# Sarah Palin vs. the Anchorage Daily News, or Palling Around With The Facts? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 14, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176 "2009-01-14T01:21:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/1 "2009-01-14T01:21:30Z")
[This is absolutely wonderful.](http://community.adn.com/adn/node/136523) She just can’t stop making a fool of herself, can she? I suppose we should expect it, given that reality has a well-known liberal bias, but this is over the top and into a muddy crater. Palin, or her campaign, emailed the Anchorage Daily News (ADN) challenging them on some things they published about her and her family and so on. It would help her case immensely if she had done the basic research into how newspapers work: > [@](#): > > **Did you really allow a story to run in your paper today claiming Levi Johnston is a high school drop out?** > We did publish a story this morning by Associated Press reporter Rachel D’Oro that said, “The father is Levi Johnston, a high school dropout who is now an apprentice electrician.” As you know, the AP operates completely separately from our newspaper, so I have no special knowledge about the reporting behind Rachel’s story. But based on our archives, it appears that Rachel’s description of Levi follows from earlier stories by the AP. The AP is a wire service. It feeds newspapers across the country stories that they run proofed but otherwise unedited, attributed to the AP and the AP’s own writers. Anyone who actually pays attention to the attribution lines above every single story should be able to figure that out. Emailing the ADN about the AP’s doings is pointless to say the least. (Yes, they do have evidence to substantiate the claim. I’m not going to C&P the whole article into this post. Follow the link, already.) > [@](#): > > **Did you really print a story last week suggesting I had any connection with Sherry Johnston’s activities in the past six months or so and you won’t correct the story?** > > On Dec. 25, we published a story about the arrest of Sherry Johnston. It was written by Megan Holland, one of our staff writers. The only section of the story that appears relevant to your question is the following: > "The (trooper) affidavit refers to Johnston being under Secret Service protection while dealing drugs, but that appears to be incorrect. > "Special Agent Darrin Blackford, spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, D.C., said that only the governor and her immediate family were protected. Johnston was not under the agency’s protection or surveillance, he said. > “Troopers later agreed that part of the affidavit was wrong. > " ‘Whenever she was in contact with Palin, that was probably the only time it came into play,’ said trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.” Now Palin can’t even demonstrate basic reading skills. The story explicitly lays everything out so that anyone who _can_ read would be left wondering just how fucking stupid Palin has to be. > [@](#): > > **And is your paper really still pursuing the sensational lie that I am not Trig’s mother? Is it true you have a reporter still bothering my state office, my very busy doctor (who’s already set the record straight for you), and the school district, in pursuit of your ridiculous conspiracy?** > > You may have been too busy with the campaign to notice, but the Daily News has, from the beginning, dismissed the conspiracy theories about Trig’s birth as nonsense. > > [snip] > > I have personally received more than a 100 emails accusing me and the paper of conspiring to hide the truth. > > [snip] > > If that’s true, then why has Lisa Demer been asking questions about Trig’s birth? > Because we have been amazed by the widespread and enduring quality of these rumors. I finally decided, after watching this go on unabated for months, to let a reporter try to do a story about the “conspiracy theory that would not die” and, possibly, report the facts of Trig’s birth thoroughly enough to kill the nonsense once and for all. So, the ADN must believe a rumor in order to report on it and investigate its spread? Tell Snopes! Tell the CSICOP! Tell the FDA, which investigates loony nutritional claims! Palin is living in her own little world, and she doesn’t enjoy palling around with the facts. Happily, that makes it really funny to point and laugh at her. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/2 "2009-01-14T01:31:28Z")
I linked to that in the Palin’s still got it thread. My question is, when did she originally write this letter? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/3 "2009-01-14T02:06:44Z")
Sarah Palin sneezes, Oh my God I am so fucking outraged! How dare that woman still breathe! Something must be done! Quick everyone as a panacea for this affront to our sensibilities congratulate each other on being liberal, it’s our only hope! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/4 "2009-01-14T02:20:41Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Sarah Palin sneezes, Oh my God I am so fucking outraged! How dare that woman still breathe! Something must be done! > > Quick everyone as a panacea for this affront to our sensibilities congratulate each other on being liberal, it’s our only hope! Well, you’ve clearly penetrated the heart of the OP’s partisanship. Oh, no, wait, you’re just being a fucking moron. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/5 "2009-01-14T02:22:09Z")
**mswas** : You have the mindset down. You are close to a perfect emulation of your idol: You live in a different world, you get offended at the slightest hint of reality, and you are utterly inarticulate in expressing your outrage. The principal difference between you and Sarah Palin is that Sarah Palin puts enough effort into it to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/6 "2009-01-14T02:46:58Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > **mswas** : You have the mindset down. You are close to a perfect emulation of your idol: You live in a different world, you get offended at the slightest hint of reality, and you are utterly inarticulate in expressing your outrage. The principal difference between you and Sarah Palin is that Sarah Palin puts enough effort into it to be funny. Is that so? I guess congratulations are in order then aren’t they. Congratulations on being a liberal! Even though you’re the least of your kind I can tell that you’re way beyond me! It takes a true genius to hate Sarah Palin for every trivial piece of nonsense that she does to be sure. Us here in the esoteric ether just don’t really understand the ‘art’ of you cosmopolitan realitans. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/7 "2009-01-14T03:03:50Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Congratulations on being a liberal! Even though you’re the least of your kind I can tell that you’re way beyond me! It takes a true genius to hate Sarah Palin for every trivial piece of nonsense that she does to be sure. That’s laughter and ridicule you’re hearing. Your interpretation of it as hate and outrage is strictly your own hallucination, so relax - the bad acid will wear off soon. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/8 "2009-01-14T03:05:23Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > That’s laughter and ridicule you’re hearing. Your interpretation of it as hate and outrage is strictly your own hallucination, so relax - the bad acid will wear off soon. LoL I think people have a hatecrush. And yes, it is laughter and ridicule that you are hearing. 😉 I wonder how people will handle an Obama Presidency, without Bush they might just be lost. ---
**Author:** ![Peanut\_Gallery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@Peanut\_Gallery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanut_Gallery)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/9 "2009-01-14T03:06:35Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > PALIN: I finally decided, after watching this go on unabated for months, to let a reporter try to do a story about the “conspiracy theory that would not die” and, possibly, report the facts of Trig’s birth thoroughly enough to kill the nonsense once and for all. Did this happen? Has she produced this exclusive tell-all, and somehow I missed it? I can’t fucking wait. The true story is even crazier than the conspiracy (which is how the conspiracy got legs to begin with … well, that combined with the _lack of_ transparency on her part up to the election). She’s starting to grow on me now that America is not in danger of electing her. How could I hate somebody who makes me laugh this much? ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/10 "2009-01-14T03:06:50Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Us here in the esoteric ether just don’t really understand the ‘art’ of you cosmopolitan realitans. I for one am interested in the bits of Palin trivia because each new puzzle piece reveals more information about how big a bullet we just dodged by not electing McCain. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/11 "2009-01-14T03:15:29Z")
About the “high school dropout” bit: the fact that she said _allow a story to run_ suggests to me that she knew damn well it was a wire story. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/12 "2009-01-14T03:16:18Z")
God you’re such a twat, mswas. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/13 "2009-01-14T03:17:30Z")
**Peanut Gallery** , that was the editor talking, not Palin. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/14 "2009-01-14T03:19:31Z")
**mswas** : Only in your spin cloud could I be considered liberal, either big or little ‘l’, unless you go back a few centuries and ignore certain issues. But you keep getting outraged. It’s what you’re good at. **Peanut Gallery** : You’re quoting the ADN, not Palin. Palin never said what you’re attributing to her, more’s the pity. I hope to live long enough to see the full revelation of all this, from soup to nuts. 2008 might go down as one of the biggest bullet-dodges in the past few decades, especially if McCain dies in the next four years. **Jenaroph** : My thoughts exactly. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/15 "2009-01-14T03:22:42Z")
_pats **Derleth** on the noggin_ There’s definitely one of us who’s outraged, but it certainly wasn’t me. I was too busy killing APR scum to get that upset. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/16 "2009-01-14T03:23:03Z")
Wow. She went to how many schools to get a degree in journalism, and still needs this stuff explained to her? ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/17 "2009-01-14T03:38:26Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Sarah Palin sneezes, Oh my God I am so fucking outraged! How dare that woman still breathe! Something must be done! > > Quick everyone as a panacea for this affront to our sensibilities congratulate each other on being liberal, it’s our only hope! Sheesh! Over react much? Another choice was to just not post in this thread because you’re sick of it. I wouldn’t give a crap about Palin except she continually seeks to be in the public eye most likely because she is considering a run for the presidency. That’s frightening to me. I want people to be aware of what kind if dishonest self absorbed person she is. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/18 "2009-01-14T03:39:28Z")
At least she can now identify one source of reading material the next time Katie Couric asks another “gotcha” question. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/19 "2009-01-14T04:02:45Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > Sheesh! Over react much? Another choice was to just not post in this thread because you’re sick of it. > > I wouldn’t give a crap about Palin except she continually seeks to be in the public eye most likely because she is considering a run for the presidency. That’s frightening to me. I want people to be aware of what kind if dishonest self absorbed person she is. I don’t care about Sarah Palin, but anybody who uses the term, “reality based community”, and isn’t making fun of Daily Kos types needs ridicule. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176/20 "2009-01-14T04:21:10Z")
Almost no one is still pushing the Trig/Bristol conspiracy story. Aside from a few hours on Labor Day weekend, no one ever really did. However, since then a few people (led by Andrew Sullivan) have written about the circumstances surrounding the story–namely, that the Palin camp never really denied the story, and the concrete evidence that would have quickly settled the matter once and for all was never produced. I don’t think Palin has any interest in settling the matter once and for all. Any time the story comes up–even, as we see here, in the service of shutting it down–Palin can rend her garments and wail about how the LIBERAL ELITE MEDIA is being so HORRIBLE to her and her PRECIOUS, PRECIOUS FAMILY. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-vs-the-anchorage-daily-news-or-palling-around-with-the-facts/481176.md?page=2)