Gibson on Palin, Finnegan on Gibson: Charlie Gibson was tough on Sarah Palin in the first of their two ABC interviews, but we think Michael Finnegan was even tougher on Gibson: “Gibson, however, mischaracterized her as simply asserting that the nation’s leaders were sending troops to Iraq on a task from God. (snip) Gibson went on to take a second part of her comments out of context.”

Gibson on Palin, McNamara on Gibson: Mary McNamara had a clearer (we think) take on the whole interview: “Everyone seemed to forget that this is a vice presidential candidate, a public servant who should not be playing hard to get with reporters and whose main job it is to articulate the positions and policies of her ticket. Even Gibson acted as if he feared this might be the one shot the entire Fourth Estate gets, conducting what was essentially a high-level, high-pressure interview with a job candidate who quickly revealed that her skill set is heavy on can-do-attitude, and light on company policy comprehension.”

McCain on Fact-checkers, Rainey on McCain: James Rainey comes to the defense of news organizations like FactCheck.org: “News organizations and these admirable truth-squadding outfits, including PolitiFact.com, do not collaborate. But in independent news reports and commentaries this week, they seemed to reach a consensus to say ‘enough’ to the McCain camp’s efforts to demonize Barack Obama.”