Fox News finds the ‘Right’ balance

Written by Brianna Ehley Friday, 15 January 2010 08:00

Just when I thought Alaska’s very own lipstick clad pit-bull couldn’t possibly go any more “rogue” she decided to throw us off her spastic, somewhat dizzying trail by joining the ranks of what is, in her mind, America’s only balanced news source.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the newest member of the Fox News team, Sarah Palin, former governor, vice presidential candidate and mainstream media critic extraordinaire.

For those of you who haven’t heard the big news, Sarah made her grand debut Tuesday evening on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor. With Bill O’ at her side, the Alaskan hockey mom voiced her excitement about having the opportunity to work with the good people of Fox News to “provide the fair and balanced reporting and analysis voters in this country deserve.”

First of all, I’m not sure which shocked me more, the fact that Ms. Palin agreed to share the limelight with someone, or that O’Reilly is allowing the rock star of the Republican party to accompany him in his quest to deliver only the most fair and balanced interpretation of news that TV can offer.

It would seem to me that although Ms. Palin does hold a bachelors degree in journalism, her days of objectivity are long, long gone. And though her role on the Factor will be to provide her “expert” opinion – which most of us are still curious about – it seems to be a pretty great contradiction of what she claimed her intentions to be.

Besides, let’s be honest, if she really wants to get back to her roots and be that hard-hitting journalist that she set out to be before her leap into public service, would the Factor really be the place to start? The entire thing reeks of a publicity stunt, and I’m sure it will be a successful one…at least for the time being.

As many in the political arena speculate, this is just another jump-start to Palin’s ambitious 2012 bid for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. After all, having a gig on Fox was working for Huckabee, at least until the whole pardoning of a now convicted cop-killer thing came out, but that’s another opinion for another time.

Apparently a multi-million dollar book deal just wasn’t enough for Ms. Palin. After all, shopping sprees at Sax can get expensive, and we all know that a flamboyant pantsuit won’t land her the 1600 Pennsylvania address that she’s longing for, right HilRod?

But in all seriousness, is Fox News really doing the right thing journalistically by allowing airtime to an ex-politician, who may or may not be using her soapbox to launch a premature campaign?

It seems rather odd that someone who so openly opposes the “mainstream” media, would join the media monster to bring the lucky Fox News viewers only the most unbiased news out there, when her views are so obviously unbalanced. Then again, maybe journalistic integrity isn’t too high on Mr. Murdoch’s list of priorities.

Either way, I’m sure Tina Fey is extremely pumped to have more material to work with on a regular basis.