Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Another empty "gotcha"

A form of argument I've seen lots of times is "quote mining".  A person offers a quote that sounds devastating.  Usually, for example, a Creationist or Intelligent Design / Intelligent Origin Theorist (ID/IOT) will cite some Great Expert saying that evolution didn't happen.  In the middle of an interview or debate, no one has the time to run and look up the context of the quote, and the chance that anyone will have it on hand is vanishingly small, so history records this Great Expert quoted as saying "evolution didn't happen".
Now we have some quote mining used against Sarah Palin.

A bit more on CNN's "quote" from National Review in its story on Sarah Palin.  In the CNN interview with Palin, aired today, reporter Drew Griffin said to Palin:

GRIFFIN: Governor, you've been mocked in the press, the press has been pretty hard on you, the Democrats have been pretty hard on you, but also some conservatives have been pretty hard on you as well.  The National Review had a story saying that, you know, I can't tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt or all of the above.

....

Actually, no one wrote the "quote" that Griffin read to Palin.  But I began a recent magazine piece (unfortunately not available on the web, but hopefully coming soon) on Palin this way:

Watching press coverage of the Republican candidate for vice president, it's sometimes hard to decide whether Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt, backward, or — or, well, all of the above. Palin, the governor of Alaska, has faced more criticism than any vice-presidential candidate since 1988, when Democrats and the press tore into Dan Quayle. In fact, Palin may have it even worse than Quayle, since she's taking flak not only from Democrats and the press but from some conservative opinion leaders as well.
....

Yes, there are legitimate concerns about Palin's lack of experience. Who wouldn't, at the very least, wish that she had more time in the governor's office on her résumé? But a look at Palin's 20 months in power, along with interviews with people who worked with her, shows her to be a serious executive, a governor who picked important things to do and got them done — and who didn't just stumble into an 80 percent job-approval rating.

So my question to Griffin, and perhaps to his producer, is: Do you think you accurately portrayed the story you cited in National Review?

I imagine some quote miners honestly believe the context they carefully excised really didn't matter after all.  Maybe they'll buy my share of the "profits" from the Mortgage Crisis Bail-Out.

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