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The bombshell story that kicked off the holiday weekend was Sarah Palin's resignation as Governor of Alaska. None of the three newscasts could resist a follow-up so all three sent a correspondent to Wasilla, Palin's hometown, where she was once mayor. CBS' Terry McCarthy, in his first story for that network since switching from ABC, could not find her: "Palin has essentially vanished." His former colleague Kate Snow, taking A Closer Look for ABC, solved the riddle: "Gone fishing." The governor did leave an electronic trail…her "only comments since Friday have been on social networking sites," said Snow…"Palin has communicated with brief Internet messages on Twitter and Facebook," McCarthy pointed out…"Palin is fighting back through friends and advisors and tweets," noted NBC's Andrea Mitchell.
All three correspondents quoted one piece of damage control. The FBI formally announced that Palin is not the target of a criminal investigation. NBC's Mitchell pointed to a series of political defeats for Palin in "battle after battle with the state legislature." CBS' McCarthy mentioned the 15 ethics complaints filed against the governor, "which friends say wore her down" even though she was exonerated in 13 of them. McCarthy repeated Palin's claim that the complaints cost the state of Alaska $2m to investigate. ABC's Snow mentioned the $2m figure as a fact not a claim.
ABC's Snow reported that the Palins are $500,000 in debt and that they have received offers of income from television, radio and the speaking circuit. As NBC's Mitchell put it: "Taking her fight elsewhere could make Palin a very rich woman indeed with her book deal, with speeches, possibly a talkshow. It is a long way from Wasilla."
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