My Response on the Mainstream Media vs. Sarah Palin Controversy

There has been some controversy over comments I made in a question-and-answer session after a speech I delivered to a meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. In my speeches, as in my writing, I try to avoid making comments that will be needlessly offensive to people, out of courtesy. I was trying to make the point (indisputable, I think) that many in the mainstream media were hostile to Sarah Palin because of her positions on cultural issues, which I feel include her (and her husband's) decision to give birth to rather than abort their Down syndrome child. I had in mind also the point, made not just by me but by Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, that many news organizations seemed to be devoting much more effort to uncovering politically damaging information about Palin than they were in the case of Barack Obama. In making my point, I used hyperbolic language that crossed the line between courteous and discourteous, and for that I'm sorry.