Tim Graham at Newsbusters compares the treatment Sarah Palin has gotten at the hands of the media to treatment Katie Couric got when a mud-raking author published a tell-all book (of questionable veracity) about her life

Let’s remember Katie Couric, and the harsh unauthorized biography written about her by Ed Klein that came out in August 2007. She was a seriously vicious diva in between those covers. Klein used anonymous sources to make claims like Couric was so calculating that cynics at NBC took bets on how long it would take her to exploit her husband Jay Monahan’s death. “Some said 72 hours; others just 24 hours,” he wrote. He asserted Couric had an affair during her time at CNN in the 1980s with a married man who could advance her career. ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC all predictably passed on that one. They don’t always skip out when Kitty Kelley manufactures trash against the Reagans or the Bushes, but they passed when the target is a journalist

On Fox News, Klein came on “Hannity & Colmes,” and Sean Hannity wasn’t welcoming Klein and his anonymous mud. “This is harsh stuff. Affairs with married men. Questionable behavior following her husband’s death. She lost a husband....Two little girls. They don’t have a father. I couldn’t write a book like this about somebody’s personal life. Why—why did you want to write this? Why is that important to you?” Hannity added that this kind of scrutiny might apply to someone vying for national office, but “she’s a TV host.”

The same politeness sufficed for the print press. Time and Newsweek didn’t touch the anti-Couric tome. The New York Times, which loved the Palin fairy tales (and the Kitty Kelley-authored ones), wouldn’t, either. The Los Angeles Times found no gossipy space for anonymous Couric dish. USA Today mentioned it in one sentence, reporting Couric had no comment on it. The Washington Post only raised it to denounce it in a book review

Let’s imagine Sarah Palin would only run on a national ticket once – nobody assumes this today, but for the sake of argument, let’s say she never runs nationally again. Were the excesses of anonymous personal attacks in her media treatment over the last eight weeks warranted? Or were they examples of situational media ethics in a general-election hothouse?

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The difference is that Sarah Palin is a vibrant young conservative politician and Katie Couric is a member of the liberal political elite.  Therefore, Couric is treated fairly and Palin is not

That’s just the way things work

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