The bogus Sarah Palin Banned Books List (Michelle Malkin debunks yet another Palin smear)

MichelleMalkin.com ^ | September 6, 2008 | Michelle Malkin

[Stoat]

The bogus Sarah Palin Banned Books List

By Michelle Malkin  •  September 6, 2008 12:01 AM

Photoshop: David Lunde

Palin Derangement Syndrome strikes again. This time it’s hysterical librarians and their readers on the Internet disseminating a bogus list of books Gov. Sarah Palin supposedly banned in 1996. Looks like some of these library people failed reading comprehension. Take a look at the list below and you’ll find books Gov. Palin supposedly tried to ban…that hadn’t even been published yet. Example: The Harry Potter books, the first of which wasn’t published until 1998.

The smear merchants who continue to circulate the list also failed to do a simple Google search, which would have showed them that the bogus Sarah Palin Banned Book List is almost an exact copy-and-paste reproduction of a generic list of “Books Banned at One Time or Another in the United States” that has been floating around the Internet for years. STACLU notes that the official Obama campaign website is also perpetuating the fraud. And it’s spread to craigslist, where some unhinged user is posting images likening Palin to Hitler. Here it is again.

The person who first spread the Palin smear is identified as “Andrew Aucoin,” a commenter on the blog of librarian Jessamyn West. West has done the right thing in keeping the bogus comment up and pointing out in her main post that “there appears to be no truth to the claim made by the commenter, and no further documentation or support for this has turned up.”

It’s a fake. Not true. Total B.S. A lie.

If it gets sent to you by a moonbat friend or family member, set ‘em all straight. Fight the smears. They’ve only just begun.

The bogus Sarah Palin Banned Books List:

This is the list of books Palin tried to have banned. As many of you will notice it is a hit parade for book burners.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth

***

From the Anchorage Daily News story that inflamed P.D.S.:

Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn’t fully support her and had to go.

Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job.

It all happened 12 years ago and the controversy long ago disappeared into musty files. Until this week. Under intense national scrutiny, the issue has returned to dog her. It has been mentioned in news stories in Time Magazine and The New York Times and is spreading like a virus through the blogosphere.

The stories are all suggestive, but facts are hard to come by. Did Palin actually ban books at the Wasilla Public Library?

…Were any books censored banned? June Pinell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee since 1984, checked her files Wednesday and came up empty-handed.

Pinell-Stephens also had no record of any phone conversations with Emmons about the issue back then. Emmons was president of the Alaska Library Association at the time.

[Stoat]

Related FR thread from September 4

Palin Asked About Censoring Books With Wasilla Librarian

 

 

 

 

[bajabaja]

I wonder if any of these librarians are using public funds or facilities (at their libraries) to circulate this fraud.

That is campaigning using public facilities and funds.

Not that anyone will look into it and prosecute it, but I suspect it is going on if one reads between the lines here.

[SatinDoll]

Interesting. This list doesn’t include “The Left-hand of Darkness”, which is always on book-burner’s lists.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I’m sorry. After looking through that list, I’m going to have to call BS on this smear. The Bastard by John Jakes is a favorite of mine. Knowing Sarah Palin, I’ll bet it’s a favorite of hers also.

[Tempest]

So when are Freepers going to stand up to the smears and smack some trash talking DUmmies around.

You know those losers will keep spreading their FUD until they've tossed so much SH!T that the voters will be too confused to know truth from rumors.

FUD = Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

[top 2 toe red]

Good Grief! If she was sitting around reading all these books and then trying to get all of them banned, she would have gotten absolutely nothing else done.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Where do you think they got the list? Are there people out there compiling lists of books to ban? The list looks almost random (Chaucer and Boccaccio, Steinbeck and Faulkner?) but too long for someone to just come up with of the top of their head. I don’t see what they have in common.

[Tublecane]

Some of those books are good, some bad. I don’t know if any are dangerous, or if any book can be dangerous (outside of Das Kapital). But I wonder, so long as we have libraries (and I don’t believe that they are necessary, or a true “public good”), why can’t we ban things.

According to the First Ammendment, censorship of private publishing houses or bookstores is out of the question. But those private organizations can, of course, censor themselves. Why can’t libraries censor themselves, too? They are not taking books out of circulation, but rather taking them out of their building, just like Barnes and Noble does every day.

Schools, as we all know, must use discretion in what they show the children, partly out of time-constraints and partly out of propriety. The difference between a library and a public school is that adults attend libraries too. They can wrangle adults into a seperate section. But do they want to? Does the government serve its constituency by providing pornography?

That Court decision about free speech and library pornography was asinine. The state has no duty to provide strange men with space to masturbate in. If we’re going to have public libraries, they should be able to use their discretion. If they choose to ban masterpieces like the Decameron and Canterbury Tales, the public will scoff, and customers will go elswhere.

[JustaCowgirl]

Sarah Palin must be incredibly well-read to have the knowledge that would allow her to put these books on a banned books list.

LOL! It is so ridiculous.

[21twelve]

This can’t be right. I don’t see the book “Darkhorse” (hey - fits right in for the election!) that we used to pass around in 8th-grade library

“.. and the spasms running up her back felt like tiny little ski boots...”

[rvoitier]

Thanks Stoat!

I've done cursory research lately to debunk a falsehood spreader here locally on another political matter and found something striking trying to ferret out truth and facts:

There a 1,000 Monkeys Typing for the 'rats.

I imagine it's their way of balancing discussions--by spreading outright lies.

[Lusis]

PWNED!

[Tublecane]

“One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn”

No way she’d ban this one.

“A Separate Peace by John Knowles”

Or this (National Review called it a masterpiece).

“Brave New World by Aldous Huxley”

Or this. Or several others.

“Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau”
“The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood”
“The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger”

These can go. I won’t miss them.

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain”

Isn’t it ironic that this book is burned only because of political correctness (there’s a very naughty word in there).

“The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare”

This one too. Will was such an anti-semite.

[lainie]

So when are Freepers going to stand up to the smears and smack some trash talking DUmmies around

What are you waiting for?

[SatinDoll]

The publication of such lists, “books to be banned”, are usually a compilation of many lists promulgated by interest groups who find the subject matter of these books objectionable in some way.

Some of the books on this list (from this post) have been recommended as “objectionable” by Roman Catholic organizations, the NAACP, some Evangelical Baptist groups, and other special interest groups too numerous to recount.

I really see no reason for the lists other than many of these books shouldn’t be on the mandatory (or voluntary) reading lists of children less than 18-years old. Parents should make the judgement calls on what their children read, no one else.

[Stoat]

Thanks Stoat!

You're quite welcome, and I'm delighted that you've found it to be worthwhile  :-)

I've done cursory research lately to debunk a falsehood spreader here locally on another political matter and found something striking trying to ferret out truth and facts:

There a 1,000 Monkeys Typing for the 'rats.

I certainly appreciate what you're doing and I doubt that I would be going out on a limb to say that all Patriots appreciate what you're doing....and I'm SURE that Governor Palin appreciates what you're doing   :-)

I imagine it's their way of balancing discussions--by spreading outright lies.

I suppose if a person has no moral foundation, has a worldview that is built upon hysteria, lies and endlessly-disproven political and economic concepts, has a computer and nothing but time on his hands, and feels that the fabric of his existence is falling apart because Governor Palin is on the road that will likely take her to the Presidency not too many years from now, then yes I guess spreading malicious lies is about all they have left to do.

 

Thanks Stoat!

You're quite welcome, and I'm delighted that you've found it to be worthwhile  :-)

I've done cursory research lately to debunk a falsehood spreader here locally on another political matter and found something striking trying to ferret out truth and facts:

There a 1,000 Monkeys Typing for the 'rats.

I certainly appreciate what you're doing and I doubt that I would be going out on a limb to say that all Patriots appreciate what you're doing....and I'm SURE that Governor Palin appreciates what you're doing   :-)

I imagine it's their way of balancing discussions--by spreading outright lies.

I suppose if a person has no moral foundation, has a worldview that is built upon hysteria, lies and endlessly-disproven political and economic concepts, has a computer and nothing but time on his hands, and feels that the fabric of his existence is falling apart because Governor Palin is on the road that will likely take her to the Presidency not too many years from now, then yes I guess spreading malicious lies is about all they have left to do.

[jerry557]

Im shocked they didnt add “Fahrenheit 451” to that fake list.

[Dagny&Hank]

These tactics show desperation. They’d try Kamikaze attacks if they could.

[Tempest]

*sigh* I feel alone in the woods...

[browardchad]

There a 1,000 Monkeys Typing for the 'rats.

That number seems a bit low -- make it thousands. They literally swarm onto political blogs and news sites in the space of a few hours, and, of course, report back to Monkey HQ when there's something negative (however true) about O making the rounds. Monkey HQ then immediately translates that into a distorted "smear" orchestrated by the McCain campaign. The closer the "smear" is to the truth, the more hysterical the reaction.

Community activism, fug-ugly internet style.

[screaminsunshine]

Why would Jane want to ban Tarzan?

[snowtigger]

The truth is that all librarians censor what we read almost daily. No library, or almost no library can hold every book written. Someone (the librarian?) has to decide which books are acceptable in their particular library.

This must,by necessity, ban most books. There simply isn't shelf space. The result will always reflect the personal view of the deciding body.

[Proverbs 3-5]

Why am I not surprised that Snopes has not commented on this hoax... My guess is if it had been a falsehood about BO they'd have put the lie to rest quickly...

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

?Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn’t fully support her and had to go.

Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked. After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let Emmons keep her job.”

That does seem odd though???????

[Paisan]

Strange, Maya Angelou is on the list. Her books don’t need to be banned. They’re so bad they ban themselves.

[Mercat]

The Harry Potter books hadn’t been published in 1996.

[oyez]

nor Naked Lunch.

Somebody is dreaming out of their you know what.

[freelancer]

This must,by necessity, ban most books. There simply isn't shelf space. The result will always reflect the personal view of the deciding body.

Re: banned books. Some are banned, some are "challenged" meaning someone tried to have them banned. The list is long and some of the reasons for banning a book may seem silly. Some of the books on the list in this latest attempt at creating a Palin scandal were banned a long time ago or in far away countries.

Re: librarians as censors. While it's true that there is a limit to shelving space in any library, the librarians who do the purchasing select according to the interests/needs/demands of the population they serve. If the book you seek is not in the collection of your library (whether it's an academic library or a very small public library), the librarian will get it for you through inter-library loan or, at the very least, let you know where it can be found. A librarian does not censor information, they make it accessible.

[steve8714]

What about “Pat the Bunny”?

[BuffaloJack]

Anyone with half a brain would recognize this a a RAT perpetrated hoax by the time they got down to the 7th or 8th entry. For the most part, these are literary masterpieces by some of the most talented authors who ever lived. Only a liberal would have any work of Mark Twain on a banned book list.

[scooby321]

GOP has all the babes now....

[Red in Blue PA]

I just sent it to snopes.

[Proverbs 3-5]

Good job by you. Lets see how fast they react...

[DogBarkTree]

SARAH KILLS WOLVES FROM AIRPLANES! It just keeps getting better and better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T85cOGc8L0

[Paradox]

I call BS on this thing, and I’ll tell you why. No sane person would go to a librarian and ask them to “censor” book. Now I’ll bet she MIGHT have asked about removing a book that was questionable. Perhaps there was grumblings about some of the books available in the library, so the mayor, doing her job for the people, asked the librarian about removing books. The librarian says no, mayor says ok, librarian gets snippy about it (liberals, you know..), holds a grudge and gets an attitude with the Mayor, becomes uncooperative about doing anything, mayor decides to cut the librarian off, people insist librarian stays, mayor, doing the work of the people, lets librarian stay on the job. Or something like that. More plausible than a mayor coming in and say “Sorry hun, were coming in to BURN some of your books!”

[FrankR]

That list is bogus...”The Audacity of Hope” is not on the list.

[Eleutherios]

If only it was desperation!

I regret that these standard tactics of the Left
are effective.
I’ve heard from a dear friend, who was greatly heartened by the Palin pick,
but who emailed me in great shock about this.

I think i’ve debunked it so that he can regain his morale
... but not everyone who reads the slime
asks me or you for the truth.

[sonic109]

Why DID Palin call and ask a librarian if she would be ok with banning some books? Am I missing something here ?

[Spok]

And yet Obama’s efforts to have the DJ at WGN in Chicago arrested for airing an unfavorable story during the Democrats convention raises not an eyebrow in the MSM.

[Skooz]

bump

[BooksForTheRight.com]

The left has lost all credibility. They have used lies and smears to try to destroy this women.
They have energized me, and I will vote for her no matter what.

[rodguy911]

Exactly, so far we have had one side of the story just the way the DBM likes it.

[Excellence]

The Bastard was made into a made for t.v. movie. I doubt it would be on anyone’s banned book list.

[Be Free]

Sonic-

She didn’t. It was in a public meeting, and (then) Mayor Palin said she was inquiring on behalf of voters how the librarian would feel about requests to remove certain books (no titles were mentioned, per Anchorage Daily News coverage). The librarian explained that there she was firmly against censorship, and went on to explain that there is a challenge process that anyone can initiate specific to any library materials. No specific books were discussed, and no books were banned.

The librarian apparently was also a supporter of Palin’s predecessor. Palin asked for the librarian’s resignation, along with a number of other city staffers that were hired by and supported her political opponent. After a show of public support for the librarian, the request was withdrawn. Nearly 3 years later, the librarian resigned of her own accord.

Note that the lefties are attempting to link Palin’s pursuit of a constituent’s request with the attempt to remove an at-will employee from their city-paid position (which was clearly her perogative as Mayor). There’s no evidence of any link, but that’s not stopping them.

The vicious attacks continue ...

[lainie]

Don’t feel alone. We’re all in this together. It’s hard to figure out which battles to pick. The number of numbskulls on the socialist side seems to be spiraling out of control, and they get meaner by the day, so it seems as if we’re ‘outnumbered.’ But we’re all as strong as we were yesterday.

[snowtigger]

Re: librarians as censors. While it's true that there is a limit to shelving space in any library, the librarians who do the purchasing select according to the interests/needs population they serve

I realise this is the way it is supposed to work, but, where is the oversight? Most are government employees, entrenched in the system, protected by public employee's unions and the employer's fear of wrongful termination lawsuits. Call me cynical, but I have spent the last twelve years working for a government contractor and I have seen the system in action....

[freelancer]

I'm a librarian and I work part time in a public library. The oversight comes directly from the public that we see every day. I clearly remember one borrower who came in screaming about how offensive a particular book was. The book was very critical of Hillary. The librarian who selected the book is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who is active in the democratic party. (Aside: I see all kinds in this small library).

Some libraries are unionized, some are not. My library is not.

[Bryan24]

From another article, the Librarian publicly supported Palin’s opponent in her run for mayor. Palin cleaned house, including the Librarian, when she was elected. She relented and kept the librarian.

Non-Story.

[snowtigger]

Good for you. It would ne great if it always worked that way.

[PLMerite]

“The librarian explained that there she was firmly against censorship...”

Every child should have to read “Heather has two Mommies,” and “Daddy’s Roommate.”

Although I’m sure books by Limbaugh, Coulter, Malkin, etc., would be free to go into the fire.