TIME MAGAZINE’S Michael Scherer reports on Sarah Palin’s debut on the O’Reilly Factor:

[Fox News creator Roger] Ailes had hired a mascot for Fox News, a living breathing symbol of all that the network hopes to be: a place for the forgotten, besieged, suburban and rural American middle, long victimized, often dismissed, beset on all sides by elites and liberals, haters and foes.

I find his description of Fox viewers -“forgotten”, “besieged”, “victimized”, “beset” - interesting, as it brings to mind this quotation:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

I wonder if Scherer recognizes it.

[Postscript] Scherer’s blog is called “Swampland” - how appropriate.