Just a few weeks ago, MSNBC's Chuck Todd complained that the media are far too eager to cover Sarah Palin, tripping over themselves to help publicize her Tweets and Facebook posts, even though they amount to nothing. “I hope we don't hear from Sarah Palin about media bias anymore, because it is amazing the ability this woman has to get media attention with as little as she does, whether it's a Twitter or a Facebook update, and she gets all this attention. ... I don't get it, I don't buy it.”

Fast forward to yesterday morning, when the aforementioned former half-term governor appeared on Fox News Sunday and offered her typically ill-informed and grammatically mutilated view on the immigration controversy in Arizona:

PALIN: This is a temporary suspension of some of the key elements of the law that Gov. Jan Brewer pushed hard for Arizonans and the rest of the country to be -- have the result of us being more secure. So that's unfortunate that the judge chose those steps. But it is temporary and Jan Brewer, bless her heart, she's going to do all that she can to continue down the litigation paths to allow secure borders because she's -- Jan Brewer has the cojones that our president does not have to look out for all Americans. Not just Arizonans but all Americans in this desire of ours to secure our borders and allow legal immigration to help build this country as was the purpose of immigration laws. If our own president will not enforce a federal law, more power to Jan Brewer and 44 other states who are in line to help support Jan Brewer in state laws, state efforts to do what our president won't do.

As a substantive matter this statement is meaningless and determinedly refuses to rise above the sort of right-wing bluster typically found on the AM dial. And yet, everyone in the media is talking about it because OMG Sarah Palin totally said “cojones” on TV. Palin's remark earned an article in the Washington Post, mentions on NBC's Today and CNN, and articles on CBSNews.com and the New York Times' political blog.

And I want to focus on the Times' blog because they made a key point: “Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska could have chosen courage, boldness, guts or even lion-heartedness as a yardstick to compare the immigration stances of President Obama and Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona. But the former vice presidential candidate instead went with a much more pointed term on Sunday.”

That's exactly it. If Palin had gone on television and said “Jan Brewer has the boldness that our president does not,” it's doubtful that anyone would have given her that much attention. But, of course, it's attention that Palin wants and she knows that she'll get it not by offering smart, reasoned takes on the politics of the moment, but by going on TV and using a mild Spanish vulgarity when talking about the president.

Go back and watch the Fox News Sunday clip of Palin -- the only moment in which she's not searching for words or stammering or struggling to make a point or repeating herself is when she interrupts her own wandering train of thought to state with confidence that the president lacks “cojones.” That's the line she wanted to say, and she said it because she knew the media would seize on it.

And that gets back to Todd's criticism of the press regarding their treatment of Palin. She knows that she doesn't really have to do anything to get media coverage, and saying Obama lacks “cojones” is no more worthwhile than any of her vapid Facebook or Twitter updates. We can't expect her to suddenly start behaving like a serious person. It's the media that have to stop playing into her routine.