Email Hunt to Humiliate Palin Gives Her the Last Word: Gotcha!

Oops, they did it again.

In yet another attempt to embarrass and humiliate Sarah Palin, the mainstream has fallen into a trap that they deliberately set for the former Alaska governor.

On Friday, 24,000 emails were revealed from Palin’s time in the governor’s office to an all too anxious media, licking their chops at the prospect of discovering some juicy detail that could tarnish or -- better yet -- destroy her. The requested emails resulted from a Freedom of Information Request that the media filed years ago.

But rather than find some salacious exchange, the emails revealed a warm, likeable executive who worked hard, focused on Alaska as priority No. 1, relied on her husband for guidance, and who has savvy political instincts. As one Los Angeles Times columnist put it: the email dump was “annoyingly gaffe free.”

Instead of gotcha moments or lewd pictures like the ones we typically see these days, Palin’s correspondence revealed someone who was bi-partisan in nature (Palin was open to meeting then-Sen. Barack Obama’s chief of staff and even praised Obama’s ideas on energy), a clever Mama Grizzly who baked brownies to diffuse a fight over a football rivalry, and a woman of deep faith. National Journal reported on Palin’s prayer for God’s guidance on Alaska’s budget in what it featured as the top 10 “revelations."

“I have been praying for wisdom on this ... God will have to show me what to do on the people’s budget because I don’t yet know the right path ... He will show me though.”

The worst nugget from the vast collection? Like almost every politician, Palin appeared thin-skinned when dealing with the press and a thorough manager of her own media by monitoring her coverage and asking for frequent corrections or clarifications. Yawn.

The New York Times and the Washington Post were so anxious to dig up dirt that they enlisted their readers to comb through the emails as citizen journalists, but sadly came up short with any real red flags. When will the left-wing press learn? The more they try and ruin Palin, the more they show their bias and damage their already thin credibility.

What’s worse: the media rarely research the “transparency” president with the same due diligence they apply to Palin. If they really want to earn the respect of their readers, they’ll focus on those in office, rather than those who aren’t anymore.

In fact, it was reported in March that the Obama administration was (ironically) censoring emails about their open government policy. In fact, they censored 194 pages of internal emails about its Open Government Directive that the AP requested more than one year ago. The Associated Press also reported that, “Two years into its pledge to improve government transparency, the Obama administration took action on fewer requests for federal records from citizens, journalists, companies and others last year even as significantly more people asked for information.”

More than that, the media often resists fact-checking the president on his policies and his assertions about his record.

The real story to come out of the Palin email harvest is that there is no new story at all. Once again the media has reached too far and come up short. In an effort to reveal damaging information about Palin, it was the media that did the damage to themselves.

Andrea Tantaros is a commentator and Fox News contributor. Follow her on Twitter @andreatantaros.