Sarah Palin Retweets a Seemingly Pro-Gay Comment. Discuss!
BY Nancy Scola | Tuesday, January 4 2011
Sarah Palin attracted a heap of attention last night for a simple retweet. Caught by New York magazine's Daily Intel, Palin retweeted a comment by Tammy Bruce -- described on her own website as a "gay, pro-choice, gun owning, pro-death penalty, Tea Party Independent Conservative" -- that offered commentary on the crude homemade videos recently leaked that were reportedly shown aboard the USS Enterprise by Capt. Owen Honors. The videos, rather inarguably juvenile, include some gay-mocking comments. "[T]his hypocrisy is just truly too much. Enuf already--the more someone complains about the homos the more we should look under their bed," tweeted Bruce, in a comment that the former governor of Alaska passed along with a click.
Whether Sarah Palin has a national political future is of course very much an open question. Andrew Sullivan for one doesn't care what she tweets. But to get wonky for a moment, from a communications perspective she's still worth keeping an eye on as a case study of how a well-known public figure today uses all the media-making tools available to just about anyone. Per Ben Smith, like many emerging consevatives, Palin hasn't particularly taken up same-sex marriage or Don't Ask Don't Tell one way or another. Retweeting, though, is a chance to give subtle assent to an idea or opinion, made subtler by the fact that Twitter etiquttee arguably allows room for people to retweet and personally broadcast notions that they find intriguing, but don't necessarily agree with. (Smith's account, just to pick an example close at hand, includes the disclaimer, "RTs and MTs don't necessarily indicate agreement.")
It's one way that Twitter can be strangely intimate, offering a peek inside someone's psyche that -- unlike much of politics which demands instant clarification -- can be left to hang in the ether in ambigious form. Palin earns a shift in the public perception of her for doing nothing more than second-handedly mocking bullies.
The Village Voice's Joe Coscarelli wonders if it was a mistake. Perhaps a fat-fingered retweet? It sure doesn't seem like it. Palin has been known to reel back a tweet or two in her time, but this one is still up on her feed -- despite the fact that you can indeed undo a retweet. Probably more telling is the fact that Rebecca Mansour, who's been known in the past to have had a hand in Palin's online media strategy, has retweeted Bruce's meta commentary on Palin's retweet. (You still with me?) "So, @SarahPalinUSA RT's something that stands w gays re DADT and is supportive in general," tweeted Bruce in the comment retweeted by Mansour, "what r the odds the LSM [that is, 'lamestream media,' a Palin coinage] will try to ignore?" Actually, they're not that good.