Gibson Trod A Fine Line In Interviews

Sarah Palin's good looks weren't on the agenda last week as Charlie Gibson asked her tough questions about Iraq, abortion and global warming. (By Donna Svennevik -- Associated Press)

His June 2007 profile called Palin "the most popular governor in America," discussed her "Christian faith" and praised her "adherence to principle."

Other conservative commentators took notice; radio host Laura Ingraham called Palin a potential president last summer after meeting her at a luncheon in Alaska. And a number of the men paid tribute to the governor's looks. In February, Rush Limbaugh told a caller from Alaska: "Yeah, plus she's a housewife; before that, she's a babe. I saw a picture. . . . The babe is the icing-on-the-cake aspect, something the Democrats can't claim on their side."

The same month, National Review writer Stephen Sprueill called Palin a "solidly conservative (and ridiculously good-looking) Republican." In the American Spectator, Thomas Cheplick wrote that "the beautiful conservative Republican governor of Alaska would be an ideal choice" for vice president. Last fall, a Wonkette blogger called Palin "the hottest governor in all 50 states" and "my total girl crush."

A similar thread runs through the recent coverage. "To start with the obvious, she's attractive," writes Time's Joe Klein. The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan calls Palin "this beautiful girl." "Large numbers of Americans think she's hot," said Salon's Gary Kamiya, whose piece was accompanied by a photo illustration of Palin as a dominatrix.

"She's sexy. Men want a sexy woman," CNBC's Donny Deutsch told viewers. "Women want to idealize about a sexy woman. . . . She's a lioness. . . . Women want to be her. Men want to mate with her." Slate's David Plotz confessed that he's been dreaming about Palin and that "a couple of conservative men I know have mentioned that they've been having sexual fantasies about the Alaska governor."

What, exactly, is going on here?

"The fact that she's a fairly youthful woman adds to her appeal," San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carolyn Lochhead says. "It has nothing to do with being qualified for vice president. It's a fact of human nature. Women routinely use their looks, and men routinely fall for it."

That, of course, doesn't mean that journalists have to buy into the narrative. "The media should focus on her policies rather than her looks," Lochhead says. "But if her looks are news, I guess that's part of the story."

Peggy Drexler, who wrote a Huffington Post blog about "the babe factor," calls the coverage "demeaning to other women. Most women have tried very hard to be perceived as people who are capable of producing. But the culture is the way it is."

Palin, she says, has played up her appearance with her 1980s beauty-pageant photo and by posing for Vogue: "She is the Playboy fantasy of the nurse with her hair up in her prim little suit, and then the hair comes down and she's the hot babe."

For 18 months, Obama's opponents complained that the media treated him like a celebrity. McCain even aired an ad likening him to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Now Obama is being overshadowed by a new superstar, a woman with an intriguing life story, and liberals are complaining that Palin is getting a pass on the issues.

Palin's defenders haven't hesitated to accuse journalists (as well as Democrats) who question her record of ganging up on a woman. And there has been a degree of piling on, even as she remained secluded from the press. At times, the media hubbub has threatened to drown out the original concern about Palin, voiced when the insta-pundits were calling her selection a reckless gamble: Is she qualified to serve as a potential president? In Alaska, Gibson took the country back to that basic question.

Steamy Messages

The Miami Herald is investigating a series of romantic e-mails between its former education reporter and a school official who is now the region's incoming school superintendent.

In one message, Tania Luzuriaga, now with the Boston Globe, wrote Alberto Carvalho: "Will you be completely offended if I leap into your arms the next time I see you (place permitting)? Like in the movies, with arms and legs wrapped around . . . Love, love, love you." In another, Luzuriaga apologized for not properly crediting him in a story, saying, "if it doesn't compromise us professionally, we ought to act in ways that help one another." There are also notes about plans to travel together. Carvalho says he doesn't recall seeing the messages; Luzuriaga did not return a phone call.

"If these e-mails are real, this violates some of the most basic rules of our profession,'' Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal told his paper.