Chris Matthews, et al, have research staffs. If he wants examples of inappropriate questions, he should have them look into it rather than pop the question to a guess who does not have their research handy.

Here are what I feel are a collection of inappropriate questions asked on MSM by paid staff or contributors, not the blogs or tabloids. The theme is that Sarah is a bad mother for wanting to be VP: mothers need not apply for executive positions.

“There’s also this issue that on April 18th, she gave birth to a baby with Down’s Syndrome…. Children with Down’s syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of Vice President, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?” John Roberts CNN

“How can a woman run a state and bring up five children at the same time?… I think they have every right to ask that…” Liz Trotta, Media Prof at New School

“Is she prepared for the all-consuming nature of the job? She is the mother of five children, one of them a four-month-old with Down Syndrome. Her first priority has to be her children. When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick what choice will she make?” Sally Quin Washington Post

“Adding to the brutality of a national campaign, the Palin family also has an infant with special needs. What leads you, the Senator, and the Governor to believe that one won’t affect the other in the next couple of months?” Bill Weir Good Morning America

” There is another question though which essentially I’ve heard expressed here many times today and from calls elsewhere, and that is the decision made by Sarah Palin herself, when knowing her daughter’s condition, by accepting John McCain’s offer she guaranteed that her daughter would be known globally as the best known 17-year-old unwed teenager in the world, and that decision many people question… The question of how it affected her daughter is not open to question. It has made her daughter a front-page item for the country.” Mark Shield PBS // No, Mark, “It” did not do this; the media did this. Mark seems to want unwed teens to be held in seclusion… to protect them from an unprofessional media. //

“But there’s also, I think the part of it is the particular dynamic of her family, Megan. Her youngest child, down’s syndrome and now her oldest daughter is pregnant. And there are some moms out there that are angry, that are saying she has put her family unfairly into the spotlight.” Meredith Viera Today // Meredith wants special needs children secluded along with their pregnant sisters. //

“Congresswoman, what about the argument that, you know, vice president is a tough job, and that having a four month old baby, who has Down’s Syndrome, that will have special needs, requires extra time, that, that she should be focusing on her four month old, that some people have said that, fairly or unfairly. What do you think of that?’ Norah O’Donnell MSNBC

Laurence on September 5, 2008 at 9:22 AM