(Updated) Palin's Religious Freak Show and The Press

Wish we had a candidate like this one on Biblical matters

Update: Turns out a Corrales resident asked Palin and McCain some questions during their short photo-op at El Pinto yesterday. AmericaBlog has their first-person account.
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I know we're all supposed to be locked into a contemplation on the types of salsa purchased by McCain and Palin at El Pinto in the North Valley yesterday, or pondering the deep meaning of Whitesnake music being played at the McCain-Palin rally at the Albuquerque Convention Center Saturday. I know that some in this town think Palin neighbor Anne Kilkenney's fair but critical piece About Sarah Palin is annoying, but I suggest reading it anyway if you haven't yet done so. However, I think it might be most useful to consider some of the excruciatingly odd religious connections that have shaped Palin's world views -- such as they are.

Consider her long-time and continuing associations with outliers in the Assemblies of God - Pentacostal - Dominionist - Joel's Army - Third Wave end-timer movement. Palin's religious connections aren't with your garden variety Christian fundamentalists, but with the truly extreme reaches of the Christian right. I won't regurgitate the info here. You can read it for yourself in this article (with video) on Alternet for starters. There's also this diary on Kos that provides a roadmap to the Dominionist underground and lots of helpful links. It's a tangled up, rapture-fueled, Christian Nation hullabaloo alright, and Palin is definitely hooked in. Scary stuff. But even worse ...

Do you think Charlie Gibson, who embarrassed himself so badly with his phenomenally weird questions and proselytizing at a couple of Dem prez primary debates, will delve into this aspect of Palin's political-world view when he's granted the very first "press" interview with Palin? Naw, he'll no doubt be lobbing her softball questions and hanging on her every word about the ins and outs of her mooseburger consumption and how she and McCain are "mavericks" who just happen to have supported almost every single Bushie policy position until they started positioning themselves to head the GOP ticket.

Remember when The Press saw its mission as puncturing propaganda so citizens would be privy to the truth? Now the majority of "journalists" seem to be just a photo-op seeking, soundbite collecting mob of celebrity groupies who avoid rocking the boat so they can keep their "access." Access meaning their first-row seats in the ambulance celebrity chasing squad where they are lured with promises of interviews that usually don't materialize. Thank goodness there are some "pushy" reporters still out there, like Peter St. Cyr, who risked the wrath of the powers that be by daring to ask Palin a question or two yesterday. Sure, they were innocuous start-up questions, but I know Peter would have gone deeper if he hadn't been ordered to stop by political handlers. I say hurrah for daring to go up to Palin and ask anything in this stifling environment. St. Cyr was the only one who got to Palin, and he's a radio reporter.

You can have just about every one of the local TV and print reporters here. I'll follow St. Cyr's audio blog and the ever-improving live reports by Matt at anyday before I delve into the dribble on our local TV news or in the Albuquerque Journal. I'll check on reports from writers like Marjorie Childress and Tracy Dingmann at the NMI blog before I'll take the word of any trad reporter on a story. The good news is that as the trad media collapses, the independent internet media improves.

One of the most revealing experiences I had at the Dem Convention in Denver was hanging out in the venue's bowels where press of all levels, including many members of the national TV media, were ensconsed. It was like watching fisherman throwing chum into the water to lure the sharks. Every so often a whispered rumor would sweep through the press corps about some maybe or maybe not chance to get a sound bite or a video clip from a politico. A long parade of journalists would start sprinting toward some designated portal, often with large entourages trailing. Often, the rumored chance for pouncing was just a fake out and the media folks would come shuffling back, dejected and destined to resume the long wait for anything to "happen," newswise. I could just picture the politicos' press people giggling at the cattle stampedes they could start with just a whisper of an opportunity to see a Very Important Politico in the flesh.

Watching the melodrama, it became very clear to me just how powerless the trad media has become in this era of controlled politico marketing-advertising-PR. No wonder the average voter is so uninformed and ready to swallow the latest BS whole. Can our democracy survive it? In November, we'll get a number of clues when the results come rolling in. Will ordinary Americans vote with the facts in hand or will they succumb completely to the propaganda onslaught? I'm not making any bets quite yet, but I'm getting more nervous by the day.

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