Posted on 09/11/2008 8:17:02 AM PDT by pissant
PALIN'S BOOK-BANNING EFFORTS, REDUX.... Here's what we know about Sarah Palin's interest in banning books. Time reported last week that Palin asked the Wasilla librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, about the process for banning library books. Baker was reportedly "aghast" at the question. Soon after taking office, Palin, according to a New York Times report, fired Baker, and news reports from the time indicate that Palin thought Baker hadn't done enough to give her "full support" to the mayor.
Palin reversed course on Baker's dismissal after a local outcry, and later said the discussions about banning books were "rhetorical."
Yesterday, ABC News' Brian Ross moved the ball forward a bit, with an interesting report.
Ross emphasized an angle I previously hadn't heard much about. Palin was elected mayor thanks in large part to the strong backing of her church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, which, right around the time Palin took office, "began to focus on certain books available in local stores and in the town library, including one called 'Go Ask Alice,' and another one written by a local pastor, Howard Bess, called 'Pastor, I am Gay.'"
Palin became mayor, her church was interested in censorship, and soon after, Palin asked a "rhetorical" question about how books might be excluded from the public library. When the librarian resisted, she was, at least initially, fired.
The line from the McCain campaign has been that Palin never had any interest whatsoever in banning library books. That seems increasingly difficult to believe.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
“What these dopes on the left don’t realize is that very shortly Palin is going to explain away every one of these “charges” in her nationally televised interviews.”
and then the media is going to decide that Ike is a bigger story and bury the entire Palin interview
The witch hunt continues. And she continues to be as popular as ever.
The libs and the media (I repeat myself) are going to really hate her from here on. They won’t be able to get anything to stick. Just like they hated ‘Teflon Ron’, they are really going to hate her. Come to think of it, it’s like how we were with Clinton. There are just some public figures who are impenetrable when it comes to this stuff. And she’s on our team.
No. Not good to play the victim card. Instead come out with both barrels balzing against the media and the Obamunists. They are ripe for utter ridicule.
But at least CBS is consistent.
I think what they're trying to imply is that it was Palin who wanted to pick and choose which books were in the library collection. I believe both have denied that Palin ever demanded any books be removed.
They are doing what was expected. The media is doubling down to destroy Sarah.
So we should be teaching kids about having safe sex with animals?
Could you elaborate?
I don’t know. With women such an ad would play VERY well.
Bans started in the 1970s: Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1974, Saginaw, Michigan in 1975, and Eagle Pass, Texas and Trenton, New Jersey in 1977 through removal from local libraries. Other libraries in New York (1975), Ogden, Utah (1979), and Florida (1982) required parental permission for a student to check out the book. Additional bans occurred in 1983 in Minnesota and Colorado, 1984 in Mississippi, and 1986 in Georgia and Michigan. Also, in 1993 in New Jersey and West Virginia, 1994 in Massachusetts, 1998 in Rhode Island, 2003 in Maine, and in Feb 2007 Berkley County School District in South Carolina. The American Library Association listed Go Ask Alice as number 23 on its list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of the 1990s. [6] The book was number 8 on the most challenged list in 2001 and up to number 6 in 2003.
So, we're consider it a big deal that Palin may have done the same in a small-town library with limited space?
“CBS puts some idiots half baked theory out as news on the national wire? “
I get one channel...CBS. Every night I watch Katie Couric and I’ve noticed something. She sets Sarah up in an impossible situation..damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
She poses a ‘question’, and the way it’s worded, there IS no good response. It’s all about setting up the ‘gotcha’, whether there is anything to ‘get’ or not. Sort of like...’is she corrupt or just white trash’....
Oh, BTW, the idiot that played Ray Ramono’s brother, Brad Garrett, actually called Palin White Trash last night....this from a bloke who got famous playing white trash on TV.
It is the proper duty of a librarian and the library board to decide which books get bought. It is the proper and regular duty of a librarian and the library board to decide which books get removed. In Wasilla, as in any community, it is the proper duty of the community to oversee the library, and that oversight can well include the outright banning of certain texts from the library.
Why does a librarian oppose her community? It can be for good, because as a expert in books, the market and in the running of libraries she has a duty to oppose for those merits a position taken by the community. But what is the proper nature of that duty?
She can argue strenuously that a particular book be added, although the board initially rejects its purchase. She can argue against a book being removed, although the board initially demands that it be removed. Yet in the end she must either follow the board orders -- and it is their right to give an order. If she can not follow that order, made after her arguments are heard, she should resign, and failing that resignation the board's duty is to fire hire.
Here -- Truman fired MacArthur. rather than risk that the genius General become insubordinate. MacArthur was both a genius and beloved by many, respected by many. Yet MacArthur was become like the Wasilla librarian, a person in an office who thinks they are beyond any authority but their own.
Hooray for the Sarah Palin for bringing up the subject of community standards and hooray for Sarah Palin when she later fired the insubordinate librarian!
Yes, this guy has no agenda. This is his blog...
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
The blog that he once ran himself has a list of recommended blogs. It is as follows...
Talking Points Memo
Daily Kos
Tapped
Atrios’ Eschaton
Crooks and Liars
Firedoglake
Seeing The Forest
Cursor
No More Mr. Nice Blog
Mark A. R. Kleiman
Matthew Yglesias
Cliff Schecter
Political Animal
Digby’s Hullabaloo
Political Wire
Discourse.net
Upper Left
James Wolcott
The Reaction
The Left Coaster
Think Progress
Ezra Klein
Glenn Greenwald
MyDD
Oliver Willis
The Poor Man Institute
Balloon Juice
Shakesville
Needlenose
Campaign for America’s Future
Obsidian Wings
Anonymous Liberal
A Tiny Revolution
The Jed Report
I don’t trust CBS to report facts.
Therefore, the only question becomes, “How to fight misinformation?”
“What is the process for banning a book?”
Did this ever even happen? Are those the exact words? If true, what was the context? Was she thinking of porn? Was there a misunderstanding?
I have no problem personally with banning porn from library shelves and library computers.
The ACLU disagrees with me.
Palin and her “Church” are the last people to tell people how to act.
Maybe if Palin spent enough time with her family as she did butting into other people’s reading habits, maybe her kid would have been able to avoid getting pregnant in the first place.
Go Ask Alice is a a 60’s book about a girl who got involved in gratuitous sex and hard drugs. It’s written in the form of a diary and is purportedly true. She goes through several cycles of destroying herself until she dies of a drug overdose.
Thank you for posting that. I’ve got it bookmarked to “share” with those who believe this tripe...
I really hope Palin and/or the campaign seriously consider filing libel lawsuits naming the reporters, and their bosses, and the broadcast companies as Defendants. I think that is the ONLY way to stop this yellow journalism.
When Palin wins these lawsuits (which she most likely would and very easily as these allegations against here have already been debunked very publicly) she should donate the money to charities of some sort — maybe even a pro-life charity, or some of it to Feminists for Life. That would REALLY steam these liberal jerks...
Years ago I organized a protest against the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. The day before our protest I and another activist were passing out flyers in front of the building explaining what we would be doing there the next day. A couple of very young men stopped by to talk to us before going in the building. They looked to be just out of college, or perhaps even interns, and they were returning from lunch. We explained that the newspaper had printed deliberate lies in their voter’s guide. Their response: “The First Amendment means we can print whatever we want”. To which I replied - The First Amendment guarantees that you can write about anything you want, but the First Amendment doesn’t give you the right to LIE and engage in libel. Their response? LAUGHTER... They repeated their claim that the 1st Amendment meant they could print ANYTHING, and then proceeded into the RMN building. My friend and I were aghast that they actually had the audacity to make these statements. What’s even worse is that it really did appear they believed it. They copped an attitude like you wouldn’t believe and acted like they were so superior to us.
Nearly all respect I had left for the MSM was shredded that day... I have a feeling that this attitude is rampant in the journalism schools, as well as the broadcasting and publishing companies as well... Someone needs to stand up and put an end to this - sooner rather than later.
DEBUNKED!
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