The UpshotPalin pushes back on video of testy exchange
Sarah Palin was the target of much Webby snark Monday for a viral video featuring her encounter with a schoolteacher from Homer, Alaska, who had unfurled a banner reading "Worst Governor Ever" at a shooting location for Palin's TLC reality series. So now the former Alaska governor has adjourned to her own powerful Web portal, her Facebook page, to blast critics who suggested the exchange portrayed Palin in a bad light.
In the video, the woman brandishing the banner criticizes Palin for resigning before completing her first term as governor. The two then conduct a spirited exchange about each other's political beliefs.
When the protester says she's a teacher, Palin looks over at her daughter and other folks with whom she's traveling. Critics say she then makes a facial expression denigrating teachers.
Social media outlets such as Twitter lit up with criticism as the video began circulating Monday. Mainstream news outlets then entered the fray, launching a debate over whether Palin "hates" teachers.
Check out the video for yourself below:
Palin argues that critics in the "LSM" (lame-stream media) have blown her reaction out of proportion:
"The LSM has now decided to use this brief encounter for another one of their spin operations. They claim I — wait for it — 'appear to roll my eyes' when the lady tells me she's a teacher. Yes, it's come to this: the media is now trying to turn my eyebrow movements into story lines. (Maybe that's why Botox is all the rage — if you can't move your eyebrows, your 'eye rolling' can't be misinterpreted!)"
Palin also reminds her Facebook readers that she has many educators in her own family.
[Related: Mayor Levi Johnston? He's running for office in Wasilla]
The video contains no yelling or name-calling, and the overall tenor of the interaction is generally calm. It even concludes with Palin telling the woman she's "honored" to have met her. (The Atlantic Wire has a partial transcript.)
And if Palin feels slighted by the blogosphere in this case, at least she can find common cause with her questioner. The woman, now identified in the media as Kathleen Gustafson, faced her own skewering Tuesday, with some websites calling her teaching credentials into question, and dismissing her confrontation with the former governor as a media stunt.
[Video: Palin's harsh words for Obama's agenda]
(Photo: AP)
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