Friday 9 July 2010

Sarah Palin, Al Gore and the National Enquirer - UPDATE

Right-wing America is elated: Al Gore has finally been exposed as a "pervert" and a "sexual predator". Says who? The National Enquirer! "She saved her pants as evidence", screams the National Enquirer about the alleged victim, and for the right-wingers, the case is closed. Blogger Andrew Breitbart doesn't even try to hide his excitement and wrote a huge story about these sensational revelations - the National Enquirer suddenly appears as reliable as the "Wall Street Journal"!

Andrew Breitbart - Big Journalism - screesnhot 1

"By releasing the information on Gore in the familiar Enquirer version of the Chinese water torture, the tabloid ensured that there would be a steady drip-drip-drip of news to fill the week between issues–and to excite the interest of any media that wanted to jump in on the story. Unlike the John Edwards Scandal, there were plenty of Mainstream Media takers this time around.

Yesterday, Al Gore was in San Diego to deliver a speech and not only ducked out without taking any questions, his security detail removed television cameras from the site before Gore mounted the podium.

Speculation about how much more the National Enquirer still has on Gore has centered around whether the tabloid has found other women to come forward with stories similar to that of the Portland masseuse. (...)

Meanwhile, there remain an inconvenient number of questions. Are there other women with Gore-y stories? Does the National Enquirer have them lined up and ready to go? Will Al Gore continue to duck the press? Will the Mainstream Media let him?

We have less than 24 hours to wait."

These are two covers of the National Enquirer regarding the allegations against Al Gore:

National Enquirer - Al Gore Sex attack

Al Gore National Enquirer Sexual Predator cover


The blog "The Midnight Review" criticized the hypocrisy of the right-wingers:

"Why do I bring this two-year-old story out now?

The National Enquirer had just published another infidelity story about a famous politician - Al Gore. In a recent Al Gore article, the National Enquirer wrote about the former vice president attacking his massage therapist in a hotel. Unlike the Sarah Palin article, the right-wing propaganda machines picked up on this story right away as a top story item - Andrew Breitbart even featured it on his Big Journalism propaganda site.

I find it interesting that when a story comes out about one of their own, the paper is not a reputable source and is threatened with lawsuits, but when they release stories about Democrats, like Al Gore or John Edwards, then the paper has some "damning details."

The right-wing media are a bunch of hypocrites. If sites like Big Journalism are going to stand by the National Enquirer on the Gore and Edwards stories, then they should stand by the Palin stories, so as far as I'm concerned, Palin had an affair... and she faked her pregnancy..."

The "two-year-old-story" that the Midnight Review dug out was the story about Sarah Palin's affair with Brad Hanson, which the National Enquirer exclusively reported.

Screenshots:

NE Sarah Palin - What's she hiding

NE Other man revealed screenshots

Sarah Palin other man revealed


The National Enquirer had several sources for the story with Brad Hanson, further evidence included a polygraph test and a sworn affidavit:

"However, Hanson family insider, Jim Burdett, has gone on the record and passed a rigorous polygraph test, revealing de­tails of the affair to The NATIONAL ENQUIRER in a world exclusive interview.

Burdett is a former brother-in-law of Hanson’s estranged wife Carolyn's brother, Craig Batton, and still speaks with many family members.

“I’ve known about Brad having had an affair for a long time, but it wasn’t until just recently that I learned his affair was with Sarah Palin,” Burdett told The NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

“Sarah was elected mayor of Wasilla, Brad became a city council member in the nearby town of Palmer, and they started an affair.

“Todd found out about the affair and was so mad he broke up their partnership at the snowmobile dealership,” Burdett claimed.

Another source, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions, provided The NATIONAL ENQUIRER with a sworn affidavit attesting to the Palin-Hanson story."

But when the news broke in the National Enquirer about Sarah's affair with Brad Hanson, the National Enquirer was deemed by the right-wingers basically on one level with "Weekly World News"...

Weekly World News - Dick Cheney

...and let's not forget the evil Obama operatives. "Rightcelebrity" wrote:

"Of course, we must consider the source of this allegation that Sarah Palin had an affair which turns out was apparently the Obama campaign itself. The National Enquirer, supermarket tabloid extraordinaire, alleges sort of that Palin might have had an affair with her husband’s business partner based on a tip. Who says so and why?

Turns out upon examination that the story is based on an anonymous source which the paper itself describes as an “incredible charge” by someone who appears to be a well-connected insider. The story may have come down to someone in the Obama campaign feeding the Enquirer a line. Their disclaimer that the charge was not credible did not pacify Sarah Palin’s team who are going to make a political issue out of media bias and dirty tricks from the Obama campaign."

So what shall we make of all this?

Regarding the Al Gore story, it's helpful to take a look at the facts in order to reach a "preliminary" conclusion. Right-wingers like Andrew Breitbart are not really keen on publishing facts, so let's see what Huffington Post writes today:

A police report prepared in 2007 said the alleged incident occurred Oct. 24, 2006. Gore was in Portland to deliver a speech on climate change.

The woman, according to the report, canceled appointments with detectives on Dec. 21 and 26 of that year. Her attorney canceled another meeting scheduled for Jan. 4 and said the matter would be handled civilly.

"This case is exceptionally cleared as (the woman) refuses to cooperate with the investigation or even report a crime," the report states.

The case reopened in January 2009. Detectives interviewed the woman but determined there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations, Portland police said in a news release.

Hardly an open and shut case, if you ask me!

Regarding the reporting of the National Enquirer regarding Sarah Palin, I can say that many of the facts which were mentioned in the articles which appeared after Palin's nomination were later confirmed by our own investigations. This hyped Al Gore story provides us with a great opportunity to revisit the old articles about Sarah Palin and her family.

I don't think that the right wingers would complain - after all, the National Enquirer is a credible news source, is it not?


Screenshots:

Screenshot Sept 15 - 2008 - Troopergate

Screenshot Sept 15 - 2008 - Pregnancy - secret wedding

Screenshot Sept 22 - 2008 - Vindictive

Screenshot Sept 22 - 2008 - Track Oxycontin 2

Screenshot Sept 22 - 2008 - Bus incident

Screenshot Sept 22 - 2008 - Bus incident 2 and Bristol

Screenshot Sept 22 - 2008 - Bristol banished from house

Screenshot Sept 22 - 2008 - Brad Hanson affair 1

Screenshot Sept 22 - 2008 - Brad Hanson affair 2


Regarding Bristol's "banishment" from the house, I would like to repeat what Blueberry Tart wrote in our large babygate post from July 2 (also included in our summary pdf document for download):

"Heather Bruce confirmed (in the book Trailblazer by Lorenzo Benet) that Bristol lived with her while pregnant and while going to Anchorage West HS. This extended stay with Aunt Heather had to be during the 2007-08 school year, because it was reported at the beginning of the 08-09 school year. Inside Edition aired a report on 9/2/08 stating that “Halfway through the school year, about the time Bristol discovered she was pregnant, she transferred to another high school.” The Washington Post reported that Bristol went mid-school-year to live with her aunt in Anchorage, finishing at the city's West High School.

The principal of the Wasilla High School also confirmed that Bristol transferred from there halfway through the 2007-2008 school year.
The National Enquirer reported this as well, with some additional details: “When Sarah found out the teen was pregnant by high schooler Levi Johnston, she was actually banished from the house. As part of the cover-up, Palin quickly transferred Bristol to another high school and made her move in with Sarah’s sister Heather 25 miles away!”

While many people apparently assumed this referred to the pregnancy with Tripp, that cannot be true. It can only refer to the winter 2007-2008 period, which coincides with the Trig pregnancy, not Tripp. Adding support to this conclusion, Bristol herself reported that they told Sarah and Todd about her pregnancy with Tripp “after school was out.” The logical conclusion is that Bristol’s banishment to Anchorage was not for the Tripp pregnancy, but for Trig."

I personally wish that the National Enquirer would get on the case regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy. This would be far more productive and valuable than aggressively going after a politician after the police decided to bring no charges against him. After all, the National Enquirer has proven in the past that they are capable of uncovering REAL facts.

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UPDATE:

Floyd has interviewed Bree at his "Palin Babygate" blog. It's good to hear from Bree again. She unfortunately closed her babygate blog a while ago, but we understand that "real life" comes first. Bree has some good insights that we encourage you all to read.
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