ABC News.com: Lots of Palin, and Some Games!

Nina Wieczorek
wieczore@ohio.edu


'Does this woman have any friends?'
That was all the e-mail from Germany said. I got it after the exclusive interview Mrs. Palin gave abc's Charlie Gibson. Well, how many friends she really has, I can't say, but I can say that she gets a lot of attention these days on abcnews.go.com.

No News Balance
Sure, she's been a surprise for most Americans and now they want and need to get to know their possible future Vice President – and obviously also her family. But the current Palin-related explosion of news gives her simply too much spotlight. You might get the impression that she is running for president, not John McCain. For example the coverage of a comment Obama made about lipstick on a pig, which actually didn't even have anything to do with her.

And what about Joe Biden? On Wednesday, if ABC online payed any attention to him, then it was so hidden, that I couldn't find him. I think this whole hype might fade away within the next days, but still, the last week the Alaskan Governor didn't have to share the country's media attention with any of the other candidates. Especially as her first longer interview (...in which she allegedly lied to ABC-TV, according to Walt Monegam, former Public Safety Commissioner in Alaska...) took place last Thursday and Friday.

The 'Full Interview' wasn't that full...
Whoever didn't watch it live could find it on ABC's homepage. The full interview is there in a written format, but I couldn’t find a video of the whole interview. However, there are three newscasts, each of about 5 minutes long, claiming to be the full interview. Actually, they are only a cut-together of some of the statements she made.

...but full of surprising statements
„War with Russia may be necessary if Georgia were to join NATO and be invaded by Russia“, so says Palin. Yes, if a NATO member gets attacked, the other members help this country. That's what the treaty is about. But, besides the fact Georgia is not close to being a NATO member, and Russia, full of economic problems, is hardly so short-sighted to invade Georgia, mentioning a war with Russia, while the atmosphere between Washington DC and Moscow is far away from good, just shows that she lacks foreign policy experience.



Another, but less earthshaking statement came from the so far quite quiet Sen. Biden, posted on Thursday: Hillary might have been a better pick than he. Why so shy?

Good Presentation
With daily updated articles, the site offers a lot of different media: slide shows, lots of videos, articles, interviews and also some interaction. Viewers can not only comment on the articles, but also play the 'Match-O-Mat II'. This funny game gives you 13 quotes, either made by Obama or McCain. You have to click on the one you agree with more. In the end one of the two candidates sitting on a seesaw is going to be kicked from it up into the sky. This game provides you in an entertaining way not only with information on different political issues, like health care or the war in Iraq, but also allows the user to come to an opinion on these issues without any judgement on the persons.



Next to this game the section, „The Note“, is quite good. Here the users find comments on different aspects of the current debates.

One new woman in the White House already set
No matter who will finally wins the presidential election in November, one new woman for the White House has just been anounced according to the website's 'Entertainment' section, Barbra Streisand. She'll be honored there by the Kennedy Center in December.