That's not to say all the revelations about Palin will be significant or fully formed.
For example, the ABC News website reported Monday that Palin was a member of a political party advocating a statewide vote on Alaskan secession. The Times on Tuesday repeated that information. But by midday, the McCain campaign had produced voter registration records showing that Palin had always been a Republican, even if she and her husband associated with members of the secessionist group.
On Tuesday, Time magazine's online edition launched another Scud, quoting a former mayor of Palin's small Alaska town as saying she had once inquired about banning certain books from the public library. Typical of today's rush to post all political news first online, the story did not offer much detail. It didn't even suggest which books might have been headed for the dumpster. Hmmmm.
So, a couple of tips for the news consumer: Gather your information from several outlets. And wait until the dust settles, because the first account may not always get it right.
GOP activists were not waiting, however, to put the clamps on the issue that had overshadowed their convention the day before.
It is hard to argue with calls for journalists to stay away from the governor's teenage daughter and to stop traipsing around the property in Wasilla, where her boyfriend's family lives.
But some of the criticism went overboard, as when CNN commentator and GOP heavyweight Bill Bennett pilloried his own cable network's "outrageous" coverage. CNN's crime? Airing of a story in which a sex-ed expert said abstinence programs don't work.
Big Bill, come on now. CNN wasn't speculating on young Bristol's favorite aphrodisiac. It was moving beyond a titillating story to focus on an important social issue. Which seems like stand-up journalism to me.
It also seems perfectly reasonable to explore whether Gov. Palin was completely forthcoming about her family situation -- the teen pregnancy, her husband's long-ago DUI and other issues -- when she was questioned by McCain's people.
If no holes emerge in the campaign's contention that it asked for, and got, full disclosure, then the political press should push the pregnancy story to the side in search of real news. (Don't expect the tabloids to be so easily put off, though. This week's cover of US Weekly: a picture of Sarah Palin, with the headline "Babies, Lies and Scandal.")
The lack of mainstream media attacks on Bristol Palin didn't stop true believers from uncorking on a favorite straw man.
The crowd groaned at the mere mention of the pregnancy issue during a panel here Tuesday morning. Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch was one of several panelists who rose to defend Bristol's honor. Risch dismissed all baby talk with a terse: "Next question." And former McCain political aide Mike Murphy, now an NBC news-talker, ordered the media to "lay off the kid."
Even the youngest delegate here, 17-year-old Mike Knopf, had fully digested the day's "bad-media" message. "Despite what the liberal media is trying to say," regurgitated young Knopf in an interview with Newsweek, "she has nothing to be ashamed of."
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james.rainey@latimes.com
