Thank you, Lidia, for putting together this really comprehensive and polished piece.
Courtesy of Lidia17. Excellent work and worth a good, long look, especially in view of Karl Rove now asking for full disclosure of Michelle Bachmann's medical records in light of the information that has come out about her migraine headaches. Things that make you say, "Oh really?" Thank you, Lidia, for putting together this really comprehensive and polished piece.
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I am thrilled to announce that my novel that I just uploaded as an e-book on Scribd, is featured on their new iphone app launched at 6 this morning, Pacific Time. Click on the book cover to take you to the Scribd page where you can read the first two chapters and then purchase Finding Clarity for $4.99. Then click on the Float logo above to read Fortune's great rundown of Float and all it can do. I've been fortunate enough to beta test the Float app throughout the weekend in anticipation of the launch, and I am here to tell you that the folks at Scribd are on to something great. This is what your new "desktop" on Float will look like: Float essentially aggregates the reading experience, putting your favorite apps and social feeds onto one screen. Read articles, blogs and literature on your desktop or mobile device. Find me and "Finding Clarity" under Favorites; Books; Books & Lit. Multiple reading fonts and styles are available for excellent readability. And where ever you leave off "Finding Clarity", you pick right up again. The Scribd feed is more active than ever, pulling in from Twitter. That's how I found THIS MURDOCH ARTICLE. With a keystroke, I emailed myself the article, linked here and then sent further into the social media sphere. For now, find the Scribd Home Feed here on this icon. You'll see "Finding Clarity" featured in the right hand sidebar. Scribd truly is "where the world comes to read." If you're a writer (and you know who you are) or make excellent videos (ditto) consider posting your work to Scribd and then Float your work between all the social media networks. I have 45,000 followers and more than 100,000 reads of my fiction, essays and news articles on Scribd alone. More to come as I learn more about the new Float interface. Meantime, I am beyond thrilled to introduce Clari Drake and her zany cast of misfit friends as they lurch through a school year, wreaking havoc, uncovering dirty truths, and investigating dark secrets among the wealthy elite at a posh private school in the People's Republic of Berkeley. In fact, it all reminds me a certain story we've all been working on for a while! "Finding Clarity", $4.99 now on Scribd. LN: You know, Brad, there I am, reeling at the new issue of Newsweek with Palin and her BOOBS on the cover, although I did find comfort in this hysterical post Gryphen did on that. Then I find myself sitting in a doctor’s office opening yet another Newsweek winner. This issue features Princess Diana at 50. Their artists have melted her face, plumped out her hips and even created a Facebook page for the Queen of Hearts. Tina Brown tells us who she thinks Diana would be at a half-century, who Diana would have reconciled with, how she would have felt. What cheek. Talk me down. BS: I subscribe to Newsweek, but it’s getting harder to justify the expense. As you suggest, the magazine is getting fluffier, more like People magazine – and who am I to say Tina Brown, the top editor, is wrong in a financial, let’s-boost-the-circulation sense for going in that direction. The magazine has been hemorrhaging money for years. But, you know, she could have gone in a different direction. It was in April, as I recall, just after she took the reins at Newsweek (and merged it with the Daily Beast online operation) that she lured Andrew Sullivan from The Atlantic. I thought, foolishly it seems, that his move there signaled that the magazine would become more hard-hitting, and might even go after Babygate. In fact, I contacted Newsweek about the time Sullivan went there, and I pitched the idea of the magazine publishing my spiral-of-silence article. Being lazy, I did so using some online send-us-your-comments box, so my pitch may never have gone up to the decision makers. But my pitch went something like this: This is your chance to do something fantastic – break the damn spiral of silence surrounding Babygate and make Newsweek stand for powerful, tell-it-like-it-is journalism. They had a chance to do that. Would that have made good business sense, Laura? Or is there no market for that anymore? LN: I applaud your effort. And I am chagrined at their short sightedness, yet not surprised. Some have said that USA Today was the downfall of modern intelligence or the appetite for news, what with its short stories and colorful layout. Newsweek now seems to have completed the trajectory into inanity. A mocked up Twitter page for Diana? Why stop at that? How about @JackieOh! with more than a million followers. Truly, I’d like to think that your comment got lost in the shuffle. You and I both know how difficult it is to keep up with my blog. Yet, they make room to create stories, how about making room to finish reporting on one. And let you do the heavy lifting, Brad. I wish I had an answer for you. It goes back to that “ick factor” which is shorthand for all the reasons no one wants to touch this baby story. It will piss off the people who want short articles and big BOOBs on the cover. And it probably isn’t cost effective for the legal eagles that have to protect the rag, excuse me, magazine, and thereby protect their phony-baloney jobs, as Mel Brooks would say. BS: I was aiming for a high-brow tone to my comments, sort of intellectual and refined – a Masterpiece Theatre kind of tone – but since you have brought up BOOBS twice (those capital OO’s remind me of something … I was very young … and hungry …), WTF were they thinking at Newsweek? Who’s the bigger whore in this transaction – Palin, for thinking she can seduce the male electorate into voting for her by thrusting her inflatable hooters at us from the magazine’s cover … or Newsweek, for thinking American men are so puerile and horny that inflatable hooters on the cover will make us to reach into our pockets and grab our limp … wads of cash. (Remind self … Masterpiece Theatre … Masterpiece Theatre …) LN: Since when did it become important or integral to a story to have multiple photos of the subject reclining on a dock or standing in a field? What does that say about the subject or the topic at hand? Nothing. It says “we’re about titillating the audience.” That’s all. And that’s sad. BS: So the cover and the semi-masturbatory photos (meaning you can’t get off on them unless you have a water balloon fetish) and puff piece article should be a giant embarrassment for everyone connected with Newsweek. But something caught my eye. The writer said that in August 2008, when the McCain campaign introduced Palin to the public, she’d been accompanied by four of her five children, “including their youngest, Trig, who’d been born four months earlier with Down syndrome.” I can see no reason the writer would cast that in the passive voice other than a deliberate effort to avoid naming Sarah as the birth mother. So the writer must know the truth and he’s trying to avoid repeating the lie about Trig’s birth. And that’s certainly progress on the Trig front. On the other hand, the writer did say Trig was born four months earlier, thus sticking with the probably fictitious April birth date given by Palin – but hey, you can’t have everything. Still, word of the hoax seems to be getting around. Earlier this year, when Tina Fay was four months pregnant and barely showing, Bill Maher sent out this line on Twitter: “When Tina Fay commits to a role, she really commits!”– an obvious reference to Palin’s amazing six-week barely-showing pregnancy. So if the media are taking baby steps toward Trig truthfulness, maybe they are not totally hopeless. Anything else in Newsweek strike you as a hopeful sign, Laura? LN: Truthfully? I don’t have much hope when once again, Mrs. Palin says her husband is a registered Independent when I believe it’s been solidly established that he was a member of the AIP. But it appears that the stenographer at Newsweek did their job and took down Palin’s facts as she determines them. A final thought on Newsweek and Palin: even though Newsweek has never caught up with Time magazine in circulation, it distinguished itself as a worthy rival with innovative approaches to the news. For example, in recent decades it did some outstanding reporting on social ills and pushed for solutions. It was thus an early practitioner of “civic journalism.” Osborn Elliot, the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University when I was there, was most responsible for those achievements at Newsweek. He died in 2008. Even though I considered him a pompous ass, I can’t help thinking he must be turning in his grave to see what “journalism” has come to today. And here’s where I can say I agree with Palin on something: mainstream media has become irrelevant. It’s not doing its job. It’s not failing in the way she thinks. But in the way its not reflecting on what she says and does. It’s become shallow and stenographic. BS: These are perilous times financially for many publications. Despite my unkind words for this issue of Newsweek, I understand that there needs to be experimentation, that the next decade may be a time to try out new business models in journalism. Maybe the Benjamin Day for our times will soon appear. Benjamin Day started the first penny newspaper in the U.S., in New York City, in 1833 – his competitors sold papers for a nickel or more. And guess what: the new factory workers, and immigrants, and housewives – people who had never read newspapers before – started buying these penny papers as they were hawked by newsboys in the street (also an innovation). And all those new readers attracted advertising – which became the key to how the penny paper could be sold so cheaply. And the penny papers, which hired reporters who dug up lots of sex and crime and man-bites-dog stories (also innovations), drove out the stodgier, more expensive papers. Benjamin Day found the financial formula that would serve newspapers, and magazines, very well for 175 years or so. But now it’s time for another Benjamin Day (or more likely, Bertha Day) to appear. LN: And they probably will. But I don’t think it’s Tina Brown. Don’t get me wrong: I want to write like her when I grow up. I think she’s a fabulous journalist. Her book on Diana was spectacular and gripping. But a story about what would Di do on Facebook? Not so much. BS: Taking the long view, I’m not despairing about the sad state of journalism today. I think we need to wait for this new-fangled Internet thing to sort itself out. Then the Steve Jobs or Bill Gates of the news biz may transform journalism, except “he” is likely to be a “she,” since women are more and more rising to the top in our field. And that’s why Palin with her inflatable BOOBS is so depressing. The Playboy bunny is dead. Someone should tell Sarah. Like maybe the press baron that runs Fox, Rupert Murdoch. LN: Maybe he will, except I hear he’s busy in meetings in London and will probably be grilled by Parliament next week. Maybe when he’s done getting filleted by the tabloid masses, maybe then he’ll tell Palin to pack it in and go home. Tell us what you think, readers, about this issue of Newsweek and Palin’s glamour shots, and also about the state of journalism today. Brad and I want to hear your views and react to them. I am intrigued by the question of who exactly enables people who appear to wreak havoc all around them. I understand in the most basic terms that narcissists and sociopaths are by their very nature seductive. I mean, who would want to leave when the perks are so good: the mansions massive, the hotels suites swell, the plastic surgery provided, and the cars paid for in cash? But is that all that drives an enabler? Surely they pay a price for their loyalty. But what do they get out of it? PhD provided me with this answer that took my thinking in a different direction: *** "Families who enable psychopathology-- i.e., borderline, sociopathy etc. This would be found in the codependent literature. A character/personality disorder is akin to addiction. Like with the addict or alcoholic in a family system, the family organizes around them, runs interference, and unwittingly reinforces the addiction. The family is held hostage by the pathology or addiction and is seen as disloyal or abandoning for breaking with the tribe, and this could lead to survivor guilt. The best analysis comes from the Adult Children of Alcoholic literature-- basically it's a combination of separation guilt and survival guilt all as an outcome to a dysfunctional family organized around a narcissist. In the alcoholic family the alcoholic is observable and the by-products never so clear. All the research can be extrapolated to the narcissist. The person who gets out of an unhealthy family system while others remain mired within it may experience what is referred to as “survivor’s guilt.” This term was originally used to describe the experience of soldiers who left mates on the battlefield. This person may become overly preoccupied with fixing their families, because the thought of being happy when their families remain locked in dysfunctional ways of living can be very painful to them. The term survivor guilt came to us originally from Darwin, who identified the phenomenon of guilt felt among those who literally survived the death of others. This concept became more familiar to us after the Holocaust, when it was observed frequently among surviving family members whose loved ones had not survived prison camps. In more recent decades, the concept of survivor guilt has broadened quite a bit (O’Connor, Berry, et al.,“Survivor Guilt, Submissive Behavior, and Evolution Theory: the Down-Side of Winning in Social Comparison,” British Journal of Medical Psychology (2000), 73, 519-530). Contemporary research shows that survivor guilt (less commonly referred to in the literature as ‘inequity guilt’ or ‘outdoing guilt’) encompasses guilt about feeling better off than others, or about any sort of advantage a person may think they have when compared with other people. For example, superior ability or greater health, wealth or happiness may cause a person to feel guilty. O’Connor, Berry, et al. propose “that survivor guilt has been selected by evolution as a psychological mechanism supporting group living (p. 519).” In terms of why a politician's kid or movie star's off spring might have a difficult time breaking away…it’s not only the money and the lavish lifestyle but the feared punishment for being disloyal. The abandonment depression that ensues with this kind of pathology can be directed in a very punishing way. It's the fear of wounding the narcissist (or borderline) that keeps those in the family chained to the system, as well as feeling like the "crazy" one. It's their job to continue to prop the narcissist or borderline up. Those who manage to break away do so in several ways with discreet tools. The most important factor is resilience-- the ability to overcome adversity and bounce back from difficult situations. They are adaptable and amenable. Another important element is a role model, mentor, peer, teacher, coach or healthy family member. Someone to validate that the Emperor has no clothes and verify that there is indeed an Elephant in the living room." *** Fascinating food for thought. Thank you so much, PhD, for the time you’ve given us here. I really appreciate it. PhD will be available to interact in comments throughout the weekend. So please join the conversation! H/T to Ottoline for locating this "Live Shot" with Andrea Gusty and Governor Palin. We've examined the photos from this in great detail and a number of theories exist on the news piece Gusty later did about the controversy and her role in it. Here's my take: Like it or not, I think this video lays to rest any idea of any involvement with Gusty and the alleged hoax. This looks to me like an authentic "Live Shot" and I say that as someone who has done hundreds of them. The anchorman does his lead-in. He tosses it to Gusty. She references the legislative session ending hours before and states that there will be a complete story on the Ten O'clock news. That is when she will "re-package" this. It makes perfect sense to me. The dark "sky" behind the anchorman is a set. I doubt very much it's a live scene. The shots of an editing console behind the weather "girl" and the idea that Gusty might have edited a hoax video herself leads me to point something out. If this is a union shop, and I don't know if Alaska is a "union state", but my guess is that it is, then I doubt very, very much that a news reporter would touch an editing system. It's a serious union violation. The engineers are usually members of IATSE (eye-AT-see) or NABET (NAY-bet). No one touches the equipment except them. Not even a news director can run into an editing booth and monkey with the equipment. And most people couldn't even begin to know how to edit on a system, much less have the temerity to try it. Likewise, Gusty is probably a member of AFTRA (AFF-truh) and no one outside that union is allowed in front of a camera. I also want to say, as much as it might pain some to hear this, that both women did a fine job in this piece. Gusty was young here. Live shots can be nerve-wracking. Because what you see is what you get. They are live. There are no re-do's. She was polished and poised. She didn't fumble or stumble and she knew exactly what she wanted to ask in what order. I give her four stars. Likewise, Palin surprised me. She sounded sane. She appeared knowledgeable and interested in the topic. She knew the size of the "soundbite" to offer and she gave each one with confidence and a gut instinct for when to end the sentence. She also showed this green, awe-struck reporter some respect. And that's an attitude we've not seen since Palin became a household name. What happened to Palin "there, also, too" on that campaign trail is anyone's guess. It's difficult to imagine that this is the same woman we have seen shriek about basketballs, dead fish, and glass ceilings. In my opinion, she has devolved so much from this segment, it's pathetic. Too much stress? Personality disorder? A combination? You decide. Now, I don't know if Palin was packing foam here, or if she'd strapped on rubber. I do know that Brad Scharlott has made a solid case for that through some excellent analysis and arguments. What I can comment on here is that this looks to me like a legitimate Live Shot and I'd lay the "Gusty involved in a hoax theory" to rest. I think it's a non-starter. Or continue-er. Feel free to disagree. There has been a fair amount of discussion on these photos in the comments of my posts. So, I asked Doc to weigh in on the boys in blue. Here is what he had to say about the pictures: "In this picture with Willow, the baby in the airplane with a blue sweater shows no signs of Downs syndrome and looks to be 2-3 months old. I’m saying this based on level of alertness, and hands still clenched at rest for a baby that age. If Trig truly has Down syndrome, as I believe he does based on our previous post and analysis, then this just cannot be him. The second picture, its hard to tell, but the baby probably does have Ds. The baby looks a bit older than 1 month in this photo, maybe 1-2 months. I do see the nasal cannula. Certainly looks like a nasal cannula, but also could be a feeding tube. It’s hard to tell if it goes across the whole face or just over the left cheek. I can't do any measurements as his head is looking off to the side. Since it’s an outside shot, with everyone wearing shorts and light jackets, it’s definitely not early spring in Alaska. What, and no hat on the baby? Bristol looks very young in that picture, much younger than she looked during the campaign. Why is she always holding her "mother's" baby? Does Sarah ever hold the kid except in PR photos? This baby in blue? 6-7 weeks old is a good estimate. Weeks, not months." On Allie RN’s post: "I didn't know about a possible tubal ligation or hysterectomy. If I understand Sarah’s religious beliefs, I can't imagine she would have a voluntary sterilization procedure. If that came out (and someone, somewhere must know), it would totally invalidate the whole pregnancy scam. There's got to be someone out there willing to talk. As a Neonatologist, I don't know enough about hysterectomies to comment on the need for a perfusionist, but it could make sense, especially if she has a bleeding tendency. There are several reasons a "healthy" woman in her 30s would need one that come to mind: malignancy, severe fibroids, chronic pelvic pain, menorrhagia or complications from delivery. If Sarah Palin had a tubal ligation, it would make it very difficult for her to be Trig's birth mother. If Sarah Palin had a hysterectomy, it would make it impossible for her to be Trig's birth mother." Thank you, Doc, for taking the time to give us your responses to this material. A reader sent this. It raises three specific questions for me: If it were Sarah, why would she say this after only one missed menstrual cycle?
If it were Sarah, did she say this after several missed periods? If it were Sarah, what happened to the baby? But perhaps it wasn't Sarah. Let me share with you what the vox populi in Alaska has shared with me: Bristol's pregnancy that had the school abuzz was over the winter of 2006 into Feb of 2007. 2006 was the year Bristol left Wasilla and went to live with her aunt to recover from Mono. Confirmed the year with XYZ. They were all students at XYZ High. This was the same year she left Wasilla High and was MIA for the rest of the school year, supposedly in Anchorage attending school, but no record of that either. To the best of my memory it was 2006 or 07. Yes the rumors were swirling, I never paid much attention to it. Bristol's pregnancy and subsequent exile was all the kids talked about for months. She was not well liked at school and they all seemed to enjoy seeing her get knocked down to size. Once Sarah announced the pregnancy, they were simply never seen in public. She said “pregnant”, I thought "poor thing, at your age!" and thought no more about it until all the crazy stuff began. Bristol did not reappear until early in 2008. I do remember seeing Dr. Cathy on the local news, and she did indeed have an attorney behind her, and did not answer any of the questions put to her. She made a brief statement, and it was over. Pat Dougherty was a bit sneaky in how he worded his reply to you. There was a statement, and it was not at the newspaper offices. Vox Pops indeed, as we called them in the news biz. Hope to add more to the collection over time. H/T VN Last night in Fredericksburg, Texas, I stood across a table from Bristol Palin while she signed my copy of “Not Afraid of Life.” (Walmart, $19.69) Things like Bristol Palin don’t often happen on a Friday night in Fredericksburg (population: 11,305). By 5:30 pm there were about a hundred of us who stood in the line snaking through the Walmart garden center. Waiting was festive because we are Texans are good at making parties where we gather. Both the women in front and behind me had driven from San Antonio, 70 miles away. They’d heard about the book signing on the radio while listening to Rush. A small army of excited Walmart employees and four local policemen enforced us. There was a single Fox cameraman from San Antonio or Austin. Nobody talked politics. The lady behind me asked, “What’s her little boy’s name again?” “Tripp,” I told her. “Well, then, what’s that other one’s name?” she said. “Trig,” I said. “That’s right,” she said but didn’t sound completely convinced. A young Latina mother was at the head of the line with three small children, who each held a copy of Bristol’s book. Nobody talked about Sarah Palin, but one woman had a t-shirt with a giant pair of pink lips and homemade pink lettering that said “Sarah Palin”. No one mentioned Jesus, God, or church. We all asked the same question. Why, Fredericksburg? Why not Amarillo or Dallas? Pretty soon, word drifted back through the line that a Walmart employee had said that this Walmart is the top seller of Sarah Palin books in Texas or maybe even in the world. “We’re just lucky,” a portly man in a Texas t-shirt said. I told him that I just happened to be in Fredericksburg visiting my parents, and he said I was doubly lucky. A Walmart employee walked down the line telling us to have our books open to the right page and to display our receipt. She reminded us of the rules: no posed photos, no inscriptions, no conversation with Bristol. All personal items must be placed in plastic tubs like at an airport screening. Bristol was right on time. From behind a display of lawn chairs, she entered the staging area where the signing table was set up. Tripp followed with a babysitter (I believe it was Ivy Frye) close behind. A few people clapped. I was surprised by how thin and long-legged Bristol was and how pretty. She wore a heavy scarf, jeans, and a sweater even though outside it wasn’t just Texas summer but the worst drought in over a hundred years. As Bristol sat at the table, Tripp was placed in a chair beside her. Almost immediately he started to whine, and the blonde woman carried him away. The line began to move. It felt a little like a Lourdes pilgrimage, maybe because there were a few wheelchairs and walkers and plenty of babes in arms. As we neared the table, I saw that Bristol broke all the Palin rules. She talked to each person. She posed for photos and shook hands warmly. Her movements were gracious and assured. She seemed to be enjoying herself. When it was my turn, my friend Finn handed Bristol the book while I fumbled with my cellphone camera. And then we were done. In less than an hour, the event was over. I’d really wanted to hate Bristol. Laugh about her plastic surgery. Or at least work up a little righteous anger for all the hours and years I’ve spent reading every Palin watchdog blog worth a damn and despairing of the day when truth and justice will triumph over hoaxes, lies, and Murdochian anti- journalism. But right there in person, I just felt sorry for Bristol Palin. I thought of my own daughter and of other 20-year-old girls I know. How sad that this girl would—on the advice of adults she trusted-- travel so many miles to the middle of the Texas nowhere to autograph a book of lies she hadn’t written for mostly old people who had nothing better to do on a Friday night than mosey over to Walmart for a gander at Sarah’s girl. What I was aware of last night was the loneliness of the people who‘d come.
“My husband was painting the ceiling, and he just came in and said, ‘How’d you like to drive over to Fredericksburg and see Bristol Palin, and I said, well, I don’t know, and he said, well come on, get your bag, we’re going, and I said, are you sure, and he said. . .” But more importantly, I experienced first hand the insidious naiveté of the Palin brand/ weapon. Its stubborn and aggressive amateurism. The oxymoronic joke of a book signing in Walmart. Ivy Frye in her ill-fitting gray suit directing folks like a traffic cop. A publicist who picked the wrong stop in Texas. Tripp as stage prop. Bristol’s dramatic signature on the page of a book someone else wrote. It was a carnival sideshow as freaky and crude as a two-headed calf. And we, the American people, are the suckers. Dear Bristol, my dear girl, this is exactly the kind of life you need to fear. It's been far too long since I've watched this. If you've not seen this series by our own commenter, Lidia17, then you must. Thank you, Lidia, for permission to post your terrific work on my blog. H/T to those of you who provided the links to all three parts, reminding us that these videos are worth watching again and again. You asked for it, you got it, courtesy of Curiouser and Curiouser: And then this one, on the tarmac and then indoors: H/T to Curiouser for that fast turnaround. Keep the conversation going, folks. Treat this as an open thread if you wish. Thanks much!! |
Laura NovakReporter, Author, Blogger, and Mother...
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