Sunday, September 7, 2008

Wigging Out Over Hair

Someone read my post concerning the Boston Herald's article about Gov. Sarah Palin's hairstyle and appearance, and took issue with it.

My post mocking the Herald for running they article, they said, was hypocritical because I had previously made fun of John Edwards' hair -- he totally reminds me of John Ritter back in the "Three's Company" days -- and also had mocked Edwards for spending $300+ on a haircut.

They asked, so it was OK for me to mock Edwards for his hair, but not for the Herald to talk about Palin's hair?

There's some very important differences:

  • I said Edwards looked like John Ritter, but I didn't say he looked bad. Heck, I wanted hair like Jack Tripper, too, but it was the '70s and I was 12.
  • Yes, I criticized Edwards' spending that much on a haircut. If it turns out Palin spends that much on her hair, then I'll call her an idiot, too.
  • I ranked on Edwards to a couple of people I work with -- I didn't write an article in the paper about it. If the Herald's story was just water cooler talk, it'd be different. But it wasn't water cooler gossip, it was a story by a major news outlet with a global audience.
So, I'm going to stick by my original post -- the day after a vice presidential candidate accepts her party's historic nomination, the last thing a major news outlet should be doing is running stories about her appearance. A responsible news outlet would immediately dig into any information they could get to let the public know her record, her stance on the issues and anything that should be taken into consideration when voters hit the polls -- in an objective, nonpartisan fashion.

1 comment:

Karen Olson said...

You're right about this.

But it's been difficult to look at much else but her appearance when she's not even had a press conference or an interview yet.

I want to know where the woman stands on issues and how she presents herself in front of difficult questions. I don't give two craps about her family or mooseburgers or her "First Dude." I want to know why she lied about the bridge to nowhere, why she's embellished on the state jet and chef stories, does she really believe being in Iraq is God's will and if her faith is going to play a role in her policy making, did she really want to fire the librarian for not banning books, why earmarks are now a bad thing when she thought they were good while she was applying for them...The list goes on and on.

Charlie Gibson's got a big job ahead of him and he'd better not just ask her about her family.