My expectation was that there would be the Mercede Johnston interview and photos, in addition to a separate and lengthier profile of the Palins.
Not the case. The Palin profile was wrapped around the Sadie interview, many of her better quotes already posted online.
But unless I missed something earlier, nothing prepared me for the small photo on the opening page of the article. The photo of Sarah wearing the sweatshirt, bending over Sadie who is holding - according to this caption - Tripp. It is the baby most of us have called “Ruffles” and who has been identified as Trig, about two weeks old, in the Palin’s kitchen during Levi’s birthday celebration.
Now, I’ve written for the NYTs and seen people wrongly identified on photo captions on my stories. That misinformation comes from the photographer on my shoot. It is their responsibility to get and cross check the ID’s on people in photos. When a mistake is made, a correction is later appended online.
In this case, since the photo was already in existence, my guess is that it is the reporter’s duty to get the names straight. Then it’s the responsibility of either an editor or a fact checker to make sure the writer got his facts straight.
So, either standards aren’t what they used to be, or Sadie told them that ruffled ear baby is Tripp.
The rest of the interview and article contains some new information, but little that will inform anyone’s opinion of Mrs. Todd Palin. Here is my takeaway:
- Sadie’s mom has scurvy and has had 30 operations.
- Bristol was dating Gino at the time this was reported (winter)
- According to Sadie, Bristol is “psycho, a sociopath.” “Her mental insecurities are bad.”
- A text from Bristol to Sherry Johnston included Bristol allegedly calling Levi’s mother a “fucking bitch” and “you stupid bitch.”
- The writer asks a guy if he finds Sarah sexy: “No, I’d rather pork my old lady.”
- A bar fly points to the place where he alleges to have seen lines of coke snorted by the non sexy one.
- Sadie and her friend allege that there are privately owned videos of Bristol “making out with guys” and Sadie says “I have some stuff.”
- Sadie claims that Bristol has had two boob jobs, 3 chin surgeries and “something else done after Tripp was born.” (not sure which Tripp she’s talking about.)
- Todd is “so whipped.”
- Sarah’s whole mama grizzly thing is “so retarded.”
- One of Sarah’s supporters in the bar says that her liberal detractors are “trying to take the country down. Trying to make us join the European Union.” (not making this up.)
- The pot in Wasilla is “great” and it’s the Chlamydia capital of Alaska.
- Wasilla is “where it’s at.” (does ANYONE speak correct English up there?)
- Another local expressed little faith in Sarah because she quit as governor. “She’s a total idiot. Dude, she’s over. She’s done with.”
All in all, it was a lot of “I” journalism, about how the locals reacted to the writer and his impressions of how cold it was.
I learned nothing new other than that you can get scurvy in modern day America (not sure about the European Union) and as far as I could see - and my friend warned me of this - there was nothing of import in this article. It was all about Sadie’s T & A …oh, and that photo caption about Tripp.