Posted on 09/18/2011 8:37:42 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The New York Times trashed his book on Sarah Palin. Politico noted that it had united Palin with her fiercest antagonists - the dreaded "lamestream media" - in opposition to its prurience and spiteful tone.
But now Joe McGinniss is defending himself.
The muckraking author of The Rogue spoke to Lloyd Grove of Newsweek about his Palin tome and the reaction to it, which has primarily consisted of denunciations of the most salacious details he revealed about Palin. (Denouncing salacious gossip being, of course, the best excuse for repeating it.)
McGinniss "dismisses the notion that his unremitting hatchet job on the former Alaska governor—who, in his account, is not just a bully, but also a religious nut, a racist, a bulimic, and a bad mother who occasionally snorted cocaine and strayed from her marriage—will engender widespread sympathy for Palin as the defenseless prey of a left-wing stalker," Grove writes.
“I don’t know anyone who’s not a card-carrying member of the Tea Party who would believe something as foolish as that," he said.
The author offers a well-traveled defense for his extensive use of anonymous sources to trash Palin, her character, and her performance as governor of Alaska. He knows what he's doing.
McGinniss says he decided which sources were credible “on the basis of 40-plus years in journalism. By this point in my career, if I can’t tell what’s true and what somebody’s making up for nefarious reasons, I’ve been in the wrong business all this time.”
But Grove appropriately zeroes in on the juiciest of the book's revelations to highlight the delicate line McGinniss treads, that between unstinting dedication to exposing new information and simple gossipping.
Of a claim that Palin slept with a still-famous college basketball star before her marriage, Grove writes:
McGinniss speculates that they did the deed in a college dorm room in Anchorage or possibly a hotel. But when he actually interviewed the former Miami Heat star, he didn’t directly ask him if they had sex. Instead, McGinniss asked: “So you never had the feeling she felt bad about having sex with a black guy?” Rice’s reply: “No, no, no, nothing like that.”
Despite the ambiguity of that response, McGinniss insists, “I think it’s pretty clear ... That’s certainly the impression I came away with.”
The impression he came away with? That sounds weaselly, more a description of half-hearted fact-checking than real due diligence. The sort of approach to truth favored by cynical politicians and best exposed, once upon a time, by muckraking reporters like Joe McGinniss.
So this is where "journalism" is today? An "impression"? He also refers to the proposed act as an "affair", even though Palin was single at the time. This is a hatchet job from the get-go and this idiot knows it.
This guy has just rehashed all the garbage we’ve seen on the pages of the “National Enquirer” etc. dispayed at the grocery checkout.
I guess the guy is working with the scandal sheets on promoting this but if I were the “National Enquirer” etc.
I’d say he was plagiarizing the paper’s stories.
Remember to thank Mr. McGinniss when your time comes liberals.
McGinnis is working with Roger Ailes at Fox.Google Gabriel Sherman Joe McGinnis.Get the picture.
"I read that somewhere," said McGinnis, "I wrote it down, and then I read it."
He’s working for the GOP elites to kill the tea party.
The McGinniss "I'm not so bad for a psycho-stalker who hates real women" defense?
We are an idea whose time has come and you can’t kill an idea. We are the only logical response to a situation that many Americans are just starting to wake up to. We will become stronger, not weaker. Neither McGinniss nor the GOP can stop us.
As MLK said if you don’t stand for what is right,justice truth and something in your life if your 35 years old and live till 80 years old you have die at 35 years old.You will have death of the spirit.The elites on both side Republicans and Democrats will not kill this movement and Palin will make sure of that. McGinnis is working for the GOP elite and FOX.
I’m anxiously awaiting little Joey’s mudpie, “The Messiah”. The mudslinger about Barack Hussein Obama. Anybody know when he’ll be releasing that? What? Joey doesn’t believe in slinging mud at foreigners?
“The elites on both side Republicans and Democrats will not kill this movement and Palin will make sure of that.”
WE will make sure of that, with or without Palin.
If they destroy Palin are you traveling 6 hours to hear Rand Paul speak. There are leaders and there are leaders.
Creep PING!
“Creep” is nearly strong enough a word to describe this scum.
“Creep” isn't a strong enough word to describe this scum.
One cup of coffee is clearly inadequate.
McGinniss and Ailes have been buddies for 44 years.
McGinniss ‘too busy’ for Fox? [McGinniss and Roger Ailes friends for 44 years]
I always his “Book of World Record” ;)
Makes you wonder if Ailes was one of McGinniss’ unnamed sources?
“If they destroy Palin are you traveling 6 hours to hear Rand Paul speak.”
If they destroy Palin do you give up on the principles of limited government and lower taxes? I didn’t get them from Palin she’s not necessary for me to reflect that focus in every vote I cast. She’s important to the cause but she’s not the cause, and she’s said as much.
it’ appears that Glen Rice never said or claim that any so called impropriety actually happened - the creep writer decided to become judge and jury on the subject and National Enquire deemed that enough to say that Rice confirmed a one night stand happened where it spread across the news
Check the record of these GOP candidates limited government lower taxes. What ? Remember as government expands liberty contracts. Check Palin’s record. She even sued the Bush administration.No more RINO.Been there done that!
I’d love to see her sue the SOB. The MSM has got to start being responsible for their actions, and not just some page 15 retraction.
Im waiting for this scumbag to write a book about Larry Sinclair, the guy who says he had a homosexual relationship with Obama in the backseat of a limo..come on Joe, do some research it’s all there..I think Joe is obsessed with Sarah Palin not just because he hates her, but because he is smitten with her and she rejected his advances. He knows she won’t take his fat, ugly, communist ass so he trashes her
So if she doesn’t run and get the nomination we should just fold our tents and bend over for 4 more years of Obammunism? Not a chance.
The point is that they ARE NOT aiming for less government and lower taxes when they try to destroy someone who actually did exactly that. This should be a red flag for you, not a reason to justify a gratuitous pile-on. Don’t you get suspicious when true believers are attacked by so-called fellow-travelers? Example: Glenn Beck’s set-up of Sarah P. to further the salacious rumors about Glen Rice. Why on earth would he do that unless he sees her as a threat to his fellow Mormon brother, Myth Romney?
She’s running !! Easy money.You will bend over if Romney and Perry get the nomination.
We have to consider maybe that even Mr. Rice might sue McGinnis.... He’s been really quiet, it appears that creepy Joe took his words out of context.
Read the PDFs at the bottom.
“This should be a red flag for you, not a reason to justify a gratuitous pile-on.”
What a bizarre reaction to my position that I’m not abandoning Tea Party goals if Palin doesn’t run. If she gets the nomination I’ll vote for her. If she doesn’t, the fight continues regardless. I don’t build shrines to politicians.
“She’s running !! Easy money. You will bend over if Romney and Perry get the nomination.”
And you will bend over for Obama if she doesn’t?
The political class in this country needs to know the outcome of an election before it happens.McCain, Dole, Bush,Romney, Perry, Obama they’re all the same.Bend Ova!
What I find really shocking is Rush Limbaugh not even giving her the benefit of the doubt. He had a substitute female employee the other day and he proclaimed that she was dressed like Sarah Palin,and he wanted to ask her how was it with Glen Rice”. I shut the radio off, and I think I am finally through with his childish and insulting locker room comments. Before he met his present wife, he was getting so gross with sexual innuendo that i turned the radio off dozens of times when he would start that $hit. He is always worse during the Football season, and that is sad because I love College and Pro Football. I guess I will wait a few months and see if his filthy self is over,if not I will not waste my time on his show.
I can pretty much guarentee that this whole nonsense with Glenn Rice NEVER happened..these are NBA Players, there is always locker room chatter, if something had happened, they would never have been able to keep it a secret, this would have been known a long time ago, not after 3 years of constant smearing, digging, and trashing..the media flew hundreds of Obama cultists to Alaska to find anything on her and found nothing, yet this Joe McGinnis pervert(Who I think is a real physical threat to Sarah Palin, if I were her I would get a restraining order against him) found it all in a span of a few months, please, he made the whole thing up..hes a total jackass..and a sick freak, peering into little girl’s bedrooms, I bet there is some juicy stuff in his past that he would like to keep hidden
Good. Neither do serious Palinistas. But we have decided as a matter of strategy that defending her viability in the teeth of the left's character assassination machine is a hill worth dying on.
First, as a matter of principle, we don't abandon our injured warriors. Period.
Second, like Rush once said, if we let them have Sarah for lunch, they learn a deadly lesson, that they have a way to always win, to always run the table. The movement cannot, repeat, cannot allow them to have that victory. It will become a pivot point in the battle that will give them an advantage we may never overcome. We cannot walk away from her without walking away from our own principles, not like this.
Right On ! Google Mama Grizzly’s Butterfilies Take Flight.Chamberlin at Gettysburg.
“McCain, Dole, Bush,Romney, Perry, Obama they’re all the same.”
Uh huh.
Leni
And yet you seem certain that the Tea Party would never embrace a RINO. Do you build shrines to political movements? Might you instead of worrying about shrinebuilding at all simply consider a course of action in all cases that best serves the cause of freedom?
Wow...what a POS McGinniss is...
Look the elites and people at the Institute of Advance Study at Princeton, Mit behavioral studies etc. understand how to imprint a generation of voters.They don,t want Palin anywhere near a second convention speech.Because she would anchor a second generation of conservative voters.Obama keynote speech in 2004 and then 2008 look similar.Seventy five million people watch these speeches and first time voters.Poltical class is in all out panic. Palin runs she wins.
“...we have decided as a matter of strategy that defending her viability in the teeth of the left’s character assassination machine is a hill worth dying on.”
And for the most part the way I see that being done (I’m not saying by you) is for more than a few of her avid supporters to savage other posters on FR for some real or perceived slight to her “honor”, in ways that are not even remotely representative of Palin’s own behavior...I’m not clear on how us attacking each other is supposed to refute the left’s character assassination of her.
“Second, like Rush once said, if we let them have Sarah for lunch, they learn a deadly lesson, that they have a way to always win, to always run the table.
Sorry, but Rush is now in the dumpster too (see #35 on this thread).
“Might you instead of worrying about shrinebuilding at all simply consider a course of action in all cases that best serves the cause of freedom?”
My point exactly. And sitting at home on election day if Palin isn’t the nominee is not part of my course of action.
Glenn Rice has been irrelevant for years. This is the first publicity he has gotten in a while, to him bad publicity is better then no publicity. No one has mentioned his name in years, so to him this is a step up from where he was before
“Poltical class is in all out panic. Palin runs she wins.”
Well, they’ll be in a panic if she runs; if she’s the nominee she’ll get my vote. I’m thinking there’s almost no one who would lose to Obama...barring an all-but-impossible, dramatic uptick in the economy or some monumental, idiotic gaffe by his opponent.
Fix Bayonets !
No, but perhaps you might instead of working for a RINO like Romney (just as example!) you might focus your attention on your local congressional primary? In my district our newly elected republican congressman faced a tea party-type challenge last time and won because there were at least four other anti-establishment types running against him and they cancelled each other out. The top vote-getting challenger to the party-pick is running against him again in the upcoming primary. Should Sarah not run, I will focus on that. I will NOT support RINOs ever again for any reason when there is ANY alternative available.
[if we let them have Sarah for lunch, they learn a deadly lesson, that they have a way to always win, to always run the table. The movement cannot, repeat, cannot allow them to have that victory. It will become a pivot point in the battle that will give them an advantage we may never overcome. We cannot walk away from her without walking away from our own principles, not like this. ]
Well said. Sadly, some of the backstabbing is coming from the right as well.
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