As I was researching a completely separate subject this morning, this headline from an online-exclusive story on Newsweek.com struck me…

Can Obama Save The Media?
How the president-elect has reinvigorated newspaper and magazine sales.

You’ve got to be kidding me? Obama’s job will be to run the country, not save the media. This is a little bump in the ever-declining world of print media.

For so many people, history is something that they want to hold on to… to be a part of.

Of course, newspaper and magazine sales are on the rise following the election Obama. They were on the rise the days following 9/11. They were on the rise following the death of Princess Diana… especially in England. They are always on the rise following some historical event.

But this quote from the Newsweek article speaks volumes…

In the market for news, where the Net and 24/7 cable networks have increasingly become the first and last stop for many readers, consumers’ Obama obsession is an adrenalin shot to print media’s sense of self-worth and self-image. The Obama story is “something the print industry has been dying to come along,” says Janice Min, Editor In Chief of US Weekly. “You can’t save and treasure a PDF file off of your computer. That’s the transcendence of print that everyone in print has talked about, a certain tangible quality that can’t be translated online for certain big momentous events.”

Did you catch it? “The Obama story is ’something the print industry has been dying to come along.’” The election of McCain would have never lead to sold out newsstands.

The article said…

It’s at least a temporary reversal of fortune that the print industry plans to bank on up to and beyond the inauguration.

Media sales have needed a boost… especially in these recessionary times. How better to do that than to wide the wave of “Change”?

After the election, the mundaneness of news will drop back into its lull, and the honeymoon of print sales will end.

[UPDATE]
Maybe not… in stopping at the gas station this morning… the racks of The State were empty.

Two images dominated last night’s debate: Sarah Palin’s smile and the remnants of Joe Biden’s plug hair transplants. That smile may have been masking outright laughter at the thought of standing next to a grumpy old socialist trying to turn back the clock with transplant plugs.

But there’s a third image that few are talking about: Biden’s tears. They appeared to be real as he talked about his tragic family situation (which, by the way, has nothing to do with his qualifications). No one in the media is suggesting that maybe the only unstaged moment in Biden’s debate in any way raises questions about his fitness to be vice president. And they should not so suggest.

But what if Palin had cried? That would have dominated post-debate debate. It would have been in the first couple of graphs in every paper across the country. Democrat operatives, i.e. the media, would have drowned Palin in her own tears, the new exhibit A why she could not handle the no. 2 job.

They gave Biden a pass for crying. They would’ve crucified Palin.

by Bob McAlister, in The State

Nikki Haley was shocked. A Democratic official known throughout South Carolina as an enlightened feminist counseled that she should not run for public office because she had two young children. But later on the same day in 2003, Mrs. Haley was in the audience when another prominent Democrat, Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, challenged women to seek office.

Spurred by both encounters, the Lexington resident ran the following year and was elected as a Republican to the S.C. House of Representatives. Some insiders say she has statewide potential.

As we discussed the shameful media reaction to John McCain’s pick of Gov. Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket, Mrs. Haley said she has never publicly told the story of the feminist who tried to keep her out of politics. “That just made me more determined,” she said.

Mrs. Haley is reluctant to discuss the double standard for female officeholders (“I am not a victim and don’t want to sound like one”), but she can relate to the pounding Gov. Palin is taking over whether a mother of five should be vice president.

“Every week I’m asked how I handle my little ones and serve my constituents,” she said. “It’s no different from anybody else’s life. I prioritize with my children and husband and do the best I can and refuse to feel guilty.”

So Gov. Palin is not the first political woman to experience the old double standard. But the brutal and loathsome treatment she’s getting from the national media is unique in American history.

Leaders of the intelligentsia, so progressive and tolerant of liberal women, express faux concern over whether her Down syndrome baby will get enough motherly love. They breathlessly conclude a mom of five just can’t hack it, especially when her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.

As Helen Reddy sang, “That ain’t no way to treat a lady.”

“It’s unfortunate they are focusing on one aspect of a lifetime full of courage and talent,” Mrs. Haley said. “This is a story we should all feel good about.”

The mainstream media and Democratic liberals — excuse the redundancy — are not feeling too good nowadays.

John McCain found a woman for the ticket who has done everything that political feminists spent the last 30 years saying a modern woman should do, except abort her children, and she has done it brilliantly.

This gun-totin’, fish-catchin’ machine steamrolled her way through the corrupt good old boys in Juno and landed in the governor’s office with an 80 percent approval rating. She charmed the big-oil lobbyists, picked their pockets and sent the proceeds back to the taxpayers.

She has managed a balanced budget while balancing the needs of her family with her official responsibilities.

So why do the libs feel so bad?

They were the ones supposed to break the glass ceiling, because they owned the women’s movement. Then The One arose to lead His children to the Promised Land, along the way charging over and through the would-be ceiling breaker, who wasn’t even considered worthy of being The One’s No. 2. An old bald guy took her place.

And they don’t feel too good about what came out of St. Paul this week. The day after Gov. Palin took the GOP convention by storm, polls showed more than half the American people thought reporters were trying to destroy Mrs. Palin, and 24 percent said that makes them more likely to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.

Score one for the people, who know a media scam when they see it.

I’m guessing the American people have made three discoveries during the Palin rollout:

1. If a woman is pro-life and doesn’t hate men, the chattering class won’t give her an equal playing field.

2. Her daughter’s pregnancy is nobody’s business.

3. A woman who blew up Alaska’s good-old-boy network and shoots bull moose at point blank range is not intimidated by a bunch of sissy reporters who think moose is a dessert.

Mr. McAlister is a public relations consultant and was an adviser to Sen. John McCain in the S.C. presidential primary.

Note to readers: The writer of this story requested to be anonymous because of his top-level position in government. But he knows of which he writes

It’s been a tough few days for the national media.

In a fit of rage they have torn off the mask. And like the phantom haunting the opera now wholly revealed, they know, we know, who they really are.

And it ain’t pretty.

It’s long been a delicate dance. Americans are a trusting lot and we want to believe in the reporters we invite into our homes via our televisions and internets. Folks like former CBS correspondent Bernard Goldberg, have been warning us for years about the bias – about out-of-control newsroom elites looking down on Middle-America.

But it took Sarah Palin to rock their world enough to rock ours.  Because in excoriating Sarah, Big Media showed Middle America once and for all what they really think about us.

The first thing we now know in a powerful way is really, only ONE woman counts. And her names are: Soledad and Campbell, Diane and Katie. Yes, they are more than one but they stand utterly united in their disgust and bewilderment for any woman who stands not for the sacred right of abortion. Watching their bitter coverage, it occurs to me that these women may never have encountered other breathing females who might consider any alternative to their pro-abortion mandate. After all, we certainly don’t see these women on their networks as a part of any kind of balanced reporting, so they’re always stunned and I think, a little sad, when they’re forced to breathe the same air.

We also now know because only ONE woman counts, it is perfectly acceptable for the Big Media to have two sets of questions: One for ONE woman; the other for conservative woman. It goes something like this:

Question to ONE woman:
How is it that you are so brave to balance both a family and a career and do both so well?

Question to Conservative woman:
What makes you think you can possibly juggle a home, kids, and a demanding career? And really, is it fair to try?

Question to ONE woman:
How do you rock those pantsuits everyday and still manage to stand up for reproductive rights and all women everywhere?

Question to Conservative woman:
So what’s up with the hairdo? Isn’t it true you neglected your prenatal vitamins and had your abnormal kid on a plane? Really, so how come your qualified?

I noticed over at CNN, Soledad O’Brien and Campbell Brown got particularly offended by the glare of the public spotlight turned back on them. Soledad was very insistent that newsmakers (because that’s what these reporters have become) need to ask these questions of Governor Palin and examine the record. Problem is, Soledad, you don’t feel compelled to ask the good senators on your team (that would be the Democratic ticket) the same riveting questions. To turn into CNN during the DNC was to see a network gushing with pride for its candidates done good. I don’t recall Soledad pondering the toll Obama’s time away from his daughters is taking on them and whether, really, he’s up for the task of balancing it all? Meredith, over at NBC, what do you think? Ever lob that bomb at the home team? Nah, didn’t think so. Just chucked it at the sister. So much for The View. But Joy is proud, no doubt.

All this brings me back to Sarah and us.

Big Media wants to destroy Sarah Palin for a number of reasons: she gets in the way ultimately of them controlling the election – and not us.

She stands for the old-fashioned values of patriotism, God, family, and life, that the media elites not only despise – they fear. It is human nature to fear and despise what you do not understand. It is also the opposite of so-called liberal open-mindedness.

They hate Sarah because she loves America. And frankly, most Americans love America. And America loves winning – whether it’s in Iraq or on the ice rink.

But the media always has and always will love a loser. And Sarah Palin may be a lot of things – but she’s certainly no loser.

Obama is an exciting figure at an exciting time, but like FDR’s devoted press corps who conspired with him to deny the American people the real story about his crippling disability (most Americans never knew FDR was in a wheelchair) Obama’s infatuated Big Media is avoiding Obama’s story while inventing story lines on Sarah Palin. That is not only dereliction of duty is reveals a deep distain for ordinary Americans and our judgment.

In the end, they hate Sarah because Sarah is us.

Now that the masks are off, it’s time to clear the air and either turn them off or demand more of us next to them. America will be better for it.