Personally I think this conspiracy theory has more class.
Paula, I am dreaming of my own conspiracy page and gaining credibility by being chased by people whose copyrights I breach. Fame is in easy reach! Or I could just CLAIM people are closing me down because I breached their copyright. Then I don´t even have to make up anything or cut and paste stories or edit videos…. All I do is create empty spaces and headlines:”This is where the video would have been if ….”
I want a competition of headlines.
Letters, I would go with an empty rectangle – perhaps filled in with bright communist red – and a statement that you were forced to remove (or evil higher powers removed) the video. Definitely, one item removed was the tape showing Obama’s “long form” birth certificate. From Moscow. (Mombasa, Moscow, Miami, them foreign words are so alike.)
And don’t forget the scary music!
And end some of your posts suddenly. Due to heavy footsteps in the hallway. Must move to new location! Must get the truth out there!
Oh, and here – you’ll needs lots of these: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And probably an extra caps lock key – it will be getting a lot of wear.
Saw a commercial that Charlie Gibson on Monday will be talking about the $15 million that has been awarded to a village in Alaska for a airport that has a population of of 150
Just complained about the lazy people on Unemployment Benefits deliberatly not getting jobs so they can milk the system, and that’s why we should not extend the benefits another 13 weeks …
On he State of the Union on CNN in the segment that is not John King (2nd hour), they spoke about Palin’s part of the speech last week about the media dig. One of the people on the panel mentioned the story travelling around this week about the split and specifically mentioned the Alaska Report blog and that on the blog it mentions “it says they are a CNN stringer”.
Talking about Health Care now … Michelle’s a lightweight here, bringing nothing intelligent to the conversation … trying to get her prods in against Pres. Obama … NOOOOOOOO!!!!! George! Don’t bring up gates-gate!…
I’ll stop after this – Sunday Funnies up next. He already showed a montage starting w/Sarah’s resignation speech and overlapping Shatner doing the same section with the bass/bongos duet. Pretty funny. He asked if anyone on the panel knew what Cheechacos and Sourdoghs were. Then he went on to say “he learned this weeK” that Cheechacos were the newcomers and Sourdoughs were the ‘natives’. Oooo, so close, George! Needless to say, Michelle Malkin did not have a clue.
OOps – I posted this on the aliens thread, and it will probably get taken down as OT. sorry about that snoskred.
This is how politico talked about Sarah responding to the divorce story, ensuring that it would find its way into the MSM:
y having her spokeswoman repeat the charges to rebut them in a public form, Palin effectively guaranteed coverage from the mainstream media that otherwise would not report claims attributed to unnamed sources on an anonymous blog.
Anybody on facebook? That´s a link to vote on the new administrations performance. I think they did better than the current result of C+ and they even let me American-abroad vote.
@Lani — Jon Stewart suggests use of Carmina Burana, like in the vid he was making fun of last week.
I´ll start now. Like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, they are coming for me, I hear them now (in my head without question )).
I think the Palin divorce rumor is true. It reminds me of the vanity fair issue where Palin wanted to get out in front of the truth about Todd being a member of AIP for 7 years and she was told no becaquse it weouuld cause people to talk about something that was true. She threw her own marriage under the bus to stay in the news
I thought palin had a 10 daqy count down and ahe could not wait for tweets to fly off her fingertips she jumped on twitter 20 times a day. Wait do not tell me the ex thrilla from wasilla that wqas the bitter quittter on twitter is now a twitter quitter there also too
I saw this morning that the AFT is still accepting donations. They night we were all playing investigator on the AFT, I was concentrating on krobar and the fact Meggie had announced that instead of staying with e-donations, Sarah wanted an Alaskan company. Krobar just did the design, not all the other stuff edonations/campaign solutions had been doing. Can’t wait to see the financial report and how much Sarah’s friends have been paying each other.
Also, I posted this a couple of days ago, regarding her twitters: $ may be having some trouble finding a twitter name. People were grabbing up any logical possibilities. That and Ivy Frye has blocked me. I did find though that if you go to the twitter.com website, you can still read the tweets, blocked or not. Small amusements for those killing some time
I wonder if $P isn’t letting her fingers fly with non pc tweets because she is no longer being paid for her time. Not the Governor anymore can’t bill anyone for staying home in her pjs.
Ouch, that was painful to watch even with my tinfoil hat. So let me see if I understand what they’re attemting to say… people that are like-minded on issues regarding SP (Democrats, ethics complaint filers and scribes) are actually PALLING around with each other and this sharing of opinions is an evil conspiracy… OMG, the humanity!
In case anyone is curious about distances/access of various Alaskan cities. I was trying to find out how long it would take me to do a road trip to Cordova, and found this easy map. You will notice the only way to get to our state capital – Juneau- is by boat or plane.
Romney says thanks but no thanks to Palins radio show. ClearChannel w1as puirchased by Bain Capital,Bain Capital half owner is none other then Mr Pretty hair Roomney . So he basically did not hir her before she quit.
all during my childhood we ate pancakes made from sourdough starter that my great aunt found when she took a road trip to alaska (as a young woman). you had to continue to feed the starter – so we had sourdough pancakes every sunday. they were awesome. very light and airy.
something tells me that Sourdoughs were the prospectors of olden days?
online dictionary says cheechakos is a chinook term for newcomer.
so there would be First People, Sourdoughs, and Cheechakos?
i don’t understand that woman one tiny bit. and i would venture to say she is a cheechako….also.
The NRA, huh? They’re pissed because after all of the money they’ve spent they can’t influence the Sotomayor vote. Their pocket politicians are rebelling and cutting the puppet strings.
Does anyone know about the two bloggers who recently posted about how they are really sorry for being negative, etc. Both Think Alaska and The Alaska Standard have heavy I’m-changing-my-ways messages. Just wondering what prompts something like that.
Secondly, here in Southern California, the tease for the evening news last night was “Why Sarah Palin cancelled her speaking engagement.” It was on twice. When they finally got to it (sorry sarah, but you were almost the last story) they read the denial that she is divorcing, and just re-hashed the story about her being apparently scheduled to speak in Simi valley and her cancellation. They really didn’t explain anything, just put the two reports side by side…very sneaky.
The WARthog instrumental in an NRA lovefest? Imagine… and what is up with the black and red themed rightwing websites. Do they really want to be so blatantly about the doom and blood or are they channeling Berlin circa 1939?
Regarding the Palin divorce rumor or story. The unfolding of this information is a lesson in why professional journalists are so important. It may be true that Gryphen has a reliable source and that the information is reliable. But to reply, as the blogger did, by taking offense severely muddies the entire issue and now opens the door for questioning the blogger’s motives and intent. When commenting on the threat of a summons the blogger states:
“(The attorney) specifically mentioned my classroom in order to frighten me into compliance. Why else would he have said that?”
So what? This is about as relevant as Sean Hannity arguing that Nancy Pelosi was wrong because she had a sarcastic look on her face. No one but the choir he’s preaching to cares. Same here, only, I’m in the lefty choir and I’m cringing. We just don’t need this Fox News style of handling information.
Then Gryphen does more Hannity-like logic in which the straw man is set up in order to easily knock it down.
“Well if this were 1945 Van Flein (the attorney threatening the summons) might have a case. But this is 2009, when divorce is almost as common as marriage itself. It is highly doubtful that a report that Sarah and Todd are having marital problems is going to “injure” Sarah Palin’s reputation in any measurable way.”
This is just plain wrong. Palin is a major political figure who has staked her political career on following a narrow evangelical Biblical path. A divorce would show her to be seriously hypocritical to her base supporters. She would lose their support in a significant way and this would be a huge story of a politician’s downfall. Gryphen is either incredibly inept to suggest a divorce would have no effect on her or is incredibly awkward in trying to set up the reader with a list of other Palin shortcomings. At any rate, it’s just very bad analysis.
Finally, Gryphen appears to be in over the head by admitting that if the information obtained from the secret source is wrong then:
“I definitely have some asses to kick and some crow to eat.”
Jesus. Why didn’t Gryphen cross-reference BEFORE publishing. If these things (there are other events and gossipy tidbits in the original post) prove not to be true, Gryphen merely shows that amateur bloggers, on both sides (although there seem to be far more wing-nuts on the right than on the left) are creating something more akin to entertainment than real analysis.
There are people with credible information who focus the veracity of that information, not on whether they got offended in the exchange. I think Sarah Palin is a dangerous politician, but she does have the right to be reported on accurately. If Gryphen turns out to be just a rumormonger (and has left the door open for this possibility!), it only hurts the efforts of those who are trying to report accurately and fairly.
1. Sarah’s cult fans will never desert her no matter how many divorces she has.
2. Of course Gryphen cross-checked his references!
3. “Jesus” is not a swearword.
Well, Aussie Blue Sky, have you drunk too much of the kool-aid?
I’m against Sara Palin because I do not like her political views or policies. The evangelical agenda is myopic and regressive. Let’s just get that out of the way.
But condemning her solves nothing. It just gives people who are in the middle (and they exist in large numbers–you may not know them because of your stance) cause to question whether they would align with your views. That’s what you want isn’t it? Don’t you want people who are uncommitted or even pendulumming back away from Obama to embrace your position? Or do you want to be the equivalent of a Fox News fan, only on the left–irrelevant?
Maybe this question will help you get it: do you see how the “birther” issue is sullying Lou Dobbs? It makes people on the right look like they just hate Obama first and are trying to pin anything on him. Guess how we look if this turns out not to be true.
Go read that post http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2009/08/was-it-somethng-i-said.html and you tell me if Gryphen has this story locked down air tight. You tell me if in Gryphen’s comments you’re as confident in this piece as much as you would be if it were Reuters reporting this? Does a Reuters reporter say, “gee, if I’m wrong I’ll have crow to eat.” Matt Drudge, yeah. He got lucky once. Gryphen might get lucky once, too. But, might not. And if not, it just makes it look like, maybe, they’re just unfairly piling on Palin after all.
So, when you say, “Of course Gryphen cross-checked his references!” that’s your assumption of Gryphen’s hope-it’s-true report.
Jason: Some of us have read Gryphen’s blog for 10 months or more. We know what his word means. We also know his is known by the company he keeps.
Why don’t you wait and see what happens before condemning Gryphen? Oh, and if and when the MSM actually starts reporting ALL THE FACTS on the Palin fiascoes, please let us all know. As of this date, it has mostly been done piecemeal by AK bloggers, a couple of NY Times stories, and Vanity Fair.
@ Jason in Oakland
“There are people with credible information who focus the veracity of that information, not on whether they got offended in the exchange.”
———————————————–
You make several valid points in your two posts but my skepticism is immediately heightened when other people try to set the parameters for individual bloggers.
The massive blogosphere is interesting and dynamic because of the individual character of the blogs. If a blogger gets the reputation for noncredible information, it affects that blog not the whole blogosphere. Caveat emptor.
@29 lettersfromeurope Says:
August 2nd, 2009 at 2:35 PM
HUH!!! GOVERNOR……
(Lani am following your advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
—————————–
GREAT!!! DON’T FORGET CAPS LOCK!!!!! AND wEIrD RanDOm CaPPinG, ESPicialLY when WODR IT MESPELLDE!!!!!!!
@Jason. I’ve been reading some of the posts on the main blog in question, so first I would like to say that I am very glad to be back on the ‘flats where polite disagreement and debate can occur. Your post is very thoughtful, and I don’t have an issue with it. It’s your opinion.
I do disagree that Gryphen has missed any standards, however. He’s just blogging some concerns, not constrained by any set of “blog rules” and not claiming to be a journalist. Nonetheless, his blog attains far loftier standards than many I have recently seen. He did not post nudie photos, claiming they were of a Palin family member. He didn’t support murdering her or anyone related to her. Those and other things of that nature are happening now on other blogs about the Obama family. Someone telling him, and him repeating, that the Palins are “splitsville” is just not the big deal that you (and those now threatening violence) claim it to be, IMHO. It did, however, expose a dark underbelly.
And that to me is the genius behind his blog. Finally, a lot of people are paying attention to what has happened and is happening in Alaska. He “made them look”.
Progressive Alaskan bloggers have posted for a long time about the shady dealings and intimidation of the ex-gov. During the election, bloggers were practically begging for the msm to investigate and report what they knew to be true, such as the way the personnel board “investigations” really work. And what finally gets attention? A rumor of “splitsville”. And included in the splitsville post were two references to far darker events.
So let’s see what happened. 1) He led the msm and internet users around the world to an eye-opening collection of Alaskan blogs. 2) The Palin camp demonstrated how it tries to shut them up, including threats of lawsuits and of scaring a bunch of 5 year old children, and a large number of poorly written, expletive filled posts describing the retaliation that Alaskan bloggers face. Job well done, Gryph!
Can anyone explain something I don’t understand? When Sarah was in the Lower 48 parading through Auburn, pouting across the stage in DC and lashing out at Letterman from TX, she mentioned she was in TX doing the “sisterly” thing. Does she have a sister in TX? I thought AK had all of that family contained in their state.
I just got off the HuffPo reading about the X Gov…I told my husband when that story broke about the big D that her camp made it up so they could stand on their “Quit making things up” platform nationally …
We as a Commericial fishing family of the upper cook inlet think that the entire fishery is managed for the Kenai River and has made the Northern District fishery the poorest for years and years. they fish around the clock and we lose opener after opener. the farther north you go the worse it is….
It has been beyond corrupt for so long and the escapement has been impacted for years and with the by -catch problem it’s just compounded.
Hitler finds out Sarah Palin reigned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IzNPEGWNos&NR=1
http://www.indecisionforever.com/2009/01/07/canadian-conspiracy-to-keep-barack-obama-from-blair-house-indecision-exclusive/
Personally I think this conspiracy theory has more class.
Paula, I am dreaming of my own conspiracy page and gaining credibility by being chased by people whose copyrights I breach. Fame is in easy reach! Or I could just CLAIM people are closing me down because I breached their copyright. Then I don´t even have to make up anything or cut and paste stories or edit videos…. All I do is create empty spaces and headlines:”This is where the video would have been if ….”
I want a competition of headlines.
http://community.adn.com/adn/node/142702 nice little article about Levi
Letters, I would go with an empty rectangle – perhaps filled in with bright communist red – and a statement that you were forced to remove (or evil higher powers removed) the video. Definitely, one item removed was the tape showing Obama’s “long form” birth certificate. From Moscow. (Mombasa, Moscow, Miami, them foreign words are so alike.)
And don’t forget the scary music!
And end some of your posts suddenly. Due to heavy footsteps in the hallway. Must move to new location! Must get the truth out there!
Oh, and here – you’ll needs lots of these: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And probably an extra caps lock key – it will be getting a lot of wear.
Michelle Malkin spewing on G. Stephanopolous ABC “This Week” program …
Saw a commercial that Charlie Gibson on Monday will be talking about the $15 million that has been awarded to a village in Alaska for a airport that has a population of of 150
Just complained about the lazy people on Unemployment Benefits deliberatly not getting jobs so they can milk the system, and that’s why we should not extend the benefits another 13 weeks …
On he State of the Union on CNN in the segment that is not John King (2nd hour), they spoke about Palin’s part of the speech last week about the media dig. One of the people on the panel mentioned the story travelling around this week about the split and specifically mentioned the Alaska Report blog and that on the blog it mentions “it says they are a CNN stringer”.
Talking about Health Care now … Michelle’s a lightweight here, bringing nothing intelligent to the conversation … trying to get her prods in against Pres. Obama … NOOOOOOOO!!!!! George! Don’t bring up gates-gate!…
I’ll stop after this – Sunday Funnies up next. He already showed a montage starting w/Sarah’s resignation speech and overlapping Shatner doing the same section with the bass/bongos duet. Pretty funny. He asked if anyone on the panel knew what Cheechacos and Sourdoghs were. Then he went on to say “he learned this weeK” that Cheechacos were the newcomers and Sourdoughs were the ‘natives’. Oooo, so close, George! Needless to say, Michelle Malkin did not have a clue.
Sarah, You’re No Nixon
And, no, that’s not a compliment.
Published Aug 1, 2009
“Palin’s problem is simple enough: too much of the country (57 percent in a Washington Post poll) thinks she’s ignorant or dumb, or both.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/209945
Lani, you are too funny! Thanks for the Sunday morning laugh.
OOps – I posted this on the aliens thread, and it will probably get taken down as OT. sorry about that snoskred.
This is how politico talked about Sarah responding to the divorce story, ensuring that it would find its way into the MSM:
y having her spokeswoman repeat the charges to rebut them in a public form, Palin effectively guaranteed coverage from the mainstream media that otherwise would not report claims attributed to unnamed sources on an anonymous blog.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25689.html
cheechacos and sourdough.. mmm.. tasty..
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=130523130070&h=Do1ul&u=0Oh8_&ref=nf
Anybody on facebook? That´s a link to vote on the new administrations performance. I think they did better than the current result of C+ and they even let me American-abroad vote.
@Lani — Jon Stewart suggests use of Carmina Burana, like in the vid he was making fun of last week.
)).
I´ll start now. Like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, they are coming for me, I hear them now (in my head without question
lettersfromeurope…is that you? i hear you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Booboodog – I hear you too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If anybody twitters you might want to give Celtic some support. The “others” are after her there too. They are kinda obsessed. Mmmhhh.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
letters, over and out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the Palin divorce rumor is true. It reminds me of the vanity fair issue where Palin wanted to get out in front of the truth about Todd being a member of AIP for 7 years and she was told no becaquse it weouuld cause people to talk about something that was true. She threw her own marriage under the bus to stay in the news
I thought palin had a 10 daqy count down and ahe could not wait for tweets to fly off her fingertips she jumped on twitter 20 times a day. Wait do not tell me the ex thrilla from wasilla that wqas the bitter quittter on twitter is now a twitter quitter there also too
I saw this morning that the AFT is still accepting donations. They night we were all playing investigator on the AFT, I was concentrating on krobar and the fact Meggie had announced that instead of staying with e-donations, Sarah wanted an Alaskan company. Krobar just did the design, not all the other stuff edonations/campaign solutions had been doing. Can’t wait to see the financial report and how much Sarah’s friends have been paying each other.
Also, I posted this a couple of days ago, regarding her twitters: $ may be having some trouble finding a twitter name. People were grabbing up any logical possibilities. That and Ivy Frye has blocked me. I did find though that if you go to the twitter.com website, you can still read the tweets, blocked or not. Small amusements for those killing some time
Someone must have posted this on here already but just in case -here’s a link to Huffpo re: Van Flein threat to Gryphen
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/02/palin-lawyer-threatens-to_n_249506.html
I wonder if $P isn’t letting her fingers fly with non pc tweets because she is no longer being paid for her time. Not the Governor anymore can’t bill anyone for staying home in her pjs.
Ouch, that was painful to watch even with my tinfoil hat. So let me see if I understand what they’re attemting to say… people that are like-minded on issues regarding SP (Democrats, ethics complaint filers and scribes) are actually PALLING around with each other and this sharing of opinions is an evil conspiracy… OMG, the humanity!
In case anyone is curious about distances/access of various Alaskan cities. I was trying to find out how long it would take me to do a road trip to Cordova, and found this easy map. You will notice the only way to get to our state capital – Juneau- is by boat or plane.
http://www.travelalaska.com/Transportation/roadmap.aspx
It´s all a conspiracy to keep Meghan S. busy. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Off the wall link here – directed to from A. Sullivan’s blog – a look @ the refrigerator contents of different people. Ha!!
http://www.good.is/post/picture-show-you-are-what-you-eat/
Palin attorney threaten to serve papers in kindergarten it that his show and tell project for the day?
Romney says thanks but no thanks to Palins radio show. ClearChannel w1as puirchased by Bain Capital,Bain Capital half owner is none other then Mr Pretty hair Roomney . So he basically did not hir her before she quit.
@Paula – excellent point on Van Flein letter
signed Thomas van Flein for Governor Sarah Palin
HUH!!! GOVERNOR……
(Lani am following your advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/02/mccain-sotomayor-vote-sti_n_249485.html
“McCain: Sotomayor Vote Still Up In The Air”
She must be too qualified and too vetted.
all during my childhood we ate pancakes made from sourdough starter that my great aunt found when she took a road trip to alaska (as a young woman). you had to continue to feed the starter – so we had sourdough pancakes every sunday. they were awesome. very light and airy.
something tells me that Sourdoughs were the prospectors of olden days?
online dictionary says cheechakos is a chinook term for newcomer.
so there would be First People, Sourdoughs, and Cheechakos?
i don’t understand that woman one tiny bit. and i would venture to say she is a cheechako….also.
Tried to post this earlier, but got stuck in the tubes. Let’s try again. Very interesting take on people’s refrigerators!!!
From Andrew Sullivan’s blog – be sure to follow his link to see all the refrigerators!!
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/08/you-are-what-you-eat.html
Well…I guess xGINO wasn’t too broken up about the “Rumor” b/c she gave a speech at Anchorage last night NRA
http://nrablog.com/post/2009/08/02/Phil-Schreier-reports-from-Alaska.aspx
The NRA, huh? They’re pissed because after all of the money they’ve spent they can’t influence the Sotomayor vote. Their pocket politicians are rebelling and cutting the puppet strings.
Does anyone know about the two bloggers who recently posted about how they are really sorry for being negative, etc. Both Think Alaska and The Alaska Standard have heavy I’m-changing-my-ways messages. Just wondering what prompts something like that.
Secondly, here in Southern California, the tease for the evening news last night was “Why Sarah Palin cancelled her speaking engagement.” It was on twice. When they finally got to it (sorry sarah, but you were almost the last story) they read the denial that she is divorcing, and just re-hashed the story about her being apparently scheduled to speak in Simi valley and her cancellation. They really didn’t explain anything, just put the two reports side by side…very sneaky.
The WARthog instrumental in an NRA lovefest? Imagine… and what is up with the black and red themed rightwing websites. Do they really want to be so blatantly about the doom and blood or are they channeling Berlin circa 1939?
crystalwolf – You found her! That’s the 1rst sighting I’ve heard about since the Quitnic. Have you notified the Mothership?
RE: NRA shindig – was Todd there??? lol
Bad news on king salmon…yet another LIAR LIAR moment for SP, eh?
King salmon vanishing in Alaska, smokehouses empty
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090803/ap_on_bi_ge/us_vanishing_king_salmon;_ylt=A0wNdPzMPXZKpnkAkCKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNhM2pmMzU1BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwODAzL3VzX3ZhbmlzaGluZ19raW5nX3NhbG1vbgRjcG9zAzYEcG9zAzMEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNraW5nc2FsbW9udmE-
Interresting article on Salon.com By Juan Cole Comparing Sarah to Ahmadinejad.
Just watched this Charlie Rose interview with Rachel Maddow. 2 class acts. Enjoy.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10400
Regarding the Palin divorce rumor or story. The unfolding of this information is a lesson in why professional journalists are so important. It may be true that Gryphen has a reliable source and that the information is reliable. But to reply, as the blogger did, by taking offense severely muddies the entire issue and now opens the door for questioning the blogger’s motives and intent. When commenting on the threat of a summons the blogger states:
“(The attorney) specifically mentioned my classroom in order to frighten me into compliance. Why else would he have said that?”
So what? This is about as relevant as Sean Hannity arguing that Nancy Pelosi was wrong because she had a sarcastic look on her face. No one but the choir he’s preaching to cares. Same here, only, I’m in the lefty choir and I’m cringing. We just don’t need this Fox News style of handling information.
Then Gryphen does more Hannity-like logic in which the straw man is set up in order to easily knock it down.
“Well if this were 1945 Van Flein (the attorney threatening the summons) might have a case. But this is 2009, when divorce is almost as common as marriage itself. It is highly doubtful that a report that Sarah and Todd are having marital problems is going to “injure” Sarah Palin’s reputation in any measurable way.”
This is just plain wrong. Palin is a major political figure who has staked her political career on following a narrow evangelical Biblical path. A divorce would show her to be seriously hypocritical to her base supporters. She would lose their support in a significant way and this would be a huge story of a politician’s downfall. Gryphen is either incredibly inept to suggest a divorce would have no effect on her or is incredibly awkward in trying to set up the reader with a list of other Palin shortcomings. At any rate, it’s just very bad analysis.
Finally, Gryphen appears to be in over the head by admitting that if the information obtained from the secret source is wrong then:
“I definitely have some asses to kick and some crow to eat.”
Jesus. Why didn’t Gryphen cross-reference BEFORE publishing. If these things (there are other events and gossipy tidbits in the original post) prove not to be true, Gryphen merely shows that amateur bloggers, on both sides (although there seem to be far more wing-nuts on the right than on the left) are creating something more akin to entertainment than real analysis.
There are people with credible information who focus the veracity of that information, not on whether they got offended in the exchange. I think Sarah Palin is a dangerous politician, but she does have the right to be reported on accurately. If Gryphen turns out to be just a rumormonger (and has left the door open for this possibility!), it only hurts the efforts of those who are trying to report accurately and fairly.
I hope AKM is working up a post about Gryphen vs Van Flea. There is so much comedy material there.
Jason, three things:
1. Sarah’s cult fans will never desert her no matter how many divorces she has.
2. Of course Gryphen cross-checked his references!
3. “Jesus” is not a swearword.
I posted some comments on the ‘ Ethics ‘ Story. It would be in your best interest to NOT click that link under AKM’s name.
I got something on my computer within 5 min. of visiting…. it was locked ALL DAY.
Virus, malware, trojan horse… something. Be Careful…
Well, Aussie Blue Sky, have you drunk too much of the kool-aid?
I’m against Sara Palin because I do not like her political views or policies. The evangelical agenda is myopic and regressive. Let’s just get that out of the way.
But condemning her solves nothing. It just gives people who are in the middle (and they exist in large numbers–you may not know them because of your stance) cause to question whether they would align with your views. That’s what you want isn’t it? Don’t you want people who are uncommitted or even pendulumming back away from Obama to embrace your position? Or do you want to be the equivalent of a Fox News fan, only on the left–irrelevant?
Maybe this question will help you get it: do you see how the “birther” issue is sullying Lou Dobbs? It makes people on the right look like they just hate Obama first and are trying to pin anything on him. Guess how we look if this turns out not to be true.
Go read that post
http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2009/08/was-it-somethng-i-said.html and you tell me if Gryphen has this story locked down air tight. You tell me if in Gryphen’s comments you’re as confident in this piece as much as you would be if it were Reuters reporting this? Does a Reuters reporter say, “gee, if I’m wrong I’ll have crow to eat.” Matt Drudge, yeah. He got lucky once. Gryphen might get lucky once, too. But, might not. And if not, it just makes it look like, maybe, they’re just unfairly piling on Palin after all.
So, when you say, “Of course Gryphen cross-checked his references!” that’s your assumption of Gryphen’s hope-it’s-true report.
Jason: Some of us have read Gryphen’s blog for 10 months or more. We know what his word means. We also know his is known by the company he keeps.
Why don’t you wait and see what happens before condemning Gryphen? Oh, and if and when the MSM actually starts reporting ALL THE FACTS on the Palin fiascoes, please let us all know. As of this date, it has mostly been done piecemeal by AK bloggers, a couple of NY Times stories, and Vanity Fair.
@ Jason in Oakland
“There are people with credible information who focus the veracity of that information, not on whether they got offended in the exchange.”
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You make several valid points in your two posts but my skepticism is immediately heightened when other people try to set the parameters for individual bloggers.
The massive blogosphere is interesting and dynamic because of the individual character of the blogs. If a blogger gets the reputation for noncredible information, it affects that blog not the whole blogosphere. Caveat emptor.
@29 lettersfromeurope Says:
August 2nd, 2009 at 2:35 PM
HUH!!! GOVERNOR……
(Lani am following your advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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GREAT!!! DON’T FORGET CAPS LOCK!!!!! AND wEIrD RanDOm CaPPinG, ESPicialLY when WODR IT MESPELLDE!!!!!!!
@Jason. I’ve been reading some of the posts on the main blog in question, so first I would like to say that I am very glad to be back on the ‘flats where polite disagreement and debate can occur. Your post is very thoughtful, and I don’t have an issue with it. It’s your opinion.
I do disagree that Gryphen has missed any standards, however. He’s just blogging some concerns, not constrained by any set of “blog rules” and not claiming to be a journalist. Nonetheless, his blog attains far loftier standards than many I have recently seen. He did not post nudie photos, claiming they were of a Palin family member. He didn’t support murdering her or anyone related to her. Those and other things of that nature are happening now on other blogs about the Obama family. Someone telling him, and him repeating, that the Palins are “splitsville” is just not the big deal that you (and those now threatening violence) claim it to be, IMHO. It did, however, expose a dark underbelly.
And that to me is the genius behind his blog. Finally, a lot of people are paying attention to what has happened and is happening in Alaska. He “made them look”.
Progressive Alaskan bloggers have posted for a long time about the shady dealings and intimidation of the ex-gov. During the election, bloggers were practically begging for the msm to investigate and report what they knew to be true, such as the way the personnel board “investigations” really work. And what finally gets attention? A rumor of “splitsville”. And included in the splitsville post were two references to far darker events.
So let’s see what happened. 1) He led the msm and internet users around the world to an eye-opening collection of Alaskan blogs. 2) The Palin camp demonstrated how it tries to shut them up, including threats of lawsuits and of scaring a bunch of 5 year old children, and a large number of poorly written, expletive filled posts describing the retaliation that Alaskan bloggers face. Job well done, Gryph!
JMHO.
Can anyone explain something I don’t understand? When Sarah was in the Lower 48 parading through Auburn, pouting across the stage in DC and lashing out at Letterman from TX, she mentioned she was in TX doing the “sisterly” thing. Does she have a sister in TX? I thought AK had all of that family contained in their state.
I just got off the HuffPo reading about the X Gov…I told my husband when that story broke about the big D that her camp made it up so they could stand on their “Quit making things up” platform nationally …
We as a Commericial fishing family of the upper cook inlet think that the entire fishery is managed for the Kenai River and has made the Northern District fishery the poorest for years and years. they fish around the clock and we lose opener after opener. the farther north you go the worse it is….
It has been beyond corrupt for so long and the escapement has been impacted for years and with the by -catch problem it’s just compounded.