buying it, and instead of blaming the liberal media for Palin's disastrous weekend showing, they blamed ... Palin.

Shocking, I know. But the maneuver left the right-wing foot soldiers completely exposed. For instance, Brent Bozell's NewsBusters whined that biased reporters on ABC, CBS, and NBC had called Palin's Friday press conference "bizarre." But as Media Matters' Jamison Foser asked, what other adjective could journalists have possibly used? "Bizarre" perfectly captured the jaw-dropping media event staged on the banks of Alaska's Lake Lucille in Wasilla.

And sure enough, "bizarre" was the exact word conservative Times columnist Ross Douthat used to describe Palin's presser:

But last Friday's bizarre, rambling resignation speech should take her off the political map for the duration of the Obama era.

See more stories tagged with: media, right-wingers, conservatives, sarah palin

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Media and Technology! Sign up now »