sarah palin smear
Smears against Sarah Palin
Summary (posts follow):
The Beltway elites were not very happy at all about Sarah Palin being selected as John McCain's 2008 running mate, and they responded by lying, misleading, and generally smearing her. That started in September and ran all the way to election day, with the Washington Post being the worst offender.
Last modified Dec 31, 2008
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):
Joe Klein of Time got anti-Sarah Palin talking points from Journolist - 07/22/10
On the day that John McCain selected Sarah Palin to be his running mate (August 29, 2008) the liberal journalists and commentators on Journolist swung into action, trying to figure out the best way to oppose her ([1]).
Several reasons Frank Rich is wrong (Arizona immigration law edition #1) - 05/02/10
I haven't discussed a Frank Rich column here before, so let's start by showing several ways he's wrong in yesterday's "If Only Arizona Were the Real Problem" (nytimes.com/2010/05/02/opinion/02rich.html). It's centered around that state's new immigration law, but it's a wide-ranging rant. Here are just some of the ways he's wrong):
Politifact "Lie of the Year" misleads (Angie Drobnic Holan; Sarah Palin's "death panels") - 12/19/09
Politifact has named Sarah Palin's claim about there being "death panels" in Obama healthcare as their lie of the year; it was the top "lie" selected by both their editors and their readers.
Adrian Chen, Gawker promote violence against politicians (Nick Denton; Sarah Palin tomato incident) - 12/08/09
Yesterday at the Mall of America, someone threw a couple of tomatoes at Sarah Palin; he missed and hit a cop and is now under arrest. In response, Adrian Chen of Gawker offered "Who is the Hero Who Threw Tomatoes at Sarah Palin?" (150k screengrab here, URL at [1]) in which he calls the person who threw the tomatoes an "American Hero".
Canadian comedian tries to embarrass Sarah Palin; fails; shows abysmal level of debate in U.S. - 11/27/09
Mediaite offers "Canadian Comedian Fails Miserably In Trying To Embarrass Sarah Palin" (link):
During a book signing event in Columbus, Ohio, Canadian Comedian Mary Walsh ambushed (Sarah Palin) with camera crew and microphone to seek her thoughts on the Canadian health care system (and ostensibly embarrass her as well.)
While the event security detail prevented a meaningful interview, Palin did provide some basic comments consistent with her conservative position. While many websites are now presenting this video clip as evidence of her naivete, the video actually acquits Palin quite well,...
Going Rogue: Andrew Sullivan pretends he didn't "run" with the Sarah Palin pregnancy story - 11/20/09
In her book "Going Rogue", Sarah Palin claims that The Atlantic (meaning Andrew Sullivan) "ran" with the disgusting story claiming that Trig Palin was actually the son of her daughter. Sullivan takes umbrage at her claim, saying that he never "ran" with the story but simply asked questions.
Huffington Post, AP mislead about Sarah Palin book; opponents not effective (pipeline deal) - 11/18/09
The Huffington Post and the Associated Press are reviving a smear both perpetrated against Sarah Palin about a year ago. At the same time, most of Palin's defenders aren't taking effective steps to counter-act what HuffPost and the AP are doing.
Winner & Associates rep on NEA Office of Public Engagement conference call - 09/21/09
As discussed here, one of the people on the conference call organized by the National Endowment for the Arts was Bim Ayandele, a Senior Associate from Winner Associates, a public relations firm. Just about a year ago, officials from that firm were caught trying to make an anti-Sarah Palin video go viral. See the backstory at the link; at the time, it was pointed out that Winner had previously worked with David Axelrod, but they stressed that the last time they'd heard from him was a decade earlier. Obama opponents tried to show that, among other things, they'd used someone for the voiceover...
Jon Henke: Sarah Palin's "death panels" are a "cartoon" (Peter Wallsten on GOP's quest for acceptance, respectability) - 09/14/09
Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times - the reporter who refused to release the Obama/Khalidi tape (also here) - gleefully offers "Some fear GOP is being carried to the extreme/The Republican establishment hopes cooler heads will prevail over strongly anti-Obama parts of the conservative base" (link). In this case, Wallsten is what's called a "concern troll", and he's got some help.
Those weighing in on the side of pearl-clutching, intellectually-dishonest respectability include David Frum (former George W Bush speechwriter) and Michael Goldfarb (former spokesman for the McCain campaign)....
New York Times now admits: "A Basis Is Seen for Some Health Plan Fears Among the Elderly" - 08/22/09
On August 13, Jim Rutenberg and Jackie Calmes of the New York Times offered "False 'Death Panel' Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots" (link):
The stubborn yet false rumor that President Obama’s health care proposals would create government-sponsored “death panels” to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere in recent weeks... Advanced even this week by Republican stalwarts including the party’s last vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, and Charles E. Grassley, the veteran Iowa senator, the nature of the assertion nonetheless seemed reminiscent of the modern-day...
Even if Palin is right about "death panels", will her supporters be able to do anything about it? - 08/13/09
I'm not familiar with the details of Obama healthcare so I don't know whether this post is right or not when it says that Sarah Palin wasn't wrong when she wrote the following:
The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.
What I do know is that a wide variety of MSM and non-MSM sources have already mocked her over this....
Serge Kovaleski, Jim Rutenberg, William Yardley of NYT lie about Sarah Palin hair thinning (per hairdresser) - 07/19/09
Ask not why I'm writing a post about Sarah Palin's hair thinning.
McCain campaign - not Palin - came up with "palling around"; Schmidt regrets largely true ad - 07/10/09
Marc Ambinder has an advance copy (link) of a book about the 2008 elections from Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson, and it might contain a good number of behind-the-scenes tidbits.
For instance, one of the mistakes that Sarah Palin made was to claim that Barack Obama was "palling around" with Bill Ayers.
Except, it was Nicolle Wallace of the McCain campaign - and not Palin - that came up with the "palling around" bit.
That allowed the mainstream media to mislead about the relationship between the two, dismissing that relationship by pointing out that they weren't close friends and using that...
Mike Murphy ignores GOP incompetence, self-defeating behavior (Sarah Palin) - 07/09/09
GOP consultant and former John McCain advisor Mike Murphy offers "To go forward, GOP must snap out of its Sarah Palin spell" (link). While his bad advice this time isn't as bad as his horrible immigration advice, he's still on the wrong side:
Unfortunately for McCain, the actual swing voters, the independents who do determine the winner of the election, didn't buy into this fantasy at all. After a three-week sniff, most couldn't run away from Palin fast enough.
He certainly has access to more polling data than I'll ever have, but what he completely fails to note is just how incompetent and...
David Letterman smears 14-year-old girl; *CBS*, New York Times cover for him - 06/09/09
This site tries to avoid the Outrage du Jour, preferring instead to concentrate on topics that are actually important.
"How Obama Got Elected": documentary about Sarah Palin and media malpractice - 02/23/09
Former KFI talk jock John Ziegler has released his documentary "How Obama Got Elected" (link), which apparently contains example after example of the mainstream media lying about and smearing Sarah Palin. If anyone's seen it, please leave a review; note that I wasn't too very impressed with the Zogby poll Ziegler commissioned shortly after the election.
The trailer is attached; see also the early January interview Zeigler did with Palin here.
Here are over a dozen examples of the media's smears and lies about Palin.
And, on an ironic but not really unexpected note, even the promo tour for the...
Greg Mitchell misleads about MSM smears of Sarah Palin ("Why Obama Won") - 02/15/09
Greg Mitchell - editor of Editor and Publisher and author of the new book "Why Obama Won" - puts on his mainstream media apologist hat to offer the incredibly misleading "Hit or Myth: Did the Media 'Destroy' McCain's Chances By Mocking Sarah Palin?" (link):
In the months after the November election, and then gaining even more attention as Barack Obama became president, are charges that the media helped elect him by attacking, of mocking, Sarah Palin. Numerous pundits and conservative activists have alleged that she had given John McCain a big boost in the polls when first named and that she...
Patt Morrison's greatest journalistic accomplishment: getting a thrift shop to change their name (Sarah Palin) - 02/14/09
During the campaign, Sarah Palin said that her favorite place to shop was a thrift store in Anchorage called ''Out of the Closet". I happen to know that there's also a chain of gay-benefiting shops in Los Angeles by the same name. If I had initiated the process whereby that chain considered filing a trademark infringement case against the Alaska store and that store had then changed their name to "Second Run", the last thing I'd do is crow about it. In fact, I'd try to prevent anyone from finding out that I was so petty, so incredibly low-class, so lower than a snake's belly, so small-minded...
Ex-McCain strategist John Weaver: Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh are "extreme right" - 01/27/09
From July 2007 (link):
For the past decade, John Weaver had been Senator John McCain’s chief strategist, the man behind the whole Straight Talk barnstorming shtick that made the conservative Arizonan a media star. Then, after building McCain into an apparent shoo-in for the Republican nomination—a maverick savior for his party—he sank the campaign into debt and disarray, leading to his resignation last week.
From today (link):
John Weaver... said that Republicans must be careful not to allow their Democratic rivals to paint them all with the brush of (Rush Limbaugh). "The Democrats and the...
Zogby poll shows how misinformed Obama's supporters are (and is yet another example of Obama's opponents making mistakes) - 11/19/08
John Ziegler - a former KFI talk jock who was pushed out after a dispute with John & Ken - has a video documentary including interviews with Barack Obama supporters showing how ignorant and/or misinformed they are.
His site (link) also includes a Zogby poll he commissioned that tries to show the same thing. Unfortunately, some of the questions that are supposedly true either aren't true or are disputed.
So, it's a two-fer. The poll shows not only how misinformed many Obama supporters are, but also provides yet another example of Obama's opponents making mistakes. See #18 at that list...
Michael Crowley/TNR falls for obvious hoax (source of Sarah Palin smears) - 11/10/08
The New Republic - home to a long series of reprehensible folks like James Kirchick and Jason Zengerle - has fallen for another hoax.
Washington Post admits coverage tilted to Obama, doesn't admit their incredibly biased coverage for him and their lies for him - 11/08/08
Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell offers "An Obama Tilt in Campaign Coverage" (link). Unfortunately, about the only "tilt" she admits to is in the amount of coverage. She almost completely ignores the fact that the Washington Post served as little more than an arm of the Obama campaign by lying and misleading on his behalf and by serving as the source for and amplifier of smears.
New smear: Palin didn't know Africa was a continent or the three countries in NAFTA - 11/05/08
[IMPORTANT UPDATE BELOW]
An unnamed John McCain aide supposedly told Carl Cameron of Fox News - a tool if there ever was one - that Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent instead of a country. The aide also told him that she didn't know which countries were in NAFTA. Needless to say, this comes on the heels of a long line of smears against Palin, and it's almost assuredly a smear as well. She obviously knows about Canada, and she also obviously knows about Mexico. There's the slight possibility that she thought that some of the countries that are in Central America were in North...
Sarah Palin cleared in Troopergate - 11/03/08
From this:
A new report just released -- hours before the polls open on Election Day -- exonerates Gov.
Did Barack Obama flip the bird to John McCain? (give the finger) - 11/03/08
Back in April, Barack Obama might have "flipped the bird"/"given the finger" to Hillary Clinton. In September, BHO said "You can put lipstick on a pig, itaBack in April, Barack Obama might have "flipped the bird"/"given the finger" to Hillary Clinton.
ADN: AP Palin story on pipeline bids was "remarkably skewed" (Justin Pritchard, Garance Burke) - 11/01/08
The Anchorage Daily News - a paper that's endorsed Obama - offers "Misfire at Palin" (link) about last week's Associated Press "investigation" from Justin Pritchard and Garance Burke about bids for a major Alaskan pipeline project [1].
This report from The Associated Press is a remarkably skewed account with little new information to support the charge it implies. Presumably, readers are supposed to conclude that Palin tilted the gas line bidding toward a favored company, one that had previously employed one of her key staffers.
Here's the truth: The pipeline terms were not "Palin's." They...
Don't donate to Goodwill Industries (Palin smear) - 10/28/08
How could anyone encourage people not to donate to Goodwill Industries? Well, because they spent the money they received in past donations on smear ad campaigns like the one described here. The two page ad features "Dear Sarah Palin, We eagerly await your $150,000 clothing donation on Nov. 5th" in the left pane and "Dear Barack Obama, If you'd care to donate any of your $1,500 suits on Nov. 5th, we'd greatly appreciate it".
Naomi Wolf: *Sarah Palin* - not Obama - will usher in a police state - 10/28/08
Ah, the HuffPost. Other than scraps of paper on laundromat walls the only place where Naomi Wolf could write 'The Battle Plan II: Sarah "Evita" Palin, the Muse of the Coming Police State' (link):
Please understand what you are looking at when you look at Sarah "Evita" Palin. You are looking at the designated muse of the coming American police state... Reports confirmed my suspicions: Palin, not McCain, is the FrankenBarbie of the Rove-Cheney cabal...
Keith Olbermann lies, says Sarah Palin is a socialist and described Alaska that way - 10/28/08
This site doesn't normally track the lies of Keith Olbermann since there are so many and no one outside his bubble trusts anything he says. However, sometimes he crosses the line, as he did with tonight's "Olbermann on Palin: Socialist, fraud/Governor doesn't have a problem with Alaska's socialistic collectivism" (link) which contains this:
Who was the collectivist share-the-wealther, who was boasting to the reporter visiting from "The New Yorker Magazine," of having been able to send a check for $1,200 to every man, woman and child in the state since, quote "Alaska is sometimes described as...
Alexander Lane, Amy Hollyfield/Politifact spin redistribution for Obama - 10/28/08
Alexander Lane and Amy Hollyfield of Politifact continue to show that that "fact checking" site might as well be working for the Barack Obama campaign by offering 'Obama would "experiment with socialism."/The McCain campaign experiments with dishonesty' (politifact.org/truth-o-meter/statements/826). It's another example of the MSM taking a statement that wasn't phrased in a painfully legalistic fashion, playing dumb, and then spinning things Obama's way.
In this case, they discuss the following Sarah Palin statement:
"Senator Obama says that he wants to spread the wealth, which means - you...
Palin's wardrobe: $150,000. Obama's trips to Hawaii: $800,000. Obama at Invesco: $5.3 million - 10/27/08
The fact that Sarah Palin and/or her GOP helpers spent $150,000 or so on her wardrobe should be a very minor matter. Except, it isn't because the BHO campaign and their surrogates in the MSM have blown it into a major "scandal". Meanwhile, they've ignored the cost of Obama's trips to Hawaii: $800,000 (link).
Paging Andrew Sullivan, MSM: Palin in a noose - 10/26/08
Chad Michael Morrisette of West Hollywood shows how low "liberals" are willing to go with the following Halloween decoration of Sarah Palin in a noose (link):
Wonderfully "liberal" person that he is, he also has a display of John McCain emerging from flames of some kind.
Now awaiting the condemnation from "liberals" in 3,023,094,392,393... 3,023,094,392,392...
UPDATE: New frontiers in vetting await!
ZOMG! Sarah Palin wears donkey scarf at Reno rally! (Democrats!) - 10/23/08
OMG! OMG! At a rally in Reno, Sarah Palin wore a donkey-themed scarf, just like the Democratic Party's logo!
The mindless, Obama-supporting drones across the internet are using this as yet another instance of their attempts to portray Palin as the new Dan Quayle. Just one problem: there's the strong possibility that some cute little prankster planted it on her.
Drew Griffin/CNN smears Sarah Palin with completely out-of-context National Review quote - 10/21/08
Drew Griffin of CNN recently conducted an interview with Sarah Palin and asked her this:
Governor, you've been mocked in the press, the press has been pretty hard on you, the Democrats have been pretty hard on you, but also some conservatives have been pretty hard on you as well. The National Review had a story saying that, you know, I can't tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt or all of the above.
As detailed here, Griffin took that NR quote completely out of context; the laundry list referred to the impression that the media has been trying to give of her. How...
Is Jimmy Lee Shreeve trustworthy, or does he just make things up? (Sarah Palin) - 10/21/08
Jimmy Lee Shreeve wrote an article for England's Telegraph yesterday ("Sarah Palin: Pointing a loaded gun at the environment?", link via this) which contained this completely fabricated Palin quote:
"magnificent, cuddly white bears are doing just fine and don't need our protection. If the ice melts, they'll adapt to living on the land."
That article went on to get over 3300 Diggs. While the person who submitted it has now also posted a mea culpa, the damage has already been done.
The Telegraph has now deleted that quote from their article, without noting that it was deleted.
So, if you want...
Dana Milbank/WaPO lied about Secret Service; may have lied about "kill him" - 10/18/08
Showing once again that it's the dumb ones that give the game away, on the 16th Dana Milbank of the Washington Post claimed the following during an online chat:
In cooperation with the Palin campaign, [the Secret Service has] started preventing reporters from leaving the press section to interview people in the crowd.
As could be expected, various "liberal" sites rushed to retransmit Milbank's claim; for instance it got almost 1000 comments at the HuffPost (huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/16/secret-service-blocking-r_n_135336.html).
However, the Secret Service denies that there's such cooperation...
Rachel d'Oro/AP's sleazy race-baiting to support Barack Obama - 10/18/08
Rachel d'Oro of the Associated Press offers an extremely sleazy, disreputable, race-baiting article called "Alaska's minorities feel ignored by Palin" (link). Articles like this show exactly how a Barack Obama presidency would operate: surrogates - assisted by the mainstream media - would attempt to racialize every decision made by Obama in an attempt to silence critics.
Alaska's black leaders say they're not surprised to see Gov. Sarah Palin at the center of the controversy over injecting the race issue into the presidential campaign.
Palin, Republican John McCain's running mate, has...
Live coverage: John McCain/Barack Obama Hofstra "debate", 10/15/08 - 10/15/08
Live coverage of the "debate" at Hofstra University between John McCain and Barack Obama commences now.
McCain is taking BHO to task for the "Sarah Palin is a ****" t-shirts and for BHO's implication of widespread rabble-rousing at McCain/Palin rallies.
And, BHO is stumbling. He indeed has a "glass jaw", yet no one wants to take advantage of his lack of experience at being challenged.
No class: Barack Obama supporters boo Sarah Palin, eight-year old daughter - 10/11/08
Some might question why the Philadelphia Flyers were celebrating hockey moms instead of getting to the game. Some might question why Sarah Palin was bringing her daughters out onto the ice.
CQ Transcriptions/NYT/CNN made transcript "error" for Palin/Biden debate (no funny business at all!) - 10/11/08
As pointed out here, the transcripts of the Sarah Palin/Joe Biden debate from both CNN and the New York Times contained a rather curious "error".