Going Rogue: The Strange Chronicles of Sarah Palin

She slammed onto the political scene in summer of 2008, at the time obscure but now the world cannot get enough. The presidential election ended but she was not ready to give up the spotlight. Thus, a few months later she handed over the reins of Alaska to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell. But, no worries, this was not to relinquish the spotlight just take it in a new direction- her own book. From the end of the election when rumors of the book first got started, to the official book tour, and her reaction to critics, the conservative darling is keeping her news story cycling for as long as she can. She’s Sarah Palin and she’s going rogue.
MSNBC first reported rumors of a book deal on November 17, 2008, less than two weeks days after the election. The world began to speculate what Palin’s rogue side of the story was going to mean. From the beginning there were rumors that the McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy relationship and she was ready to tell her opinion of exactly what happened on the road and how mean the campaign staff was to her. In light of the recent election, most attention was on Obama but the seed for the ongoing story was planted and continued to grow.
Once the book was an acknowledged reality but before it was ready for the open public, many sites predicted it to be the best seller of the year. Reuters reported that the book made top lists on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble a month and a half before it was available (http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7/idUSTRE5905X220091001). The Associated Press got their hands on a copy about a week before its real debut and the quotes leaked instantly. Stories were devoted to picking apart every quote and trying to get a taste of what this book was about.
The book is now available; Going Rogue and Palin’s book tour are garnering all sorts of interesting attention. Pictures of her tour bus, featuring a big smiling Sarah and the title across the side are splashing across newspapers and websites across the world. Each time the bus pulls into town it makes headlines. Recently, Palin “quit on the job” again, leaving a book signing early (http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/20/palin-angry-book). Now that the actual book has been ready by way too many people across the country, everyone is ready to share their opinion. It seems that the voice of the critics are easiest to find. Andrew Sullivan entitled a recent post Sarah Palin: Not A Liar, A Bullshitter (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/palin-not-a-liar-a-bullshitter.html#more). This piece delves into the style of lying Sullivan believes Palin employs. He writes, “Having now read the book, I have to say I feel, yes, sadness. The same sadness I felt in a huge wave at the beginning of September 2008. For the innocent people dragged into this whole farce. And the damage yet to come..” Also, Sullivan published Sarah Palin- The Fumes of Culture War Hell (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/palin-the-fumes-of-culture-war-hell.html#more). Here, Sullivan uses a good example of forwarding to discuss the story. Most of the post is entirely made up of a block quote that he copied and pasted from another blog he also follows, Taiblog. Taiblog is taking an approach on Sarah Palin’s choice to write a book by mostly countering everything she does. Matt Taibbi, the author of Taiblog, writes
“Most of the rest of the book just catalogs her Gump-esque rise to national stardom (not having enough self-awareness to detect the monstrous narcissistic ambition that in reality was impelling her forward all along, she labors in the book to describe her various career leaps as lucky accidents or mystical acts of Providence) and the seemingly endless parade of meanies bent on tripping her up along the way.”

Is this taking a unique approach to the literary masterpiece of Sarah Palin? Probably not, but it’s an approach half of the political sphere is happy to take. Is this half of the political sphere part of “the endless parade of meanies” Taibbi describes? Probably, but, this is the only way to keep the story going. The opposition gives the fans something to work with and further dispute. The liberal blogs are more than happy to counter many of her quotes and forward on those that make her look less intelligent. Those of the left spectrum and other sorts of Palin critics feed off each other, researching each statement she makes and comparing it to her previous words. Stories cycle onwards about every detail, especially the debate about whether or not she asked her kids for their opinion on her accepting the Vice Presidential nomination. One of the leaked quotes from Going Rogue suggests that she did not but earlier she adamantly insisted that she did. As Sullivan chronicled in his The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/the-odd-lies--6.html), “Palin lied when she recalled asking her daughters to vote on whether she should accept the VP offer; in fact, her story contradicts details given by her husband, the McCain campaign, and even Palin herself.” There are now three different answers to this question, all stemming from Palin herself. Hopefully, the book will clear things up. In the scheme of things, who cares? But this is headline news, a story stemming from an earlier story and so on. Her critics will give her no break. Red State, a conservative blog, explained that the Associated Press had to dig to find these quotes to make fun of and even had to stretch the truth their selves (http://www.redstate.com/bk/2009/11/14/ap-tries-to-assault-sarah-palin/).
Never worry, there are still two sides to every story. Now that the book is in stores, there are many more news story praising Sarah and her fans are louder than ever. Many news stories have arisen simply to show the masses of people that are showing up for book signings and waiting in line for hours just to get that famous autograph in the front page of their book. Fox News has Sarah’s back (as well as the fact they helped produce the book). Fox News reports that the book shows Palin is a “complicated person” and “isn’t as dumb” as the opponents would say (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/03/new-book-seeks-debunk-myths-palin).
Fox News has happily been playing footage covering thePalin book tour showing piles of screaming fans. But wait, does that look familiar? Media Matters, a website that tries to hold the media accountable, shows proof that the video footage shown on Fox is really video from a Palin campaign rally last year. Fox is just re-streaming footage to make the crowds look better than they really are (http://mediamatters.org/blog/200911180052). This footage was originally caught by the left wing blog, Think Progress, which found it from John Stewart on The Daily Show (http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/18/fox-crowd-shot-palin/).
Sarah’s already fighting back at her critics: the bloggers, the newspapers, the videos. The story is a never ending cycle of debate, Palin verses the media. While the book review from New York Times was less than positive, the right wing blog, Powerline, stands up in her defense. The blog defends her by picking apart the Times book review...and then bringing it all back to blame Obama (http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/11/024952.php). In this way, this never ending story is able to connect the dots to two almost non-related stories, draw in fans and criticism, and keep the ball rolling.
The story continues as Palin and two of her daughters appeared on Oprah last week. Sarah discussed her new book and book tour and whether or not a presidential bid in 2012 is something she was after. Though she continues to deny it, her foot is still in the door and her smile still all over tabloids. She continues to talk, America watches captivated, and the story lives on. Of course, the story did not end with the Oprah appearance. Palin interview with Oprah was satirized and turned into YouTube videos almost instantaneously for dodging questions and promoting the book more than giving straightanswers(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXI4Pc6VeMI&feature=pyv&ad=3947106265&kw=book) .
Will this story ever stop? It seems every comment that is written sparks at least ten more. Sarah Palin is alert to anyone trying to take the spotlight from her and plays back to critics as well. Though news of her book will hopefully die down soon, the 2012 elections lay just around the corner and the story has just begun.

Hand in Hand (Post 6-ish)

In many regards, different sectors of the press sphere feed off one another. They don’t work together but simultaneously- often reporting the same story in different ways. In the scheme of press spheres, I think of the New York Times being a big bubble, almost an authority. The Times reports a multitude of subjects and stories in a (mostly) unbiased way. And, call me old fashioned, but the fact that it passed through editors and is printed on paper, raises the credibility above that of other sources. Then come the blogs. Many blogs I don’t see as part of the press ecology. They are rambling thoughts and aren’t relaying much important. However, the blogs I follow are quite credible and are relaying their opinion of news stories. The Daily Dish doesn’t really share much of a connection with the Times. Sullivan seems to mostly snag random quotes from other blogs and then share is feelings about the quote. Blogs are more commentary, less news. Think Progress takes stories from newspapers and C-Span and pushes the information to the extreme left.
Blogs especially are an important part of the new press sphere. Blogs keep major news corporations (ahem, Fox) and government in check. Since most bloggers have no editors or sponsors to appease, they could quickly become the back bone of a democratic press sphere. Any one of the nations citizens can tap in and share information. This seems like complete freedom in relationship to the Times who has more restrictions of what they can write. Blogs could not exist without sources such as the Times. They need stories to feed off and an informed public to respond. In the coming years, the press sphere must keep a fair balance between the actual reporting and straight facts from places like the New York Times, Associated Press, and Reuters but, must also allow room for the opinions and unedited information from a variety of sources.