I was going through USA Today's website and stumbled upon an interesting New York Times article. With a headline like, "Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes," I could not help but be interested. Here is a link to the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?pagewanted=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

It's a rather lengthy article posted under the Politics section of the Time's website. At first, I thought this may be a well researched article with some timely and important information regarding the character and leadership style of Gov. Palin. This may still be the case. However, at least from my point of view, it seems the writers wanted to focus more on speculation and innuendo.

I've read through the article a few times and I've noticed at least a few tendencies of the authors. First, they have given many quotes that come from political rivals and opponents. For instance, don't expect me, as a reader, to believe everything that the Governor's predecessor has to say. There is one section in which the former Governor targets Palin as a "book burner." He gives examples of how her supporters would check out books at the local library. These books were generally ones they found offensive. The readers would then censor the books at home and bring them back to the library with lines scratched out or pages missing. This story may be true. However, there is not enough substance to provide a credible link to Palin in my opinion.

Some of these stories also involve unnamed sources, such as the builder that complained about the city attorney. Who is this builder and why doesn't he or she allow their name to be cited. Several of the examples listed in the article seem to border too much on speculation in my opinion. The authors try to many times to "connect the dots." I just feel like some of these dots shouldn't be connected.

I enjoyed this article and I'll bet there is at least some truth contained within its pages. However, I don't feel like this article belongs in anything other than the opinion section. It just doesn't feel like a true example of professional news gathering. I'm not a "Times Hater." I PROMISE! I just don't think they're doing a good job right now. Who knows?!? Maybe they're just mad because their baseball team has all but collapsed during their last year at Yankee Stadium. Maybe they are really paid agents of the Obama campaign. Maybe, they just missed the target on this article. Either way, I'm not giving them a free pass and neither should you!