Reviews on Sarah Palin’s Fox News debut

WASHINGTON - The reviews on former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s debut on Fox News have come in, and so far she has managed to make a miniscule impression.

The New York Times’ Anahad O’Connor called it “relatively tame”.

“The show’s format was similar to that of the ‘Oprah Winfrey Show’ or another daytime talk series. … The format and subject matter may have been surprising to some viewers given the controversy it ignited earlier this week,” the Politico quoted O’Connor as saying.

“One of the celebrities originally listed as a guest for the show, LL Cool J, complained on his Twitter feed that Fox News had taken an old interview with him and recycled it for Ms. Palin’s show without his consent,” he stated.

O’Connor’s colleague, Alessandra Stanley, added: “Sarah Palin didn’t reload, she retreated into canned television formula.”

“Fans who thought that having her own Fox News program would allow the former Alaska governor to be her true spontaneous and unfettered self had to feel let down by the debut of ‘Real American Stories’ on Thursday night.

“It was her most scripted performance since the last, tense days of the 2008 presidential campaign.

“Her words and demeanour were far more circumspect than the incendiary rhetoric (’don’t retreat, instead reload’) she has used in recent rallies,” she said.

The New York Daily News’ Richard Huff gave it 2 stars out of 5.

“Sarah Palin will have a career in TV, that’s for sure, but ‘Real American Stories’ isn’t the show to make her a superstar,” Huff wrote.

“That’s not her fault. It’s the production. The show is a collection of inspirational tales hitting all the emotional buttons,” he added.

The Washington Post’s Hank Stuever said the show was there to fill up an empty space and nothing more.

“The debut on the Fox News Channel of Sarah Palin’s ‘Real American Stories’ Thursday night turned out to be like one of those shows that’s on when nothing’s on and yet there is air to fill - like infotainment you sometimes see on empty channels in hotel rooms, or the stuff that’s playing on the little TV screen at the gas pump nearest the rental-car centre. What are we watching exactly? (A commercial? News?),” he stated.

The Los Angeles Times’ Mary McNamara wrote: “Certainly the people featured in the debut hour are genuine heroes, their actions undeniably worthy of all the accolades Palin showers on them.”

“But taken as a whole, the show has no overarching point beyond the one sketchily provided by Palin’s intro - that Americans are a courageous and ingenious bunch and this is a country where nything is possible,” she added. (ANI)