Monday 30 November 2009

Andrew Sullivan demands to know from Harper Collins whether "Going Rogue" was fact-checked

Andrew Sullivan has stepped up a gear again and now demands to know from Harper Collins whether "Going Rogue" was fact-checked. Especially regarding Sarah Palin's "pregnancy" with Trig, he wonders whether Harper Collins has actually received documentation.

Andrew Sullivan writes:

"I've emailed Bellow (Andrew Bellow from Harper Collins, editor of "Going Rogue"- P.) asking him about the fact-checking process for "Going Rogue." Getting an on-the-record confirmation that, for example, Harper Collins reviewed the medical records proving Palin's multiple medical stories (including corrected hospital records by her own account) would be a useful piece of information. Since it appears that the McCain campaign knew nothing of these rumors, and indeed, by some accounts, nothing even of Bristol's pregnancy, it would be reassuring to know that someone somewhere has actually sought proof of some of Palin's wildest embellishments or total fantasies.

A responsible editor would do due diligence and check them out, right? I'll let you know Bellow's response to the fact-checking question when I get it."


I am very intrigued to know what the result of Andrew's inquiry will be. However, Harper Collins cannot have received any medical documentation regarding Sarah's supposed pregnancy, because her pregnancy with Trig was faked. This is a FACT.

+++

I would like to use this opportunity to point out some "highlights" in Andrew Sullivans reporting on the Daily Dish about "babygate", although I also would like to mention that Andrew Sullivan himself has never finally concluded that the pregnancy was faked, but "just" continues to ask "persistent questions" up to this point, being the responsible journalist he is:

August 31, 2008:


"(...) There must be plenty of medical records and obstetricians and medical eye-witnesses prepared to testify to Sarah Palin's giving birth to Trig. There must be a record of Bristol's high school attendance for the past year. And surely, surely, the McCain camp did due diligence on this. But the noise around this story is now deafening, and the weirdness of the chronology sufficient to rise to the level of good faith questions. So please give us these answers - and provide medical records for Sarah Palin's pregnancy - and put this to rest. (...)"

October 6, 2008:


"(...) So it is part of Palin's record to demand the marriage license of a fellow Republican, but to ask for any medical confirmation of the mysterious birth of Trig earlier this year, any affidavit from the obstetrician, any objective evidence at all that Trig is indeed Sarah Palin's biological child is, well, in the words of John Podhoretz, "virtually unspeakable." Look: this is usually not hard at all. Births are recorded at the hospitals where they occur. And, as you might expect, there's a long list of babies born at Mat-Su Medical center, where we are told Trig was born on April 18 this year. But for some reason, Trig Palin's name is not among them.

Why would a hospital exhaustively record all births on their premises and leave out easily the most famous baby ever born there? There were only 24 births at Mat-Su in April of this year: it's not like they could have mislaid one. So why is there no formal record of Trig's birth? This is not an "unspeakable" question. It's a simple factual one. Presumably there's an explanation. Perhaps the Palins decided that it would be an invasion of Trig's privacy to have the birth actually recorded in the hospital where he was born. But at least they should be able to tell us that. Or perhaps the hospital decided for some reason not to record that one birth. I have no idea. I do know that if Sarah Palin were running against Sarah Palin, she would demand evidence, as she did with something just as accessible with respect to John Stein's marriage license.

How much longer are we supposed to put up with the far right running on different standards than everyone else? Hand over all the medical records and put Sarah Palin in front of a press conference now. We need answers to an almost dizzyingly long list of questions and accountability for an equally long list of public lies."

December 5, 2008






"As Dish readers know, there are only three public photographs that I could find of Sarah Palin pregnant with Trig (the McCain campaign insisted there were "loads" and then was forced to retract). But we now have another. The date of this photograph, which turned up on a Flickr account, has been clearly established as March 26, 2008:

Here's a link from the Alaska state website discussing the event. Here's a news video.

That's barely three weeks before she gave birth to Trig, a full-term, 6 pound baby. It's also around a week before video footage of Palin, captured here. Since Palin refused throughout the campaign to provide any medical records (although, in classic Palin style, says she has), we only have three photographs of her pregnant and one doctor's letter, released hours before the polls opened November 3. If you're interested in why any sane person would ever doubt a mother's announcement of her own pregnancy, read this.

Maybe this photo has been photo-shopped. Maybe Palin had an anomalous pregnancy that showed far, far less than her previous ones, one that went from close to nothing to a serious bump in two weeks. Maybe the angle in the photo is misleading, and leaning toward us her pregnancy is concealed. Maybe her fifth labor really did take 26 hours combined via a speaking engagement (as amniotic fluid was leaking) and an 11 hour airplane flight (when a birth could have begun at any moment at extreme risk to the child), and maybe the bizarre and, to my mind, incredible stories she has told about the pregnancy and labor are true (there is still a chance they are). But if all these things are true, the Palin camp has had months to provide what would be instantly available records to dismiss all and every "insane" blog speculation about this. And yet none came - on or off the record.

I begged the McCain campaign by private email and in a private meeting to give me something - anything - to kill the story off. I promised to run any evidence that would blow this out of the water. That offer still stands. Please make me look like an idiot for asking these questions. But they didn't offer a thing, asserting that even asking the question was an outrageous reputation-destroying offense. Maybe Michelle Malkin is right that this is truther, tin-foil hat territory. But Malkin's only substantive point rebutting the photographic evidence is: We’re all obstetricians now!

Actually, the Dish went out and interviewed eight of the leading obstetricians in the country and laid out all the facts of the case and asked the experts for their take. While none would say that this pregnancy could not have happened, and none would comment on a case they hadn't examined personally, all of them said it was one of the strangest and unlikeliest series of events they had ever heard of and found Palin's decision to forgo medical help for more than a day after her water broke and risk the life of her unborn child on a long airplane trip to be reckless beyond measure. (...)"

+++

Please note that a slideshow with the above picture from March 26, 2008, including the picture in the original size and complete documentation CAN BE FOUND HERE.

In addition, the extensive reporting of "palingates" with regard to Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy with Trig CAN BE READ HERE.



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34 comments:

snowbilly said...

Joe Mcginnis of Daily Beast:

More than two weeks ago, quoting Andreadis, USA Today reported that Palin would be “making two and sometimes three stops a day, traveling in a bus painted with the cover of her book.” And just before the tour started, Palin herself said on her Facebook page: “I’ll post our progress from the road.”

[snip]

The bottom line is that the plane’s goings and comings track Palin’s tour perfectly: from Grand Rapids to Washington, Pa. and then to Rochester, N.Y., Roanoke, Va., Fayetteville, N.C., Birmingham, Ala., and Jacksonville and Orlando.

On November 25, the plane carried Palin, her parents, her two youngest children and her Aunt Katie to Pasco, Washington, for Thanksgiving. And there it sat, at Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco, for four full days,

See the article, here.

This is an important piece of news that supports the idea that Palin could have faked her pregnancy, because we have caught her in an act of major fakery with the bus tour that is a jet tour. If she would fake the bus tour, what else would she fake?

News travels, too. Also.

conscious at last said...

Yes! Go Andrew!
Go Regina, Patrick and Kathleen ! Thank- you!

...and for those who still childishly hope for SP to run for POTUS in 2012-- beware of your desires -- because ALL of this and MORE will be dug up and investigated.

Patrick said...

@snowbilly

That's all thanks to you! :-)

See what power the internet can give to the people?

Hope you go out tonight and celebrate your success!

Barb Dwyer said...

Patrick:

I think you should include with this post the corresponding evidence from ADN. As you know, Pat Dougherty also gave SP the chance to "debunk" this story and was stonewalled. ADN also interviewed a nationally recognized OB/GYN that came to the same conclusions as the doctors that Andrew interviewed

midnightcajun said...

It's standard NY publishing policy not to edit a book that has a built-in audience (think Nora Roberts or Dan Brown) because it will sell whether it's well-written or not. Editors are pressed for time, so the thinking is, why waste the effort?

Copyeditors will fact-check details like the spelling of a person's name. But no one is going to fact-check the events claimed in an autobiography. That's the author's job. It's the same as publishing a history; they don't check the author's "facts." Simply too expensive.

HC is no more going to answer this than they did inquiries about the "bus" tour.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. I'd never heard that bit about Trig's name not showing up on any Mat-Su hospital delivery list.

Can this be confirmed? Because that is such a HUGE hole in this story. In fact, I think if you could show a scan or something - that may even sway some of the non-believers...

Patrick said...

More success - another story which started right here on Palingates is spreading!

Andrew Sullivan also reports about what probably could be called "planegate" - and links to the Daily Beast and Palingates!

Andrew Sullivan reporting about planegate!

Barb Dwyer said...

anon 18:33

While the Matsu hospitals deliveries were still posted, they had two babies listed as being born that day. Neither one belonged to a Palin. I remember awhile ago, someone was able to dig up a google cache for that day and found a curious listing that had been scrubbed. I think that is somewhere on Audreys site.

Let's not forget either, the baby announcements with no birthdate on them sent out by SP. Has anyone else ever seen a baby announcement with no date on it?

Anonymous said...

None of this is new.

Its just the same old questions shes never answered in the past.

Anonymous said...

@18:41 - No. You're the one who has nothing new. Same old meme. REFRESH YOUR MEMES.

Anonymous said...

@Barb Dwyer:

Mat-Su Medial Center Birth Records

Anonymous said...

Publishers aren't required to fact check an autobiography. If she lies its on her not the publisher.

And since shes the only one with the answers I guess his request is pointless.

Anonymous said...

18:47 - Every publisher I've ever worked with (3 books) has fact-checked very carefully, esp. when I included autobiography!

Anonymous said...

Barb Dwyer said:

"I remember awhile ago, someone was able to dig up a google cache for that day and found a curious listing that had been scrubbed."

Yes, someone found that if you searched for Trig Palin and the Mat-Su web nursery, it showed up in google cache, but then it was shown that the mere fact of the name having been searched caused it to appear as a google cache. I remember the post, and understood it at the time, and I do not therefore believe "Trig Palin" was ever actually listed, just searched.

Which would make the most sense.

ella said...

I agree with midnightcajun - Harper Collins would not fact check someone's autobiography. HP would presume the author is telling the truth. I cannot fault HP for this - How to check thousands of details, from SP's birth onward?
BUT, what CAN be done is to "James Frey" her. If even one MSM reporter reports this book for the HOAX it is, she will be pulled off the stage, embarrassed and ashamed (if, indeed, she is capable of those emotions).

Anonymous said...

Patrick, sometimes I check out palindeceptions but I have noticed that there are 206 comments which should have been 405. What happened?

Anonymous said...

I have written 3 non-fiction books, some of which dealt with autobiographical experiences. All of them were vigorously fact-checked. It's true that none were published by Harper Collins.

I agree with this, though: If a book is ghost-written, then it's not considered a "real" book.

Andrew Sullivan says in an earlier post that he has paid for his own books to be fact-checked. I even paid for my most recent book to have a second fact-checker. This is what professionals do.

Surely at least lawyers vetted her book?

ella said...

Not only did the birth announcement NOT have a date, SP did not write it or sign it!
It was signed by GOD HIMSELF, "Trig's Heavenly Father."

A miracle I tells ya!

RNP in CA said...

Anon at 18:49 - you are right. When you look up "Trig Palin Mat-su" on google, you get a listing of the April 18, 2008 page of their nursery calendar, upon which he is not listed. If you go back to Google and click "cache," you get the cached version of the same page with this note at the top: "These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: trig palin mat su matsu."

I googled this phrase and read a lot of techy stuff, and it seems that google returns search results not just based on search terms but on links to a page. So the reason that page is coming up when you search for "Trig" is because there are many pages (like those at Palindeception.com) that contain the words "Trig Palin" and contain a link to the Mat-Su calendar.

Make sense?

Patrick said...

Anon 18:58

I have no idea what happened. You will have to get in touch with Audrey, it's her blog. We are not associated with Palindeception, it's a completely different blog. I had left the Palindeception-team several months before I started to write blogs for Palingates.

Anonymous said...

Harper Collins is owned by Rupert Murdoch, is it not? Correct me if I am wrong. Rupert Murdoch would have no interest in making sure Sarah's story was accurate in every detail. He would care much more about her telling a story that would appeal to her base. Making $$$, and on to the White House would be his scheme.

Anonymous said...

Hospitals are not required to publish the names of all
births. If the baby is born very compromised, very preemie, or under certain other circumstances the
births are often not included in the 'for public viewing'
newspaper listings.

Homebirths are only listed if the parents or attending
notify the newspaper of the birth. I do not recall being asked for any verification when I phoned in my son's birth, whoever answered the phone took me at my word.

Two Blue Jays said...

Re the Mat-Su births calendar, if the baby was not born there, then s/he would not be on the calendar. The choices are: a) baby was born at home; b) baby was born at midwife's; c) baby was born at another hospital, and not necessarily one in Alaska; d) baby was born at Mat-Su, and is listed under another name.
Once you accept the truth that $arah did not give birth to the baby, a world of possibilities opens up. From that starting point, you can consider any and all options for how that DS baby ended up at the Palin's. Beg, borrow, steal a baby? How many babies are there really? Two, or three? Who's your daddy, baby? Without our magical drive-by DNA kit, we can't tell by looking who he was, but someone sure contributed the sperm, and someone sure was pregnant with you at some point and knows who you are. Maybe some day that woman will speak up, but my guess is that she is either in league with the deception, or she has been threatened so she will never tell.

Anonymous said...

If she had really been pregnant, and as pregnant as the Gusty April 13th pics show her to be, SURELY she should have turned down that Texas speech which she was asked at the last minute to fill in for (according to the Hawaiian Governor whose name escapes me), she should have stopped flying, she should have done the responsible thing and been near the hospital she wanted to give birth at. Gees, when I was eight and nine months pregnant, still working at the hospital which I was going to deliver in, btw--every night that I went home, I wondered to myself if this was the night, whether I would just walk over to L&D instead of going home in case labor started at work....hoping beyond hope that it would start BEFORE 40 weeks.....and never daring to think I should schedule anything at all important or out of town in those last months.

But I forgot, she says she was only pregnant for a month. She didn't have time to be worried about that, only about getting a story together for public consumption.

I agree with whomever said that when people started asking questions about the birth...and the ADN was asking right after the birth in that audio recording...if she had JUST said, OK, the reason this birth was the easiest, the reason I saw no impediment to flying long hours home after my water may have begun leaking, was that I was not in labor, and I was not pregnant, and the reason I pretended I was pregnant, was because we have adopted this beautiful little boy, and we are so proud to be his parents, and we feel that God chose us to be his parents, and we are adopting him into our family, and Im sorry I mislead everyone, but we wanted our baby to know that his family wanted him very much, and the circumstances of his birth are private, and please honor our request to keep the details private.

Ya think? Sure I'd be curious about it, but I'd certainly have felt that she must have done what she did for a very good reason. I might even have thought Bristol was the real mother, and understood why Sarah felt the need to lie initially about it--and people would have gone along with not picking apart her deception.

But you know, once you dig in and keep embellishing, it gets harder and harder to change your story to an updated version. It's really almost too late for her to ask for our understanding. It really seems that she just thinks everyone should just take her word for it. I'm sure she is very angry when anyone questions her about ANYthing. As we've seen. If he is really her biological son, then why is she so angry? She SHOULD be so angry that she presents the birth records for all to see! THERE you idiots, THERE is the proof. Of COURSE he is my son, of COURSE you can ask the doctor who delived him, I give you my permission to ask the nurse who assisted at the delivery, the nurses who took care of me after my delivery, the aides who plumped my pillows and brought me my meals, and the lactation specialist who did so much to help me and my new baby boy who was having trouble learning how to latch on. ASK AWAY people......

I do not accept Sarah's version of the Trig pregnancy, and SHE has it in her power to make this story go away--either by presenting the evidence of her pregnancy and delivery of Trig, or by confessing that she lied about it for some greater good that is none of our business and that she therefore wishes the circumstances of his birth to remain private.

I think I'd be happy with that, and never find out what the real story is---it's the outright deception and expectation on her part that no one is allowed to even QUESTION the queen about Trig's birth that has everyone on this blog, I think, unwilling to just let it go.

Plus the whole thing of if she lied about this what else would she lie about.

Any book signings today?

Silver Salmon said...

Archive.org is usually a decent starting places for finding some saved versions of websites.

Mat-Su Regional is not saved at all. That's quite unusual and I'm beginning to wonder if they requested not to be on archive.org.

This isn't a recent phenomenon as I've been trying for months to get a view of Mat-Su from April of last year, especially the nursery pages.

Mat-Su Regional home page

Nursery page

mel said...

Anonymous at 19:37...Audrey, is that you?

Anonymous said...

Some palinbot or chuckie sent a post to the immoral minority saying there is an explanation, and Sarah will turn into a heroine, blah blah blah, when it all comes out.

So are the palinbots beginning to see that her story is a bunch of hooey and a fabrication? With the proviso, that of course anyone doubting Palins fabricated story is causing whoever the mother really is pain and is a terrible person.

It sounded like someone who might know something.

Janet Carter said...

OMG - I am laughing my a** off at the Huffington Post article: Go read the comments - they are hilarious.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/30/palin-plane-tour-using-pr_n_374084.html

Vaughn said...

Silver Salmon......This is the tiny url for the Mat-Su Regional baby nursery. Once you get on the page just scroll to the bottom
and keep on clicking next 30 babies on each page until you get to the April births. You can see the babies pictures by clicking
the babies names.

http://tinyurl.com/yg7dxj4

Anonymous said...

Let's say that Trig was miraculously conceived on a short-term basis and $arah was only one-month pregnant, then gave birth the following morning after her wild ride from Texas.

According to $arah, Trig came into the world a month early, had Downs Syndrome as well as heart complications...yet Sarah was back at work Monday morning with Trig in tow as if there were no problems or concerns whatsoever. Really? Mmm.

Please tell me how "Mommie Dearest" can continue to proudly recount this ridiculous story as if she was super woman of the century and it was no big deal? Mmm. Stoopid and believes everybody else is? Mentally Ill? Mmm. Definitely diagnosable.

What about Trig? She has continued with this farce long enough. Trig deserves more than being dragged out as a convenient PROP for this disturbed person. Why is Trig not clothed appropriately in cold weather? Why isn't Trig wearing his glasses all the time so he becomes comfortable with them and can see properly? Trig needs continued care, consistent therapy in meeting milestones, monitoring and lots and lots of love and nurturing. Oh, I‘m sorry I forgot that $arah only cares about $arah, so she's out of that love loopie thing.


Ld%)

wv: rhables

Silver Salmon said...

Vaughn, the reason I'm after the archive.org pages are because they would have been the best chances of seeing the register from last April unaltered. Archive.org has the pages as they looked at that particular time.

I'm curious if Trig ever was listed on their website. He's certainly not now.

Anonymous said...

No Mel, I'm not Audrey.

Just really pissed.

(Anon at 19:37)

Anonymous said...

The correct response when the REAL real reason
St. Sarah faked a pregnancy (and it probably will
be presented, whether for real or not, as a private
family tragedy) should be :

FINE. You heroically faked a pregnancy to protect
X, Y &/or Z. We are not here to judge you on that
or to discuss how in fact that did not protect anyone.We are only here to say that, in light of this situation, your willingness to accept the VP nomination WITHOUT EVEN BLINKING is just another example of your appallingly bad judgement and your inability to weigh circumstances from any perspective other than your own ambition.

You, Miss Sarah, had more than enough reasons to gracefully decline being considered for VP without going into any of the details that are now becoming so very public. That you did not in fact decline is nobody's fault but your own. Do not blame us for pointing out the obvious.

Anonymous said...

Ever try?

Trig palin site:matsuregional.com

On google search. Hmmmm.