Does Sarah Need Media Makeover?

As Lorenzo Benet's biography illustrates, Sarah Palin grew up and came to political maturity in a way that's vastly different from almost all our backgrounds. She learned things -- important lessons -- about the world at fundamental levels that her critics will never understand. She's a role model for a better America, one that is more self-reliant and family- and community-oriented. There is no benefit in trying to turn her into an Ivy-League educated suburbanite (i.e., into Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama).

Sarah should talk only to media and audiences that will give her a fair hearing. The others she should ignore. It's certainly worked well for her in recent months.

Regarding whether Sarah should do something of a personality make-over to be more acceptable to the MSM: I believe she should not, which doesn't mean she shouldn't learn from experience and get better at what she does. I have suggested a long list of media people, good ones, that she should not hesitate to talk with, and I'll be putting that list up later today (Tuesday).

In general, I believe she should stay far away from CBS, NBC, and ABC, as well as some other people (like John Roberts and Bill Maher) on cable news. In general, she should also refuse interviews with the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Newsweek, Time, and a few other outlets.

I don't say this because of Sarah's supposed limitations. Rather, I say so because such outlets lack the kind of curiosity and broad-mindedness necessary to understand people who are "different," who grew up in cultures outside the mainstream. That includes someone like Sarah, but also people in other nations who did not grow up in conventional American-style settings.

To paraphrase Sarah, people like Katie Couric have no interest in character and values, which are her strong suits. The good people in the MSM never discuss their own character and values, perhaps because they have few or none. Thus, they can't do justice to someone like Sarah (or to her family).

The Times, WaPo, and others will never be able to elicit the kind of information Greta van Susteren got last night from Bristol (or from Sarah), important facts and sentiments about teen pregnancies and supportive families. Greta is a serious journalist trying to generate useful information, something that's not true generally of the MSM.

I see no upside in Sarah's paying any attention to secularists, materialists, and cynics who share none of her values and thus engage mainly in "gotcha" games. The MSM is heading down the road to oblivion. Fewer people are reading newspapers and watching TV news, and that's all to the good. It's a process we should all seek to accelerate.

n contrast, Sarah is involved in an important dialogue with fair-minded Americans and, hopefully, it will lead to the presidency.

Sarah as President may be more than we deserve, but she's exactly what we need.

Note: Later today, I'll have a list of the media that I believe Sarah should seek to accomodate.