Mrs. Fox Meets Mr. Second Fiddle?

As is the current mantra on Fox"News" - isn't it interesting?

Interesting in the fact that Palin's "debut" on Fox was scheduled on the pre-taped O'Reilly Factor. After the clip, let's discuss how this wasn't a real interview. It couldn't even be qualified as a "softball" one, as it was more like a game of "tee-ball".



I'll forgo having to once again show that O'Reilly's assertion that higher rating equal accurate reporting is far from any minute sense of the truth and get right to it.....

O'Reilly comes of as moderately successful in his interviews because he is pre-taped at 4pm EST and then aired later at 7pm EST. If you've ever seen him live, you'll notice that he doesn't have a very solid handle on what he does and has even been caught claiming that a live mistake could be corrected. Oops.

That being said, his "interview" with Palin was quite odd to me. Not because of the metaphorical patty-cake, reach-around, style that is expected when Palin in on Fox"News", but because it was O'Reily that got the first shot at talking with her. Were the producers at Fox uncomfortable with her being in a live setting - like she will be this evening with Glenn Beck? After all, Palin live is usually full of undecipherable conservative babble that people like Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh do their best to decode the following day.

If there's one take-away from this piece that shows the double standard with Fox"News", it's the moment where O'Reilly asks here about the book Game Change and the allegations that she was ill-prepared to debate Biden and that she was generally igorant of the world around her. O'Reilly not only fed her the answer, but didn't do anything that could be considered a follow-up. Meanwhile, the remainder of the network is running with the book like it was brought down Mt. Sinai by Moses when talking about Obama, Hillary, and Bill.

In the end, Palin is going to be treated with kid-gloves no matter what program she's on. And that's the overriding difference between Fox"News" and real media. Fox thinks that holding someone accountable for their words and actions is a smear.