Posted on 06/01/2010 3:41:24 PM PDT by curth
Up until now, one could merely have accused Sarah Palin’s stalker-biographer, Joe McGinniss, of unethical behavior, even journalistic malpractice.
After all, McGinniss’ decision to move into a house just fifteen feet away from the family he is subjecting to hostile research struck even the hard-hearted as unusually crass and callous. It also famously prompted the construction of a fourteen-foot high screening fence by “first dude” Todd Palin, and elicited sympathy for the Palins from a number of usually less-than-sympathetic sources.
But now McGinniss has outdone his already-gross behavior by telling The Today Show’s Matt Lauer that the Palin’s anguished response to his intrusion should be compared to “Nazi troopers” in 1930s Germany.
In making this comparison, no matter how ludicrous, McGinniss further transgresses the boundaries of decency into an area of intense Jewish concern – the history and meaning of the Nazi Holocaust. His remarks, for starters, show gross insensitivity to Jewish feelings.
When McGinniss invokes “Nazi troopers,” for Jews he conjures up the brown-shirted thugs who rioted in the streets of Berlin in June 1935 and garroted an elderly Jewish man to a tavern table, as recounted by American journalist Varian Fry, in an eyewitness account run the following day on the front page of The New York Times. When McGinniss invokes “Nazi troopers,”we remember the expulsion of Jews wholesale from German universities, the violent boycotts of Jewish businesses, and the public burnings of “decadent” books (often by Jewish authors) in front of SS-organized mobs.
When McGinniss invokes “Nazi troopers,” Jews think of the German National-Socialist Party’s special shock forces who led enraged mobs in burning down a thousand synagogues – and many more Jewish sites and businesses – over Kristallnacht, in November, 1939. And of course Jews think of the “Nazi troopers” who rounded up defenseless Jewish civilians in the middle of the night and loaded us onto boxcars “headed for the East.”
This is why Jews are still “sensitive” to facile comparisons with “Nazi troopers,” even by a low-life journalist of McGinniss’ stripe. Because McGinniss’ foolish analogy cheapens the meaning and memory of the Holocaust. Jewish defense organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, would do well to rebuke McGinniss, unless they think he is beneath their purview.
But really, because McGinniss’ comparison of Germany in those dark times to the America of today is so outrageous and appalling, he should be repudiated by all thinking people of good will.
And because McGinniss’ comparison demeans a political leader and a popular movement whose character are overwhelmingly peaceful, democratic and tolerant of all races and religions, all Americans should reject him, and hang on him a letter of shame.
Gov. Sarah Palin, the Tea Party movement, and the awakening voters of America, will not long remember this unprincipled opportunist who calls himself a journalist. But the American people, McGinniss’ publisher, and most of all the Jewish community, should be disgusted that he has so cheapened the public discourse.
The really worrying thing to me is that I am quite convinced that this guy genuinely believes he is doing a public service, and genuinely cannot see just how disgusting this kind of behaviour is. It never ceases to amaze me how liberals can disconnect what they believe from what they practice.
Let’s stark calling McGinniss’ new book a “stalkography.
Hmmmm...let’s see...Alaska has a population of 670,000 and a land area of just over 591,000 square miles—meaning about 1.1 people per square MILE. Yet he feels the need to be 15 FEET from their house? My neighbors in CA weren’t even that close. Would you mind if someone just dropped down that close to your place for the purpose of “observing” you?
Maybe it's due to premature senility, or maybe he's truly utterly obsessed with Sarah.
WHAT was Random House thinking??
"UPDATE: I haven't been able to reach McGinniss, but did send an errant email to his son, the novelist Joe McGinniss Jr., who replied, "Sadly, she's right. We tried our best to intervene, but alas, the heart wants what it wants. We can only pray for him now. He's convinced that Todd will step aside and when the time is right, he'll be there, right next door, to pick up the pieces."
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0510/Annals_of_journalistic_enterprise.html
I'm not purchasing another Random House title until they shelve this nasty stalking project and dump this weirdo pervert.
The landlady is named Catherine E. Taylor.
He isn’t camping there,,he has rented an existing house from what I undrstand.
I can see her objections but it is a free country, the house was for rent and he rented it.
Why does Sarah Palin have any right to have him driven out of there. And the reactions on these threads are shockingly unlike any conservatives I ever knew.
He is a writer not a stalker. To call him a stalker is distorting what he does which is to write about people. BTW he is a good writer.
Newsflash—you have a right to defend yourself. If someone presents a threat to you or your family, you have a right—nay, an OBLIGATION—to take action. And this assclown is serving no useful purpose save harassment and stalking.
putting up a fence is of course fair game. But saying who can lawfully rent the house next door is not. THis writer is not a criminal.
But people here are acting like a mob and a stupid one.
She is a public figure by her choice. He is writing about her from what I understand. That is what writers do, public figures are written about. It is not stalking or harassing. Nothing described here is stalking or harassing.
I think he has a mad crush on her!
So what is the threat? Living next door? Writing?
What is the damned threat?
~snip~
“McGinniss has followed us for some time now, from showing up on our doorstep last winter, bidding over $60,000 for a military charity auction dinner with me, writing the hit pieces, attending at least one Outside book event, etc. He has a right to pursue his subject, I suppose, and certainly has a right to live wherever he wants, but my family also has a right to expect privacy, and hopefully to enjoy peace this summer. Good fences do make for good neighbors. The fence is now up, and I hope that we can enjoy peace. The media sensationalizes the recent McGinniss’ tactic so the public will tune in to whatever the latest episode is, always with ratings in mind, and that’s unfortunate.” – Sarah Palin“What’s also unfortunate is journalists’ tactics like this, because it keeps good people from wanting to get involved in public service.” – Todd Palin
She put herself up for auction. He bid. No crime especially if he is writing about her.
BTW have you read anything he wrote,,he is a good writer. His book asbout Alaska was really a good read. ANd the one about McDonald.
Palin hasn’t been shy about putting herself and her family out there as a public figure. THis is what happens to public figures.
Making up stories about someone else in a book is slander.
The more I watch this tale unfold, the better I feel about Sarah Palin’s ability to roll these punks into pretzels. The fence is just the right amount of thrust to apply to this situation...not too much, not too little. This “journalist” hasn’t published a word of this book, other than the title, and he’s already the center of the story.
The book will sell well on the left, the entire Random House collection will get the cold shoulder from the right...net loss for RH.
78% of Jews voted for Obama. Many Jews are anti-firearm. Jews do not learn. They may be upset but they will vote Democrat time and time again, no matter what a Democrat says or does.
Has he done that to Palin?
On TV so far.
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