Sarah Palin and MSNBC - Essay Example

? Sarah Palin and MSNBC School Sarah Palin and MSNBC Women have conventionally played a very important role in shaping the American history. Sarah Palin is just another woman who has been progressing as a social activist for a long time and particularly showed up in the limelight in the year 2008. Since then, she has become more of a regular subject of discussion for the media than a politician, which compliments her limited participation in the contemporary American politics and her intention to retreat further from it. This paper introduces the audiences to Sarah Palin and lays an account of her involvement with the MSNBC. About Sarah Palin Sarah Palin is a famous politician, author and commentator in America. She was born on 11 February, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho. Palin has two sisters and a brother. Shortly after Palin’s birth, the whole family shifted from Idaho to Alaska. Her father was a science teacher and her mother was a school secretary. Thus, affiliation with education was inherent in the familial culture in which Palin was brought up. Palin went to the Wasilla High School. In addition to being an exceptional academic student, Palin served in the girls’ cross country running teams and was also the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ head in the school. She earned the title Sarah Barracuda as a result of her exemplary performance in the basketball team as the point-guard and the co-captain. Her contribution led the team to winning the Alaska state championship in 1982. In 1992, Palin was selected in the Wasilla City Council. About four years later, in 1996, Palin was made the mayor of Wasilla. Palin made an attempt to become the lieutenant governor in 2003, but ended up becoming the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s chairman. This firm assumed the role of the protector of the gas and oil fields in the state. Palin is the first Republican woman to be deemed eligible for the vide-presidency and is also the first Alaskan that made use of a major party’s national ticket in 2008, when Palin was nominated for the post of vice-presidency from the Republican Party. Palin resigned from the governorship in July 2009 after which, she launched a campaign in favor of the Tea Party Movement. Since the start of 2010, Palin has been commenting upon the politics from the platform of the Fix News and has been hosting the Sarah Palin’s Alaska show on the television. The fact that the number of viewers of the first episode of her show exceeded five million was an addition to her already lengthy list of records. The Learning Channel had never seen this volume of audiences before this show. Sarah Palin’s Involvement with MSNBC MSNBC is a US-based cable news channel which is projected in several countries including US, Canada, South Africa, Middle East and Germany. The name MSNBC is a combination of Microsoft and NBC, which reflects the joint venture of Microsoft and the NBC unit of the General Electric. This joint venture took place with the establishment of MSNBC in 1996. Originally an insignia of the partnership between Microsoft and NBC, share of Microsoft kept reducing until NBC gained almost complete hold over the news channel. MSNBC has been addicted to Sarah Palin for a long time. Palin’s overrepresentation in the media can partly be attributed to the fact that about two years ago in the Republican presidential ticket, the Alaska governor displayed an electrifying emergence. Although Palin was neither a public official in those days nor was a candidate any more, yet the journalists noticed that any report that included her name got listed amongst the most-viewed reports. “Palin, feeding this co-dependency and indulging the news business's endless desire for conflict, tweeted provocative nuggets that would help us keep her in the public eye -- so much so that this former vice presidential candidate gets far more coverage than the actual vice president” (Milbank, 2011). With the departure of Keith Olbermann, it is expected that MSNBC’s obsession with Sarah Palin would decline. The audiences along with the reporters have been eager to have some Palin-free discussion, particularly after her immediate crash in the popularity polls. The rating for Palin’s approval remains at only 38 per cent today in comparison to a rating of 80 per cent about two years back (Bond, 2011). It has been above two years since she served as the vice-presidential candidate of Senator John McCain. Media’s obsession with Palin can be estimated from the fact that Palin doesn’t have an office and is also not an activist in any significant national cause, and yet the media hardly misses a chance to collect her data. Some columnists have recently started to make overt expression of their agitation with the Palin’s unnecessarily coverage in the media. One such columnist, Dana Milbank wrote a column on 21 January 2011 in The Washington Post in which he mentioned that since 2008, he had discussed Palin in 42 columns. He went on to say, “I've mentioned her in dozens more blog posts, Web chats, and TV and radio appearances. I feel powerless to control my obsession, even though it cheapens and demeans me” (Milbank, 2011). Considering it too much, he proposed that there be a “Palin-free February”. Media, particularly the cable news does whatever earns it profit. Owing to the immense tendency of Palin to earn them ratings, media cannot quit discussing her. In the present age, Palin’s strength particularly shows up because these days, foreign bureaus and the news staff are seeing a decline. The people of America have taken no less interest in the personality and professionalism of the lady. Her emails of the tenure for which she was the governor were requested by the citizens in general and various news organizations in particular in 2008 under the law of state public records. People came to know that Palin along with her staff had been conducting the state business beyond the access of the requests of public records through their personal yahoo accounts. Shortly after the release of the emails, MSNBC intended to scan and upload them upon a public forum. Surely, this opened yet another way of conducting business. “The state at first quoted prices as high as $15 million for the records, but the price is now down to 3 cents a page, or $725.97 for a set of the records” (Dedman, 2011). Since 2008, when Palin was nominated for the vice presidency, she has frequently been considered eligible by the analysts for entry into the 2010 presidential elections of the US. However, Palin declared that she was not ready for this. Palin discussed her present and future plans in the Mark Levin Show in these words: After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking 2012 GOP nomination for president of the United states. As always, my family comes first…I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office — from the nation's governors to congressional seats and the presidency…It's not about me, it's about all of us who are trying to wake up America. (MSNBC, 2011). Concluding, Sarah Palin has achieved too much in too little a time for which she has remained the Governor of Alaska. The lady has the charisma, the style and the lovability that draws the audiences’ attention towards her name wherever it is printed in the media. News channels like MSNBC have realized this mystery and have put this knowledge to use by making money out of it. The Independent (2010) rightly states that Palin has enjoyed, still enjoys and would probably continue to enjoy power without responsibility. References: Bond, P. (2011). Sarah Palin: MSNBC's Obsession With Her. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sarah-palin-msnbcs-obsession-75184. Dedman, B. (2011). 24,199 pages of Palin e-mails to be released Friday morning. Retrieved from http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/06/6797957-24199-pages-of-palin-e-mails-to-be-released-friday-morning. Milbank, D. (2011, Jan. 21). I'm declaring February a Palin-free month. Join me! The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/20/AR2011012004349.html. MSNBC. (2011). Sarah Palin says she's not running for president in 2012. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44793302/ns/politics-decision_2012/t/sarah-palin-says-shes-not-running-president/#.Tpx5594r230. The Independent. (2010, Oct. 24). Rupert Cornwell: Fame and money: why Sarah Palin won't run for the White House in 2012. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/rupert-cornwell/rupert-cornwell-fame-and-money-why-sarah-palin-wont-run-for-the-white-house-in-2012-2114994.html. Read More