Sarah Palin Goes to the Media Side

As announced by Fox News on January 11, 2010, Sarah Palin will become a Fox News contributor. She will not have her own show; she will appear on several Fox News arenas including Fox Business Channel, Fox News Radio, and FoxNews.com. Also, she will appear during special and significant political events.

Media to Political:

One person who started out with a career in the media before breaking into the political arena is Al Franken. His career started in 1975 when he did work for Saturday Night Live. From 2004 through 2006 he worked in the radio talk show business. In 2004 he was a radio talk show host in New York City and he then became a radio talk show host in Minneapolis. In February 2008, Franken began running against the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota. He officially became a U.S. Senator for Minnesota in July 2009.

Franken's most popular talk show was named the Al Franken Show and it at the end of March 2004. It was broadcast 3 hours a day, five days a week. Many significant politicians, world leaders, and domestic and foreign policy experts spoke on his show. At its peak, the show reached an average of 1.5 million people per week. His show focused heavily on the cost of prescription drugs and several topics in relation to Bush Administration (particularly the Iraq War and fudging of scientific research). (Al Franken- U.S. Senator Minnesota).

Political to Media:

A person who switched from the political arena to the media arena was conservative Mark Levin. Levin served as an adviser to many of President Ronald Reagan's cabinet staff as even became a Chief of Staff to the then Attorney General Edward Meese. Mr. Levin switched to the media arena in 2002 when he became a Sunday evening host on WABC (radio host). Levin's broadcast venture began not too long after when he was a guest on a number of conservative talk shows including The Rush Limbaugh Show and Sean Hannity's show. He has also done some blogging. Today, he show is syndicated by ABC radio on more than a hundred stations ("Reference for Mark Levin").

My Argument:

I believe that people who started in the political arena deserve to move into a high media spot. If anything, people who have served in the political arena have more to offer the media. They know the ins and outs of the political spectrum. In the end, we may not agree with a particular comment made by these people, but that is the whole idea. They present their ideas and experiences to the audience and we are left to think about those ideas and experiences and how it affects us.

Palin started out as a member of the City Council in Wasilla, Alaska and then became the mayor and manager of the town. She was also a chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. In 2006 she became the first woman to be elected Governor of Alaska. Finally, in 2008 she was selected by John McCain to be the Vice Presidential nominee for the Republican Party (National Governor's Association).

Palin started out small. She worked her way up the ladder. She and Mark Levin are very similar and so are their career moves. Like Palin, Levin started in the political arena. He served in a President's administration. Levin had a lot of experiences in the Reagan Administration just like Palin had a lot of experiences as Governor of Alaska. She was also a City Council member and mayor of a small town.

Al Franken's career move was different from Sarah Palin's. First off, he did not earn a degree in journalism. Second, he started out in the media arena and then went into politics. Other than the fact that he earned a Political Science degree, he did not have any real experience in politics from what I've heard about him. Ok, so he did a few stints on Saturday Night Live. After doing Saturday Night Live and some radio talk, he went straight to becoming a senator of Minnesota. At least Palin started out as a city council member in a town and worked her way up in politics. Franken's career move was totally different from Palin's and Levin's.

In the end, I think that the practice of switching from politics to media does not hurt journalistic integrity. Some would say that it would hurt journalistic integrity because that means that any person who was in politics can be in broadcasting even though they may have never gotten a degree in journalism. Keep in mind though that many people who have been in politics (like Mark Levin and Sarah Palin) have seen the workings of the government. People in politics can offer helpful (and hopefully truthful) information to the American people (in most cases). People who are in politics have to know how to speak to the public. That is a big part of what makes a good broadcast journalist. As far as a switch from media to politics goes, well, I would say that would hurt journalistic integrity (unity, wholeness) to some degree. Just because a person is on television does not mean that they should be able to become a U.S. Senator or President of the United States. The sole purpose of a journalist is to research topics, report what they find, and be honest. If every journalist or media person started going into politics, that would mean that anyone who has a journalism degree or is on television can go into politics. Not everyone who is on television or has a journalism degree has what it takes to be in politics. The political experience is not there. Therefore, this practice needs to be limited. While Sarah Palin did earn a journalism degree, she did not get into politics just on her journalism degree. She had what it took to go into politics. She started out at the bottom of the political arena and worked her way up. Now she has experience in politics and journalism.

Sources:

"Al Franken," Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia.

National Governor's Association, http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=864bb9006da3f010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD

"Reference for Mark Levin," Search.com reference.

"Palin to Join Fox News as Contributor," FoxNews.com.

"Al Franken-U.S. Senator Minnesota," http://www.alfranken.com/pages/meet_al/