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A couple of weekends ago, Gov. Sarah Palin made headlines for her informal exchange, while ordering cheesesteaks in Philadelphia at Tony Luke's, with a Temple University graduate student about Pakistan:
"How about the Pakistan situation?," asked [Michael] Rovito, who said he was not a Palin supporter. "What's your thoughts about that?"
"In Pakistan?," she asked, looking surprised.
"What's going on over there, like Waziristan?"
"It's working with [Pakistani president] Zardari to make sure that we're all working together to stop the guys from coming in over the border," she told him. "And we'll go from there."
Rovito wasn't finished. "Waziristan is blowing up!," he said.
"Yeah it is," Palin said, "and the economy there is blowing up too."
"So we do cross border, like from Afghanistan to Pakistan you think?," Rovito asked.
"If that's what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should," Palin responded, before moving on to greet other voters. [link]
The comment was interpreted by many to be closer to the position of Sen. Barack Obama than to that of Palin's own running mate, Sen. John McCain, who just the previous evening had criticized Obama's position on Pakistan during the first presidential debate. The next day, the McCain campaign retracted Palin's comments, and in a joint interview of McCain and Palin by CBS's Katie Couric the following Monday, McCain blamed the entire episode on what he referred to as "gotcha journalism."
Today, the Temple graduate student in question, Michael Rovito, has published an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer about his exchange with Palin and the subject of "gotcha journalism":
No one was engaging the Alaska governor beyond small talk. Most of the people in the crowd appeared starstruck, including some Obama supporters we had spotted earlier.
I felt compelled to ask the governor about the U.S. incursions into Pakistan that had been in the news recently. My parents urged me not to, but I thought she might respond in this informal setting....
[M]any reporters have asked why I engaged Palin at Tony Luke's, why I asked those questions, whether I thought Palin understood them, if the exchange was authentic, and whether I participated in "gotcha journalism"....
I have made it clear in interviews that I am not a journalist, have no training in journalism, and have no plans to become a journalist. I did not aim to stump Sarah Palin, and she did not seem to take offense at my questions; actually, I thought she responded openly.
I questioned Palin because I am a voter with profound concerns about the ramifications of this election for the future of our country. I don't think that makes me an unusual voter, but rather a typical one. I genuinely wanted to know her thoughts on conducting the war on terror, because a lot of my friends and former students are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
As I contemplate the communications swirling around me now, I am struck by the tyrannical connotations of being called a "gotcha journalist." I am concerned that this is a blow to the integrity of journalists and informed, taxpaying citizens, who have the right to demand accountability from their elected officials. Why should I, or the journalists who work to inform the public, be scorned for asking fundamental questions such as those I asked? [link]
Read the entire op-ed here, and post your comments below.
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