Don't Count on "Super-Poking" Maureen Dowd Anytime Soon

Maureen Dowd has written a vitriolic op-ed about Sarah Palin. (Yawn). Who hasn’t?

The unexpected thing is that she blatantly has her facts wrong. The main focus of the op-ed is Sarah’s stance on the universal healthcare plan, which she has outlined on her Facebook page, a forum Ms. Dowd finds most offensive.

Amidst rampant accusations of ineptness, Dowd says in her piece, “[Palin] took a forum, Facebook, more commonly used by kids hooking up and cyberstalking, and with one catchy phrase, several footnotes and a zesty disregard for facts, managed to hijack the health care debate from Mr. Obama.”

View Palin’s statement here.

What?! Kids hooking up and cyberstalking? I fear Ms. Dowd is showing herself to be so horribly out of touch with the cyber-times, by making such an over-generalization. Likening Facebook with stalkers and kids “hooking up” is like likening the airport with terrorists. While those types are definitely there, they don’t make up the major clientele.

More accurately, Dowd’s out-of-touch-ness shows a fear of Palin’s views because they are dead on. Otherwise what beef would she have with her views, posted on a site that is frequented by teenagers and stalkers?

“Death Panels” are a distinctly accurate portrayal of what will go on. So proponents must mock it and call it stupid, “death panels,” don’t be ridiculous,” so that when they eventually do foist this healthcare plan on us, the hoi polloi won’t know what hit them.

Her piece is obviously meant to discredit Palin; to lessen the threat she represents. Using language like “the dizzy Palin has to be ‘clear in her own head what she wants to do’” only perpetuates the media stereotype of Sarah Palin. This is not journalistic integrity. Though not necessary for an op-ed, it would show her to be a force to be reckoned with, rather than just another Palin-hating lib.

Maureen Dowd, who not surprisingly, does not have a personal Facebook page, has several pages, groups, and clubs dedicated to her. By the cyberstalkers, no doubt, or maybe just teenagers wanting to “hook up.”

Maybe I’ll invite her to join. I wonder if Sarah Palin would friend her if she did.

c. 2009