Does the Mainstream Media Read?

Several media outlets are reporting on a 60 Minutes feature that promises "revelations" from the 2008 presidential campaign. This feature includes a segment with erstwhile McCain campaign flack Steve Schmidt.

Media outlets are crowing over Schmidt's quotes about Governor Palin's debate prep. For example, Politico led its story with a discussion of why the governor crossed the stage at the beginning of her debate with then Senator Joe Biden and asked, "Can I call you Joe?" They report that she did this because she stumbled over his last name several times during debate prep.

That's not a "revelation," guys.

In Going Rogue Governor Palin wrote:

During [debate] rehearsals, I accidentally called Randy [Scheunemann who was playing the part of Senator Biden] "Senator O'Biden" -- a slip-of-the-lip combination of Obama and Biden. The blunder struck too often, even tripping up campaign staffers. (Jay Leno later made the same slip on his new talk show, so we were in good company.) We laughed about it but knew that if I said it even once during the debate, it would be disastrous.

Then somebody said, "You ought to just call him Joe."

"Oh, I can't just call him Joe!" I said. Senator Biden was a senior statesman. He'd been sitting in a U.S. Senate seat since I was nine years old. I believed calling him by his first name without his permission would be disrespectful.

Randy seemed to read my thoughts and offered a solution. "In every debate, you cross the stage and shake hands with your opponent," he said. "When you shake hands, just ask him for permission to call him Joe. He's certainly going to say yes, because he's a gentleman."

So that's what we decided I would do. We had no idea my mic would already be hot when I walked onstage, crossed over to his turf, and said, "Can I call you Joe?"

The "expert" postdebate analysis was that my question was a cleverly devised strategy to disarm my opponent. Yeah, right. [Going Rogue page 289]

What publications do you read, mainstream media? Do you generally report news that's weeks old as if it were new information? The book was released on November 17, 2009. Try to stay current on the news.