Ben Howe, Red State, reacting to a screening of The Undefeated:
There was so much media coverage of Palin, and so many people that were incredibly unfair to her, that I had been desensitized. I didn’t realize it, but I had actually developed a sort of immunity to believing anything positive about Sarah Palin. Rush Limbaugh, a personal hero of mine, sang her praises every time her name came up. In spite of that, I still felt no reason to look further into her story.
[…]
Ultimately, I thought she was the type of political force that was going to be around, needed to be treaded on carefully, but would never have anything substantial to offer to the cause of conservatism other than rallying troops which I still believed was a valuable service.
I thought she hadn’t gotten a fair shake in the media, but I felt confident that I could see through the bias and that I understood who she was, what she had done and what my opinion would probably be about her going forward.
I was entirely incorrect.
[…]
Even had the substance not convinced me that I had Mrs. Palin pegged wrong, the film itself would most certainly have scored high for me as my all important test was passed: Did I look at my watch? No I did not.
[…]
But what had me and my wife blown away by the time it was over, was the avalanche of information and perspectives that had been hidden from us over the years. As I would like for you to listen to my interview with Steve, I will not get into the substance of what caused the change. I want you to hear it for yourself.
I pride myself on my ability to know when something is baloney, almost instinctively. On Sarah Palin, I was so incredibly hoodwinked that the one word that my wife and I agreed described how we felt after watching it, was shame. Yes of course invigoration, satisfaction and all the other things you experience when watching a good film, but about how we had handled our vetting of Mrs. Palin, shame was the word that best described it.
Shame for not bothering to look up her record. Shame for not reading her story. Shame for turning the channel when she came on the tv. Shame for not listening to people that we had a great deal of respect for like Andrew Breitbart, Tammy Bruce, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
As Breitbart points out in the film, the greatest shame is that while this woman was savaged to degrees you may not even realize yet, some of us sat back and let it happen. For me to buy into the media template and not defend someone who’s only offense was being a conservative, is the absolute antithesis of what I stand for, and something that I shall never allow to happen again.
I urge you to see this film when it hits theaters tomorrow. And I urge you to put aside your preconceptions about who this woman is. You don’t have to think she should be the next president to believe that the way she has been presented, even by conservatives, has been completely wrong.
some idiot from The Atlantic goes to the Orange County, CA, theater at midnight to see who shows up and snickers Undefeated is a bomb because there were only “two people” in the theater.
Darleen: I thought Sullivan worked for Tina Brown now?
I look forward to buying a ticket and seeing this film.
I feel the same way Lindsay Lohan – she is beautiful and she is talented and people they just judge judge judge but at the end of the day you just have to hold your head up high and say hey world check me out
I’ll go buy and see when it’s showing anywhere nearby.
Unfortunately, that does not include Indianapolis. Because of my MANNING HATE~! )
‘feets, Martin Luther would like to have a word in private with you.
feets you have a little Sullivan in you.
I think that’s a very apt comparison.
I also have no doubt that you’d vote for Lindsay Lohan if she promised to score you some Jack Spade swag and an invite to watch Zac Efron swimming laps.
If private, NTTIAWWT. Seems to spill out into public though. Especially when Palin is mentioned.
Not Sully, Conner.
link
geoffb, I know it was not Sully, but thanks for that link. Very interesting.
Lindsay Lohan indulges in substance abuse.
Sarah Palin has been slandered by professionals.
Conflating these two things is willfully stupid.
goes to the Orange County, CA, theater at midnight
During the premier weekend of HP7?
Brilliant.
That’s right! Harvey Potshards wakes up dead in this one I’ve heard. There is counseling available afterwards if necessary; see your local Trekkie for details.
I actually know David’s brother “Jack” Spade, so I need no inducement to vote for Lindsey Lohan, but I would. A hot president would rule. As to Palin, I’ve never bought the media’s narrative and look forward to seeing the film, but whatever kind of governor she was is incredibly secondary to the fact that she has still not shown herself to be competent on the national stage in terms of campaigning. She just hasn’t. And that’s a big turd to drop around here considering the fact that I’m half drunk already and off to a music festival, but the only thing standing in her way – in spite of the media and the left’s attacks – is herself. Thus far.
She’s doing pretty well if we’re talking about her. And she’s not even running yet.
Thus far.
I just hope we don’t have to study soteriology seriously to understand what’s going on.
I didn’t know you had a blog Mr. Froman
bookmarked!
that the way she has been presented, even by conservatives…
Once one is forced to re-evaluate one’s worldview it is perhaps wise to re-examine any careless assumptions that may have permitted one’s better judgement to be led awry.
Hopefully this might be the leading edge of a trend.
oh. you need to get cracking on the postings all those ones are from 2010
I was at the Orange County CA screening last night at 7 PM. The theater was full except for the neck-break seats. There were a 8-12 rounds of applause during the movie: for some of Gov Palin’s best lines, for Ronald Reagan, and for our Thomas Paine, Andrew Breitbart.
(cross-commented from Big Hollywood)
Once one is forced to re-evaluate one’s worldview it is perhaps wise to re-examine any careless assumptions that may have permitted one’s better judgement to be led awry.
Seems that unless we absolutely know something to the contrary, we’re going to accept at least provisionally any falsehood asserted in our presence. I can’t tell you how many assumptions I’ve inadvertently picked up from TV shows and later had to discard. Drives me nuts.
Although I knew she had busted up the little game of footsie between the Alaska GOP and Big Oil, I still “knew” that Sarah Palin was an embarrassment on some level, if only because of her excessive homespunliness and all that caribou meat and the tacky hair (which I really didn’t like, sorry).
But I’ve never really been put to the test. I’ve only had to defend Palin once against accusations that she revealed herself to be stupid in the Katie Couric interview, and how hard is that? I’ve never had to endure actual ridicule from meat-world peers. Yay me.
I just hope we don’t have to study soteriology seriously to understand what’s going on.
WOOT! Addition to the vocab!
sdferr is always making me run to a dictionary. It’s good.
Bill Maher about Palin
See, Maher’s truth has nothing to do with reality … it’s entirely his politics. Let’s take one thing that is NOT opinion .. his claim that it’s true that her family is “inbred”.
Wrap your brain around that a minute of what Maher is asserting is “true” about the Palin family.
One may only have to think of Tay-Sachs for a second to discover and dismiss Mr. Maher as an idler par excellence.
I can’t tell you how many assumptions I’ve inadvertently picked up from TV shows and later had to discard.
While at work yesterday my wife took the kids to the latest Cars movie. She discovered that it is positively loaded with lefty indoctrination and had to spend the better part of the drive home deprogramming our eldest (he’s ten.) The little one turns four this month and, unlike his elder who has always been quite focused, he has the attention span of a gnat, so we are thankful he likely missed most of the details and still thinks highly of the internal combustion engine.
As I’ve been out there shucking and jiving to sell my book and posting my reporting–for free, y’oughta check it out–I’ve developed a lot more respect for Palin.
I’ll never be a Palin die-hard, I don’t think, and Dicentra’s points resonate with me, but I do have a lot of empathy for her.
And even though I’m a minor fish in the big pond of media and writing stuff, I’ve taken more than my fair share of hate and pushback. It’s barely one millionth of what she’s endured though. She’s tough to just stay in the arena.
A link to Roddy Boyd.
had to spend the better part of the drive home deprogramming our eldest
Sitting at the dinner table with my brother and his kids, we suddenly got an outburst of assertions about dying polar bears and related nonsense that the kids had picked up at school in Utah.
That’s where it gets hard: what do you tell your kids, that they can’t trust their teachers? That perfectly nice adults are spreading serious falsehoods? Do you grill your kids every evening to screen for propaganda, assuming they can tell what’s political and what’s not?
Short of videotaping every minute of every classroom day, there’s no way to know what they’re being told in the public schools.
If I had kids, I’d prolly homeschool at least part of the time. Only way to be sure.
Also, Undefeated isn’t showing within 300 miles of Salt Lake. Are they going to release it more broadly later on? Or do they figure Utah’s already in the bag for Palin. (It isn’t.)
I’ll never be a Palin die-hard,
You don’t have to be a die-hard to decide that she’d make a decent president or veep or whatnot.
She’s tough to just stay in the arena.
I’m sure it helps to have a husband who could pound any one of her whiny pansy-assed critics into a fine mist.
Welcome aboard, Point Aught Ones !
My mom had no trouble at all telling me that, when it was true. But in my case the subject came up because I remarked that something my teacher had said in class was utterly contradicted by every reference source I could find.
Mom liked to tell the story on me of catching me reading dictionaries and encyclopedias soon after I learned to read. I was double-checking sources before I started kindergarten.
I’m not normal.
This looks like a badge of honor.
I distinctly remember correcting my kindergarten teacher for misreading the book we were looking at.
I never did like school much. I liked learning better.
Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, McGehee. My mom had me reading the World Book at age 4.
In my case it was Collier’s, and the proximate cause was that the 20 volumes were on the bottom shelf of the bookcase so if I was bored I could just grab a volume and start finding stuff out.
If it was her idea, my mom was a damn subtle woman.
run run run rudolph sarah and save the popcorn
and turn ur cell phone off
this one couple I know takes this to the movies for so the popcorns taste more better – they take their movie popcorns very very seriously she got the stuff from her dad who has some sort of business where popcorns are involved
I’d like to ‘wrap’ something around Maher’s head. Let’s say, for kicks, it’s merely a wet noodle.
Believe me, don’t you?
didja hear? \sarahs coming..
helen keller/ didja hear-she’s a stomp stomp
stomping and a clomp clomp clomping- didja hear?
u may feel my face but check out my t-shirt!
i’ve lost 7 sarah pounds!
OT; Barack Obama tried to sneak the Dalai Lama into the ‘map room‘. But the Chinese found out, now they are livid.
i said sarah palin in the american
doo dang/ reminds me of frank sinatra
would u/ xcould u, vote for mr sinatra?
proudly?
me so do me so do
oh- now i want to talk all sarah git but
u wanna leave?..slowly?
nigger please
high-stop-tail stop
i mean rail
stop-choo choo-stop- chugga chugga-stop-
now ur just silly- stop-
social security- stop-
old people…
do the limbo rock!
“popcorns”?
u r correct sir!
we are “kernels”
not ready to pop
but that is our goal/ sir u may insult me again
“happyfeet posted on7/16 @ 10:57 am
I feel the same way Lindsay Lohan – she is beautiful and she is talented and people they just judge judge judge but at the end of the day you just have to hold your head up high and say hey world check me out”
Yup. Lindsay Lohan has great boobs, but unfortunately, I am too old to be fooled by nice tits anymore. What if she has, as many redheads do, “mucho gristle”? Bubble gum is not appropriate in certain places.
Bummer, Lindsay…
welcome aboard,
two digit !!
dig it
People lie to pollsters. Film at 11.
That’s where it gets hard: what do you tell your kids, that they can’t trust their teachers? That perfectly nice adults are spreading serious falsehoods? Do you grill your kids every evening to screen for propaganda, assuming they can tell what’s political and what’s not?
Yep, it is hard. But all of parenting is hard, and I’m quite sure others in different times and places have had it much worse. Did I mention that my four year old has the attention span of a gnat? Can’t sit still for two minutes either. And has an answer for everything. Every time I get steamed over what some ‘teacher’ is foisting on my ten year old I simply stop and ponder how they are going to handle my youngest. Then I smile.
Vigilance is key, I usually don’t grill them, instead I mainly watch for signs of misinformation or lessons poorly learned. One day a few years ago we were driving by the Eastman plant in Kingsport. It’s a huge chemical operation and my eldest points at the works and says ‘cogs.’ An inquiring glance at my wife leads her to explain that ‘cogs’ are the bad guys in Toon Town Disney and are often associated with commercial/industrial activities.
So, rather than trying to ‘correct’ this misperception by direct assertion we see it as an opportunity – a focal point for turning things around. We begin to educate the kids about what types of things Eastman makes there (the super cool plastics that show up in a zillion things in our house) and the people we know who work there, and we’ve even gone down to the river immediately downstream from the plant to show that it is not in any way polluted.
Thankfully my son is pretty bright and he was quite impressed to learn that the people there can take a lump of dirty coal (bituminous coal is grimy stuff) turn it int a gas, convert that gas to liquids, then mix those liquids to make moldable plastics, all without anything blowing up. One of my goals is to get him to do a science project on reverse osmosis in the next couple years, because Eastman uses some of their technology in the production of small reverse osmosis water purification bags that used for disaster relief.
So, we mainly try to show them what is right, then hope they develop a sense of skepticism and judgement about what is real and what is not. After all, at some point in the not too distant future, it is all going to be on them anyway.
Source?
Had no problem coming to that conclusion myself.