NO SHAME

Posted at 7:14 a.m. ET

Consider this headline from a New York Times story yesterday:  Palin’s Teen Daughter Is Pregnant; New G.O.P. Tumult.

Now consider this from Byron York at NRO Online:

As for now, at least, evangelicals seem to be completely on Palin’s side. And McCain’s. This is a group that has been skeptical of McCain in the past. Now, it’s probably fair to say that he has never been more popular among evangelicals than he is at this moment. Whether that will last, or whether Palin will cost McCain support among other voters, is not yet clear. But within the confines of the Republican Convention, McCain’s surprising choice of Palin — and the equally surprising news about her family — is paying off.

There is absolutely no evidence whatever that the Republican convention, or the party itself, was thrown into any tumult by the announcement that Sarah Palin's teen-aged daughter is pregnant.  The only people thrown into tumult were media types who couldn't wait to add this story to the mix they were using against Palin.

Indeed, the pregnancy story had special meaning for much of the media crowd because it apppeared to mock their holy of holies - abortion.  Many journalists seemed to go completely berserk.  The New York Times ran story after story, within hours of the announcement, raising issues that would never be raised with a Democratic candidate.  Get this one:

When Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska was introduced as a vice-presidential pick, she was presented as a magnet for female voters, the epitome of everymom appeal.

But since then, as mothers across the country supervise the season’s final water fights and pack book bags, some have voiced the kind of doubts that few male pundits have dared raise on television. With five children, including an infant with Down syndrome and, as the country learned Monday, a pregnant 17-year-old, Ms. Palin has set off a fierce argument among women about whether there are enough hours in the day for her to take on the vice presidency, and whether she is right to try.

In other words, she may be a rotten mother.

Can you just imagine if this had been written about a Democratic woman running for vice president?  Don't try imagining it.  It wouldn't happen.

And who has expressed these "doubts," other than those conveniently interviewed by some newspapers?

I actually heard some journalists question the integrity of the McCain campaign.  After all, why hadn't McCain come clean and informed the world of this news when he announced his choice of Palin?  Maybe he could have said this:  "Ladies and gentlemen, my choice for the vice-presidential nomination is Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska.  She's conservative, she's spirited, she's competent, and her unmarried teenaged daughter is pregnant."

It is disgusting.  Shame is one of the most important of human qualities, for it prevents us from doing that which is, well, shameful.  But there is no shame in some of the precincts of journalism.  I have never been more embarrassed by my original profession than I was yesterday.  There was more relentless questioning of Sarah Palin's fitness in a few hours than there has been of Barack Obama's during the months and months he has been running for president.  And there has yet to be a single question about Joe Biden's, despite some remarkably dubious decisions he has made as a senator. 

Sarah Palin speaks at the convention tomorrow night.  I hope she is greeted by a sustained ovation.  And I would have no problem if she were to discuss this family issue, and slam into the ground, by name, some of the journalists who have slimed her over the past 24 hours.  The place would erupt in cheers, and millions of Americans would join in. 

September 2, 2008.