I was encouraged after watching the video of Jack Cafferty blasting Sarah Palin’s performance on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric last week. Especially so when Wolf Blitzer tried to spin it in the name of objectivity—explaining that she was trying to cram a lot of information—before Cafferty cut him off, saying she should at least know the basics of the situation if she’s aspiring to the second-highest office in the nation.

While some conservative pundits are also jumping on the backlash bandwagon, Howard Kurtz writes today that others still are pulling their punches:

And the worst may be yet to come for Palin; sources say CBS has two more responses on tape that will likely prove embarrassing.

While some journalists say privately they are censoring their comments about Palin to avoid looking like they’re piling on, pundits on the right are jumping ship. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough says Palin “just seems out of her league.” National Review Editor Rich Lowry called her performance “dreadful.” Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher described the interview as a “train wreck.” Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker urged Palin to quit the race, saying: “If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.”

It saddens me that journalists are holding back in this time of crisis, but it’s understandable that not everyone is at a point in his/her career to to be as blunt and ballsy as Cafferty in his opinion of Palin. Individual conservative pundits might be jumping ship, but what’s downright frightening is that it seems CBS may be holding back on releasing the tape because it could be “embarrassing” if released.

Most Americans don’t sit around scouring multiple news sources and reading blogs to inform themselves on the candidates and the issues, which is easily proven by these people who think Barack Obama is a Muslim. The majority likely aren’t that grossly ill-informed, but ignorance is a major problem in this country.

CBS obviously cares about at least trying to be objective, as it interviewd Palin’s parents and gave them a platform to blast back and provide their two cents. But with little more than a month before Election Day, why would a major network like CBS even consider holding this tape back? Doesn’t it feel a responsibility to inform the public and paint a complete picture of a candidate, even if that picture is unflattering?

This tape needs to be released immediately.