Huffington Post And Babygate: The Iron Curtain On Sarah Palin’s Faked Pregnancy Starts To Decay – But The Censors Are Still Busy

The Huffington Post and their approach towards “babygate”, the scandal surrounding Sarah Palin’s faked pregnancy with Trig, is a sad tale. Ever since Huffington Post blogger Lee Stranahan on September 1, 2008 rejected the faked-pregnancy theory and declared:

“Sane people need to come to reasonable conclusions”

and added in the comments

“She was pregnant, according to multiple interviews I've done with people in Alaska. They think the speculation is crazy”

...the Huffington Post has taken such a “hard line” on anything related to babygate that it would make a censor outside the “free world” proud. Therefore, it is not hard to believe what Lee Stranahan then wrote in the comments of another of his articles about babygate on October 22, 2008:

“Thanks but I'll tell you that the editors of HuffPost -- including Roy Sekoff and Arianna -- have been nothing but supportive of my writing here.”

As I myself and many of my fellow companions have experienced multiple times during the last 12 months, comments left on Huffington Post about babygate are usually vigorously censored. At times, it was virtually impossible to get any comment through which referred to Sarah’s faked pregnancy, even if it was “moderately worded”.

Then came October 21, 2009 – yesterday. I almost fell off my chair when I read what Glynnis MacNicol, senior editor at www.mediaite.com dared to write in her article (which has been tucked away in the media section of Huffington Post):

Top Ten Outrageous Sarah Palin Stories Oprah Will Have To Address:

"Who's Your Mommy: Palin and the Trig Birthers

2. Calling Andrew Sullivan and the Sarah Palin birthers! Ever since Palin stepped into the national spotlight in August 2008 there has been persistent speculation as to whether she is truly the mother of her youngest son Trig or whether the baby actually belongs her daughter Bristol and Palin's merely claimed to be his parent as some sort of cover-up. Levi hit on the sensitive subject again in his first-person VF piece. It remains to be seen if Palin mentions it in her memoir, but if she's considering another run for public office it's absolutely fair game for Oprah. Below, a typical birther vid.”

Can you believe it! Asking questions about Sarah Palin’s pregnancy is “fair game”! Hallelujah! Does that mean that we are now…allowed to talk on Huffington Post about what is supposedly one of the greatest taboos in US history?

Well…yes. I mean, no. Not so fast! Don’t give the people too much freedom! They might abuse it. A small dose of freedom of speech, that’s what we need. Emphasis on “small”. After all, Sarah Palin “sells”, we don’t want to damage the product too much, do we!

So, yesterday, the struggle began. The struggle to find the right words, so that the comment on Huffington Post doesn’t get rejected. What is it like to live in a dictatorship with limited freedom of speech? Well, you can find out for yourself and get first-hand experience – just try to leave a comment on Huffington Post about Sarah Palin’s faked pregnancy and you can get a glimpse of what the people in communist Eastern Europe had to go through.

REJECTED:

“Sarah Palin faked her pregnancy. She is one of the biggest frauds that there ever was in US political history.”

ALLOWED:

“Sarah's explanation regarding the wild ride is unbelievable. Oprah should question her about it and ask why she undertook such a risky journey.”

REJECTED:

“The parentage of Trig was the first lie told by the Palins on the national stage. And Palin continues to use that baby as a prop for her own political gain; promoting pro-life and special needs children agenda.”

ALLOWED:

“Absolutely ...biggest HOAX pulled in American political history. And main stream media refused to carry the story for some reason.”

REJECTED:

“Can anyone explain to me the reason why Sarah Palin travelled by plane from Texas to Alaska whilst she was in labor and her waters had broken? Why didn't she go to the nearest hospital which is what any normal woman would do in her situation? Is Sarah Palin such a poor decision maker that she is willing to risk her own unborn down syndrome child's life in order for him to be born in Alaska? The above facts are not some nutty story made up by conspiracy theorists. These are the facts that Palin related herself regarding Trig's birth. Also remember that she supposedly knew that he had a heart defect that would require immediate attention when he was born. I think that her story does not hold water (excuse the pun) and that it requires further investigation.”

I could go on. There are many, many more examples of rejected comments.

Any form of censorship makes me literally sick. It makes me feel even more ill when a “liberal” publication censors valid concerns of citizens which are based on a huge pile of “circumstancial” evidence. If a right-winger would censor me, I don’t mind too much, because that’s what I would expect from them. But the Huffington Post? It just breaks my heart that this important progressive publication is basically at the forefront of censoring comments about one of the greatest scandals in US political history.

There is a fascinating twist to the story. Paradoxically, Lee Stranahan once had his own problems with “censorship” in progressive publications. Lee was involved in a huge controversy about the handling of the John Edwards story in the media – he complained that the progressive media was ignoring the story. From the LA Times:

“Stranahan argued that even though the mainstream media had been silent after the National Enquirer broke the story, "the progessive blogosphere is ignoring this story at its own peril because it's going to be big." It was the most popular piece on HuffPo for two days. It also caused Stranahan to be banned from the liberal blog Daily Kos, whose users decided they did not like Stranahan's insistence on discussing unflattering news that originated in the National Enquirer. (…)“I was genuinely surprised that I got banned from Kos,” he said. “I just wrote an editorial. Now I find myself doing hard reporting." Although no other liberal blogs have joined Kos in shunning him, he feels he has a lot at stake in figuring out the details of the Edwards affair that are still cloudy. "Suddenly my reputation is tied in to the outcome of this story," he said.”

When I read this story, I had the impression that someone like Lee Stranahan, who also created some incredibly funny videos featuring Sarah Palin, should be our “natural ally”. But for reasons we will probably never find out, “the left” partially has lost its mind and is so scared of doing any false reporting about Sarah Palin’s pregnancy that they all apart from a few lone voices have collectively closed their eyes, Lee Stranahan included.

Interestingly, the website www.mediaite.com that Glynnis MacNicol is editing is certainly not a liberal website. It clearly appears to be a “conservative” website, although possibly with a “moderate angle”, as far as I could see. In the same way hasn’t, for example, the conservative publicist Peggy Noonan published one of the most devastating articles about Sarah Palin that was ever written?

There are many shades of liberal and conservative, and we cannot agree with each other all the time – but we should all seek the truth together. That’s all I ask for.