'gotcha' journalism and how the GOP must put an end to it

I see the Republicans have a new catch phrase. 'Gotcha' journalism. If you watched This Week with George Stephanopolous this past weekend (yeah, some people go to brunch; I spend my Sunday morning's absorbing political news for breakfast), McCain was the featured guest and Georgie asked McCain about an encounter poor, little Palin had with a VOTER (yes, voter...not a journalist, not a pundit, maybe not a blogger):



Here's a video of Palin's latest interview with Couric, this time with McCain as interview proctor (gotta keep those 'gotcha' moments to a minimum, you know):



And suddenly the term 'gotcha' journalism is born. From what I can gather, 'gotcha' journalism means that a media person asks a question which is meant to purposely stump the person they are interviewing. So, in this case, the voter stumped Palin on her foreign policy stance on Pakistan (who responded pretty much like so: hey, we've got to do what we need to do to protect America from terrorism--I believe this is memorized talking point #11). Kinda like how Katie Couric stumped Palin on foreign policy and the economy during her various interviews with her (still trying to figure out how the bailout will help health care reform and I'm hoping Palin will explain that during the debates). And how Charles Gibson did the same (but she can see Russia! From Alaska! And that's why she is experienced in foreign policy!).

Except the voter who shouted out the question to Palin is not a media person. He's not a newscaster or a journalist of any kind. Just your Average Joe with a question about a candidate's view on a particular policy. If the average voter can stump Sarah Palin, I think that says a lot about how little she knows about anything outside of the talking points she has so obviously memorized.

I have a suggestion for the McCain campaign. Since they are SO against 'gotcha' journalism that they even had to create a term for it, how about you just avoid it all together? If Sarah Palin were knowledgeable of the issues that any VP candidate would be expected to know, then you can avoid this whole 'gotcha' journalism phenomenon. It's that easy.

Basically, Palin needs to know what she's talking about. Since that has not been the case since she became the nominee, now she has to CRAM, BABY, CRAM! Hurry up and memorize those catch phrases, Sarah!

Since she's clearly NOT qualified to even be the VP nominee (let alone hold that office), those 'GOTCHA' moments are here to stay. And I personally I'm looking forward to more during the VP debates.