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.
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.
If she doen’t run, regardless of the GOP pick, get ready for four more years of Obama. The very ones saying Palin can’t win, jut wait until they turn their blow torches onto the GOP nominee, said nominee will be toast. What say you then?
I am hoping that he has the class to understand that this doesn’t reflect well on him, or the who raised him for that matter. So far he hasn’t made a public statement, but he should.
I am hoping that he has the class to understand that this doesn’t reflect well on him, or the mother who raised him for that matter. So far he hasn’t made a public statement, but he should.
It’s likely that his mom and/or dad must have been smarmy pigs to have produced Joe, who is STILL feeding from his muddy trough. Bob
“No, but perhaps you might instead of working for a RINO like Romney (just as example!)..”
Glad you put the caveat in there as nothing could be more inaccurate.
“...you might focus your attention on your local congressional primary?”
Perhaps you shouldn’t make assumptions that I don’t or won’t. I supported JD Hayworth with time and money against the (Palin-supported) McCain in the last Senate race (I know, she “owed him one”). With enough of the right people in Congress we can make significant progress (or at least stop the bleeding) regardless of who is President although obviously, the more conservative the better.
So she’s a racist & had an affair with a black man? Yeah, that makes sense!
Cindie
“If she doen’t run, regardless of the GOP pick, get ready for four more years of Obama. The very ones saying Palin can’t win, jut wait until they turn their blow torches onto the GOP nominee, said nominee will be toast. What say you then?”
Sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. 1). I didn’t say she can’t win. 2) They’ve already turned their blow torches on Perry, who they obviously THINK will be the nominee..and the blow torches will get turned up even higher on whoever the nominee ultimately is. 3). I don’t care who they turn their blow torches on, I’m not voting for Obama and I’m not staying home whether or not Palin is the nominee.
Creepy old stalker McGinniss BUMP!
He is scum.
Your response to some posters here just came across as mean spirited toward Gov Palin. That`s how I took it FWIW.
Glad to hear that you will be voting for Gov Palin once she wins the nomination!!!
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