MSM Assault on Sarah Palin Continues
Despite a brief and welcomed respite from the NYT, the MSM's obsessive attacks on Sarah Palin and her family continue. The latest is from Vanity Fair, which in the guise of humor, demonstrates their editors unconscionable snobbery and inability to accept differences in lifestyle, as in big family, religious, church-going, pro lifers who gave birth to a Down baby. Readers even get to vote whether Sarah or Bristol Palin is the real mother of Trig! The premise is a purported timeline of Trig's birth. From the story:
The National Enquirer isn't planning to report that the partner is the real father of Trig, but that there was a supposed affairs years ago. But never mind. Any salacious rumor will be grabbed--and even distorted--to hurt the hated enemy! It gets worse, but I'll let you all read it if you wish.August 2007: Trig is conceived...during a queaky clean conjugal roll in the snow [or]during an illicit adolescent romp, OR as the National Equirer is allegedly preparing to report, a tryst between the Governor and her husband's colleague.
Here is the point: This scandalous journalistic malpractice and gang jump isn't just occurring in the fringe blogosphere. It is feeding off the vile liars in the blogosphere and giving their "respectable" imprimatur to the garbage emenating from the obsessive crackpots who have been making things up and altering the date of photographs in their drive to destroy Palin.
This is Vanity Fair, not a supermarket tabloid. And it isn't alone. Vile. Sexist. Defamatory. But nothing is too low a blow to destroy the monster who dared give birth to a baby with Down syndrome and declare that she saw perfection in his eyes.
Labels: Sarah Palin. Media Bias.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:34 AM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
Whow!!!!!!!!! What a neat concept for getting an illicit story into the public and avoiding liable for deliberate subterfuge. Journalism is sinking fast. They can create the impression they want with the public voting on the truth though" Vanity Fair" lacked the Journalistic Integrity to find out the Truth or is it the desire to find out the truth????
I think the MSM are telling us who they by doing this. It's unconscionable, but it's who they are. The good news for my cause is that it appears to be blowing up on them. I doubt this is the worst to come before they figure out that they've blown it.
Wesley: Beside the one crackpot "journalist" from the Daily Kos that stirred up this rumor, what other credible media outlets actively pursued the story? In an age of internet news, rumors disguised as news travel at the speed of light and are cut & pasted into every forum and chatroom in a matter of hours. And the more salacious the rumor, the quicker it travels. This doesn't mean that they were in every case perpetuated by the MSM, which appears to be an omnipresent whipping boy for ANY unfavorable coverage of a conservative candidate or issue.
My point is, if some credible MSM entity other Kos picked up the Trig story and ran with it, please cite who did and for how long. Then to be fair and balanced, approximate the number of MSM outlets that did NOT pick up this story. Then do the math and honestly report whether or not your accusation against the MSM majority on this particular issue was warranted or merely reflexive. If it is the latter, I would point out that two wrongs don't make a right.
As for the other "attacks" on Palin, why should her family, faith or political record be any less attackable than Obama's, Biden's, or McCain's? Because she is a woman? Because she is pro-life? Some of the most cutting attacks of her have come from the Right! Politics is a bloodsport and politicians' families have always been in the line of fire. I'm not saying this is right in any way, but it is clearly a practice that smears liberals and conservatives alike.
As for the 90% elective abortion rate for Down's babies, that staggering figure alone belies the fact that this form of eugenics is practiced by both sides of the political aisle. That being the case, I question why anyone would try to spin this as a classic liberal vs. conservative issue when the numbers/percentages indicate otherwise.
See my blog on Vanity Fair. Andrew Sullivan has pursued it obsessively, just to name two.
Sullivan is a registered Republican and a Rockerfeller-conservative. He is also gay and would be considered socially liberal to many but not all GOPer's.
Sources to date
1. The Daily Kos
2. Vanity Fair
3. Phila Daily News (a NY Post-type tabloid)
4. The Cajun Boy(?)
The main people I notice hanging on to the story seem to be those who are still crying "foul," thus unwittingly keeping this b.s. story in the spotlight even longer.
The Jeremiah Wright story and persistent false rumors about "Obama is a Muslim" had a much longer shelf life and were equally irrelevant and (in the case of the muslim charge) patently false. And I have seen a lot more coverage of John Edward's affair and alleged out-of-wedlock baby than I have read about McCain's sad affair with now-wife Cindy (both of who I otherwise find to be very honorable and respect-worthy people, by the way). This door swings both ways and is equally noxious. Palin can be criticized for a lot of things but birthing and caring for Trig sure isn't one of them. And the majority of Americans agree if one is to believe the polls.
What about the Down's abortion statistic as a non-partisan indictment?
Andrew Sullivan: 07 Sep 2008 08:25 pm
"In thinking about this astonishing week, and what's to come, I want to go on record again as saying that the decision to bring up a child with Down Syndrome is one of the most noble, beautiful and admirable decisions any person can make. That Sarah Palin is doing that says a huge amount in favor of her. The love obviously being shown toward tiny Trig is also about as profound an advertisement for genuine, pro-life Christianity as you can have. It means that, in this respect, Palin has walked the walk of the pro-life movement - in ways that many others have not. In my view, and I mean this as passionately as I mean my criticisms of her public record, this really is God's work."
O: Sullivan was leading the pack demanding proof of maternity. He, as a former editor of the National Journal and current essayist for The Times of London and Time, etc., gave credibility and credence to the wild and false rumors being generated by the Daily Kos. It was utterly irresponsible. Give me a break.
The point is that her personal life and that of her family have been attacked in ways unseen in any other politician in my memory, and the reason for that, I have opined, has quite a bit to do with her giving birth to Trig and what that symbolizes (although Sullivan may have other axes to grind).
There is no question in my mind that she, her daughter, and etc, have been gang jumped by a feeding frenzy media and others for reasons that I think have to do with cultural issues of the kind discussed here (as well as some not discussed here). Indeed, the
McCain campaign complained very early on of having media demand in background interviews that they prove Trig's paternity.
That was why they released the information on Bristol's pregancy as they did, because of the untoward questions and demands and the concerted digging that had begun into her private life.
Now, you may say that you don't believe it because that is the McCain's Campaign's story. But my wife was there and I heard the stories from her--which I will not repeat here--of the kind of things being asserted behind the scenes by some in the media. And what she told me about what was happening in the days before Palin's speech are consistent with what the McCain Campaign said was occurring and the reason they released that info.
Indeed, I did the original research on this story because I was so upset about what was being said by people who sohuld know better and I determined to check it out for myself. And I easily found the truth in thirty minutes, which means professional journalists could have too.
And the reasons for that behavior had nothing to do with energy policy.
And I won't even get into the mainstream comedians that also were and are part of the sexist mob.
That's how I see it. And I think it is shameful. But it is also an opinion that I cannot prove.
...but one that you have explained well; thanks. (Also read your VF blog.)
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