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Kevin Scholla, Pennsylvania State Coordinator, American Grizzlies United / Organize4 Palin and host, SarahNET Radio yesterday defended former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s interactions with the grassroots and her involvement with pop culture on the Dr. Gina show in a 20-minute segment. The interview followed his written response to Scottie Hughes’ infamous meltdown over not getting an interview and / or meet and greet with Gov. Palin. Hughes was on the show the day before to discuss her position on the issue.
Whisper Campaign?
Dr. Gina spoke about a “whisper campaign behind the scenes at CPAC” amongst journalists in both mainstream and new media complaining about their lack of access to Gov. Palin.
“Like you, I know Scottie Hughes….I spoke with her at length yesterday after the piece came out. Scottie was a guest on my show in January, so just two short months before she wrote this article. Listen, everybody has their right to an opinion on how they feel they’re being treated or what they want to do with Sarah Palin as far as an interview,” Scholla said.
He continued, “Scottie Hughes has Sarah’s book autographed on her mantle. She has a trivet — or whatever you ladies call these things hanging in her house with Sarah’s quote on it. This isn’t someone who is not a supporter of Palin or was. That said, it’s the way it was done. OK, I think if you want to talk about, ‘hey I wish Sarah came out and did an interview,’ fine.
In concluding his answer, Scholla said, “but some of the parts of the article that were written, ‘you’re starting to worry me’ as the opening line; talking about the Chick-Fil-A shirt and the Phoenix Suns game, and the teleprompter. I think that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and it’s really not helpful. We know the left is after Sarah, we know the moderates are threatened by her. The last thing we need is a narrative out there — false or not — of ‘oh look now the conservatives don’t even like her.’”
Could Blogosphere Rumblings over Access Harm Gov Palin More than Hughes?
Dr. Gina asked,
“What if there is such a rumbling in the blogosphere and the new media…that they would just stop talking favorably about Sarah Palin right in time for the 2014 elections, therefore, somewhat muzzling her message which has always been … such a clear voice for conservatives? If that were to be muffled, is the greater harm in that message being muffled or in Scottie saying some things — perhaps poorly chosen verbiage — but maybe a message that might penetrate now that it’s become such a story for Sarah Palin? What do you think about that?”
Scholla said Hughes’ article “came across as negative — the message — because things were said along the lines of ‘fame, Hollywood’. Sarah Palin is the furthest thing from that. This is a woman who spent her birthday this year at the funeral of Chris Kyle, the Navy Seal. This is someone who does things the right way pretty much all the time and loves this country, and so I guess the way it could have been presented — I wouldn’t have written the thing at all.”
He continued,
“But, if there was a disappointment about being not able to interview the Governor, I think the way it should have been presented is ‘hey it was a great speech Gov. Palin gave, that Big Gulp meant a whole lot more than soda pop. It stands for liberty. We need her voice out there. She could really speak to conservatives. I hope she does more of these and I hope we have her on more shows.’ That would have been a positive way to write it instead of bringing up questions of — why are we even talking about her at an NBA game or about Dancing with the Stars?”
Dr. Gina Playing Both Sides or Stopping Circular Fire?
A caller said Dr. Gina was playing “both sides of the street,” but Dr. Gina defended her lengthy record supporting Gov. Palin. She said “circular fire is the last thing conservatives need. What do you think, Kevin?”
Scholla answered,
“I think the reason we’re seeing such passionate responses here is because this shouldn’t have been done the way it was done. You know, I run a show exclusively based on Gov. Palin and her values, and I wasn’t upset. I knew ahead of time that she was not doing interviews. I mean, sure I’d like to interview her at CPAC and many other times. Heck, I’d like to have her come and watch the Bears with me every NFL Sunday night, but you know Sarah Palin is going to do what she wants to do. She can’t be drafted into running for President and she’s not going to be guilted or pushed into doing interviews or anything that she doesn’t feel she wants to do at that time.
The other thing I think we need to point out here, Dr. Gina is that Sarah Palin is unique — as we know — in so many ways, and her speeches do a lot as far as her message. You know a lot of other folks are reading the teleprompter; a lot of other folks are talking about talking points. She really does get it all out there a lot of the time, so people should be able to get the information they need for the time being until an interview does happen, and I think that’s another thing to take into consideration here.”
SarahNET Radio About Gov. Palin’s Message, Values
Dr. Gina asked Scholla if Gov. Palin has been on his show.
Scholla said,
“We have had her family on. We had a special show with Bristol during her latest adventure on Dancing With the Stars — Breaking it Down with Bristol, where Bristol was on every week. Todd has been on. We’ve had her dad and her brother on, but the thing about Sarah Palin — and people have asked us about this before — we don’t even ask Sarah Palin to come on. We wait for Sarah Palin to do what she needs to do….Sarah Palin is a wonderful person, but it goes beyond just her. It’s her message, it’s her values….the whole reason for the show in the first place was to give her fair coverage for her Presidential run in 2012. Well, when that never happened, we said ‘are we still going to do the show?’ and we said, ‘yeah, we are,’ because it’s not just about her. It’s what she represents — her values.
It’s about my daughter as well. It’s about having someone — especially a woman — like Sarah Palin who’s out there and doing everything the right way so you know with all the beatings she’s taken over the years from the media — I mean unbelievable — just mean-spirited attacks, you’ve got to realize when Scottie or anyone puts out an article like this, it hurts people. It hurts supporters. Palin, it probably hurts the least. She is so tough, but she is so human, but it hurts her kids, it hurts Todd, it hurts her family when [Scottie]‘s saying she doesn’t get out there, doesn’t shake hands; she needs a teleprompter. It’s just not true!
Dr. Gina on Celebrity Wife Swap
Dr. Gina shifted to how taking part in popular culture is condemned by so many facets of conservative media and mentioned her own appearance on Celebrity Wife Swap which airs March 28.
Scholla said, “Well, we wish you the best of luck with that tomorrow. We’ve been praying for you on that and rooting for you as well, but to answer your question we should absolutely be involved in everything.” He continued, “first of all, there’s this persona out there that the left likes to paint of conservatives — you know — the old country club conservative or the old Republican — the stuffy, old guard that is just out of touch with everything. We love sports, we love music, we certainly watch television and listen to the radio, and when we do hear people talk about “normal things” from our side, that’s very refreshing.”
Gov. Palin Reaches New Audiences via Pop Culture
Scholla harkened back to Gov. Palin donning the Chick-Fil-A tee shirt and attending the Suns game. He said, “I think she gets under the skin of the left so much, but another thing she does. When a picture is posted of her in a Chick-Fil-A shirt…it brings up the conversation of Sarah Palin, and it brings up the conversation of what she stands for and that’s about businesses being able to make their own choices and present things the way they wish to. I think getting involved in that is absolutely a top priority.”
Scholla continued, “you’ve seen the wonderful response when she’s gone on something — say Saturday Night Live. Why shy away? At worst, you walk out of there breaking even, at best you change a couple of people and they realize, hey wait a minute, the media is painting these conservatives to be something they’re not at all. So, when you see somebody like a Palin, a Bristol out there like that — I think you can reach another audience.”
Can’t Criticize Lack of Coverage if we Cower in Corner
Dr. Gina said conservatives can’t criticize the media for lack of coverage if they cower in a corner.
“And on the flip side, if you do those things, you can very well criticize, because you can say, ‘hey, we were right there with you, we did the same things, and now you’re making up these false narratives about us.’” Scholla referred to an interview with Ben Shapiro in which Shapiro said leftists should be called out when we go on their shows. Scholla said Gov. Palin does precisely that.
“When she calls Obama out, she calls him out. She says exactly what we’re saying at our kitchen tables and at work, not like McCain, not like Romney, where the message was, ‘I’m good, so is Obama, but vote for me please’ and then ‘he’s over his head.’ She talks about the fact that he knows exactly what he’s doing, and he wants to institute far left European policies in this country,” he said
Reality TV Perfect Medium to Showcase Conservatism
Dr. Gina said the left is going to bad-mouth us whether we engage the culture or not. The left also likes to portray us as deeming ourselves perfect, then exposing some imperfection. The antidote to that is to admit our imperfection, and reality TV is the perfect medium for that.
Scholla said, “you mentioned Sarah Palin’s Alaska. You saw the humanness of her family, the way they acted. She’s so ordinary, yet so extraordinary. You get that from the family. The way she deals with Piper or her other kids — not like some of these other politicians — and I hate to even use that word for Sarah Palin, because it’s become such a bad word — you look at the way they interact and you look at others — it’s all packaged.” On Sarah Palin’s Alaska, you see normal family interaction.
He continued, “we need to be out there, because we’re doing these things. We’re listening to music, we’re consumers too, and there are certainly a lot of athletes out there that are conservative in baseball, football, NASCAR drivers. I think country music, and I think a lot of metal music you have conservatives….but yes, Sarah Palin and all of us need to get out there, but at the same time, Sarah Palin is going to do what she thinks is best.”
“Another thing we need to realize for people who wanted to interview her but didn’t: she was on that Fox contract for quite a while, so some of these things that didn’t happen could have been related to that as well. I don’t know the verbiage of her contract obviously, but I do know for someone else at Fox — for them, not for Sarah Palin — that Fox frowned on them going on other shows — and that’s one thing that was not brought into this whole flap this week.”
Kevin Scholla’s segment with Dr. Gina begins at 01:16:20.
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