Friday, November 07, 2008

Nicole's Knifework - or Was it (Updated)

Wow -that is some savage cutting & gutting that Nicole Wallace has just performed upon Sarah Palin. Nicole & I crossed swords once, during the Harriet Miers nomination battle. Watching what Nicole can do when she is seriously annoyed, I am grateful that I got away from that fight with nothing worse than a few bumps and bruises ....

That said: Some of these stories do not ring quite true to me, especially the story about Palin allegedly not realizing that Africa was a continent rather than a country. Apparently she did not grasp that "South Africa" was not the same thing as "southern Africa." But there a lot of possible innocent explanations for a mistake like that.

Larger point: Would it not better serve the cause of understanding for Nicole Wallace to give an on-camera interview to Carl Cameron and state these points in her own voice - and allow viewers to asses their credibility? Wallace's fingerprints are all over these leaks anyway, so it's not as if she has any anonymity to lose.

Update: I just heard Chris Wallace on the Mike Gallagher show insisting that Nicole Wallace (no relation) is innocent and that my speculations above are completely wrong. I have a lot of trust in Chris. But if (as he implies) he does affirmatively know who is doing this leaking - should he not tell his viewers? What kind of game are we playing whereby people with potentially self-serving motives can place such lethal (but not 100% credible) stories on the public record - unproven, unchallenged, and unsourced, while the people who broadcast the allegations connive in concealing the information that would allow listeners to decide for themselves how credible the allegations are?

11/07 11:45 AM