The Daily Caller has just published yet another set of e-mails from Journolist, the Left's journalist listserv group. And these smell particularly bad. The topic? Whether to coordinate a negative message, jump on Andrew Sullivan stinking bandwagon and raise the Trig-troother issue - that Sarah Palin was not Trig Palin's real mother.
15 pages worth.
To be fair, some of the e-mails actually expressed some common decency, like one by Ezra Klein, who wrote: "By all accounts she’s a wonderful mother, and devoted to her fifth son [sic]. Leave this be."
But what struck me about a number of the comments was the sentiment that the chief reason for not touching this was not because it was indecent but because it could be a Republican 'trick' that could backfire politically:
Lindsay Beyerstein
Aug 30, 2008, 11:20am
In the post-Rathergate era, journalists should be on their guard for Republican dirty tricks.
If this story gains traction, regardless of its truth or falsity, the Republicans will take steps to neutralize the meme.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the McCain campaign were to leak doctored evidence for the sole purpose of discrediting it and destroying the journalist who published it. That’s probably what the Killian memos were.
We should also be on guard for “evidence” falling into the lap of an unknown and easily discredited figure. That’s probably what Rove did to neutralize the allegations of cocaine use by George W. Bush, lo these many years ago.
If apparently well-substantiated allegations emerge, we should be alert for the story behind the story, so to speak.
-Lindsay
Mark Kleiman :
Politically, this smells like a red herring and a trap, and I think that the revelation that someone was sniffing around about it would outrage large numbers of voters. Palin’s public life presents a target-rich environment for
investigation.So this story desperately needs a good leaving-alone.
There was a lot of go around about the evidence, and some suggestions for talking points and attack lines to be used if someone wanted to run with this ...and the fear was palpable, best expressed by Kathleen Geier of Talking Points Memo:
It looks like the daughter *could* be pregnant — especially in the first picture.
And it seems odd that Palin would wait until her 7th month to announce her pregnancy.
None of this is evidence of anything, of course — but I do relish the idea that if this were true and discovered, Palin would take the crown from Eagleton as the most disastrous veep choice ever.
I am really hoping Palin will self-immolate and bring down the ticket with her. Because if she proves to be a popular choice who doesn’t screw up too badly, she could be really, really dangerous in the years to come.
The whole sordid saga would be sad and pathetic if these people weren't so inherently dangerous to the whole idea of a free press that supposed to help guard our liberties.
I'll let Governor Palin have the last word:
How ironic that on a day when we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, The Daily Caller released 15 pages of JournoListers’ email exchanges about a dark and demented conspiracy regarding my son, Trig.
It’s tough to fittingly describe these numerous members of the mainstream media who actively engaged in the debate about this conspiracy back when I was first introduced as John McCain’s running mate, and it’s impossible to legitimize any “prominent” media publication that continues to traffic in this bizarre narrative today. It wasn’t just a few fringe characters in that JournoList discussion. It included writers for major newspapers, magazines, and online news publications. Those participating in this immature exchange in attempts to plant seeds of doubt and falsely accuse even included a famous historian.
This JournoList exchange exposes the warped nature of today’s media, thus explaining why many of us are forced, in fairness to the public, to utilize other mediums to communicate until the mainstream media wakes up and begins respecting the public’s intelligence and desire for truth in reporting. There is a sickness and darkness in today’s liberal media. With revelations like the JournoList exchanges, may the light keep shining to expose the problem.
It’s always darkest before the dawn. My hope, therefore, is that today, marking the anniversary of our nation’s attempt to show respect for our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters with special needs, will also mark the beginning of a new, more respectful discourse among members of our media who at least aspire to be fair and objective.
- Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin has always been a class act. Unfortunately fair and objective was never the intent of the MSM and it never will be.But how interesting that the leftist blogosphere, which drops the charge of racism willy nilly at anyone who criticizs the President has no compunction to deride and abuse a disabled infant for their own warped political purposes. I think disgusting is too mild a term to use to describe them. I bet they must all be really good friends of Oliver Stone.
ReplyDeletethank you I/P for describing so accurately a full 50% ( that is half ) of the american population.
ReplyDeletelook at the polls.
there was something i was going to say about hair and a sack but forgot what it was.