By now you have probably seen the wave of Sarah Palin rumors in the dinosaur media and the liberal blogs’ focus on the story that Sarah Palin and husband Todd are headed for divorce because of extramarital affairs by both. As you may imagine, the rumor was like a dream come true for many lefty bloggers.
PJM’s own Rick Moran looks at this issue at American Thinker and raises a great point: own American Thinker and raises a great point:
Several Alaska bloggers hounded the former Alaskan governor with bogus ethics complaints while she was in office — Alaska Report being one of them. Could a little payback be at play here?
I don’t doubt there are serious motivations for such tactics, but I suspect it runs a bit deeper than payback. Moran openly admits he’s being highly speculative. In that same spirit, here are a few thoughts and ideas.
Look at the “name in the paper” syndrome that followed Palin resigning her office and the stir that caused on the left. Not only did she reinforce her name recognition with that move with publicity you couldn’t buy from the dinosaur media at any price, but the press attacks on her actually brought out a lot of sympathy from grassroots types who don’t like and don’t trust the dinosaur media anyway.
I am beginning to think Palin played the press for fools on that one. All an accident? Perhaps, but I doubt it. Think of it in the following way. What could she have possibly done by plan or accident to get more press, more name recognition, and more favorable polling reactions from voters than resign as governor? That degree of success smacks to me of planning.
Her position thus reinforced with grassroots Republicans, the left took up the call on this “divorce” rumor, apparently wanting desperately to take a little of her momentum away. In so doing, the left apparently found the answer for Palin and her people to the question of what might give her even greater name recognition and voter sympathy. The beauty is, she didn’t even have to lift a finger this time around. All she had to do was to answer the rumor with:
Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd? I may be just a renegade hockey mom, but I’m not blind!
Boom. Up go the polling numbers yet again, with minimal effort on Palin’s part. I think the woman is pure gold on these things. One simply cannot extinguish a rumor with any greater force, save perhaps dropping a nuke on the house of the author of the rumor. We see once again that the chief rumor monger is Alaskan CNN stringer Dennis Zaki of the Alaska Report website Moran mentions. Zaki and his website, you may recall, were involved in the spread of some seriously vicious rumors about Trig Palin and his parentage – rumors some on the left have been fixated on since the Republican convention.
More at the link.
Also, at Extra TV, of all places, "Palin Hunts Down Blogger, Threatens Lawsuit:
In a letter obtained by the Alaska Report, Thomas Van Flein, Sarah's lawyer, threatened the blogger known as "Gryphen" with legal action if Gryphen didn't post a retraction and an apology for his "malice" and "defamatory" accusations about the former GOP VP hopeful. If there's no retraction, Van Flein threatens to serve him with a court summons and a complaint at the kindergarten where the blogger works.
In response, Gryphen wrote on his blog, admitting that he did work in a kindergarten, and slammed Sarah's counsel for outing his life outside of the Internet. He also dissed Van Flein for mentioning his classroom "in order to frighten me into compliance."
As of now, Gryphen stands by his source and the story that the Palins are on the outs ...
Conservative bloggers Robert Stacy McCain and Dan Riehl have been all over this story. They've been contacting sources in Alaska, digging down deep for more information on "Gryphen." The guy's apparently a kindergarten assistant, and it looks like he's pushing back hard with threats of potential legal action.
From The Other McCain, "GRIFFIN INVESTIGATION:
Just got off the phone with Dan Riehl, with whom I'm co-blogging a project about anti-Palin blogger "Gryphen," a/k/a Jesse Griffin, Anchorage kindergarten teacher.Given the serious nature of this story, Dan has decided to seek legal advice before publishing, a decision in which I concur. Readers are requested to visit Riehl World View or back here, where updates will be posted as soon as possible.
Here's the latest at Riehl World View, "Warning: Please Be Careful of Comments:
As I've just received a threat which seems to be from Jesse Griffin and suggests lawyers are already involved, please refrain from making any comments here that suggest Jesse Griffin is guilty of any crime, particularly as regards children. I have suggested no such thing.Dan has just now added an update indicating that he's combed through the comments and deleted potentially inflammatory insinuations.
There must be something big cooking!
Image Credit: FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog, "The 'OUTING' of Sarah Palin Hate Blogger Jesse Griffin?"
2 comments:
It's easy to fall for a rumor that paints your opponent in a bad light, when it's "what you want to believe about them." I've seen it on the right as well, and in my personal life. It's something you have to guard against.
"As you may imagine, the rumor was like a dream come true for many lefty bloggers."
Hell, I'm guessing a lot of blue-blood, country club RINOs were pretty happy about it as well.
-Dave
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