Sunday, October 26, 2008

Are Sarah Palin and her husband the new Brangelina?

Headline: Sarah Palin: My Wedding Hope for Bristol. 

This article was No. 1 of the top five most read articles on People.com this week. I thought the content of the articles to follow were interesting in contrast to coverage of Palin. No. 2 on the list was an article about how Kim Kardashian spent her 28th birthday in a hospital gown, No. 3 was entitled Alyson Hannigan is pregnant, No. 4 was entitled Brad Paisley arrested at Nashville Airport and finally No. 5 was Brooke and Charlie Sheen are expecting twins. 

Babies, a birthday and an arrest. 

Only a fragment of this article is about what Palin would like to see in her daughter's (Bristol's) future. The reporter then proceeds to interview both Palin and her husband, Todd, about trivial things such as who does what around the house and who is the better cook of the two of them. (They share the household duties and Sarah Palin is a better cook, Todd can barbeque a mean salmon though, in case you were wondering.) 

One very strong aspect of this article though was incorporating People readers' questions into the reporter's interview. According to the article, "They (Sarah and Todd Palin) also responded to PEOPLE readers' questions about politics, life with five kids-ages 6 months to 19 years- and what's next for the Alaska governor, win or lose." 

Then why didn't the questions go in order of what would seem to be priority? While reading the article I expected to see a variety of questions about politics, her campaign. Instead, the questioning started with a focus on her children. I think at some point everyone has probably gotten a little tired of hearing about political candidates and their family lives. Who cares what they enjoy doing in their spare time? That might seem harsh, but in reality do we really worry about those kinds of things? They are the type of useless gossip we like to hear about celebrities. Instead when it comes to politicians, how about asking detailed questions revolving around the basis of "what are they planning to do for the country?" Their privates lives should be just that--private. It must get irritating for the candidates as well, constantly being asked questions about their personal lives, as if they were the next hot thing to hit the big screen.

Here is an example: "Alicia in New York City asks, Do you think about having more children?" Then she continues with the question, "Do you have any more unique names (for children) up your sleeve?" Come on, people. A little less celebrity-like coverage might be nice. We are dealing with politics here, not an episode of Entertainment Tonight. The two should not mix, at least in my opinion.

Above photo was taken from People.com. It accompanied the article. 

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