Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

Speaking at a fundraiser in Downtown Washington, D.C. this morning, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R) praised the conservative Tea Party movement, and fired jabs at members of the “mainstream” news media.

Palin, who waived her speaking fee to address a sold-out audience at the ticket-only breakfast, held by the Susan B. Anthony List, a 280,000-member organization devoted to helping elect pro-life candidates to office, said she is inspired by the fact that, according to polls, women represent the majority of Tea Partiers nationwide.

The 2008 Republican Vice Presidential candidate was met with applause when she said, “these policies coming out of DC right now, this fundamental transformation of America that we were warned about in the [2008 presidential] campaign? Well, a lotta women...are saying, ‘we don’t like this.’”

“It seems like it’s kind of a ‘mom awakening’ in the last year and a half,” she added. “Women are rising up and saying, ‘no, we’ve had enough already, we’re gonna...get our country back on the right track.’”

Moments later, Palin expressed sympathy for Tea Partiers, who, she said, have been negatively mischaracterized by the news media as being supportive of violence and bigotry.

“People there in the media [are] trying to portray Tea Party Americans as racist and violent and all those things that they are not,” said Palin. “[The media has] tried, but I think they’ve failed because Americans are smart enough to start holding the media accountable.”

"They just kinda crack me up," she jested.