Refreshing Rationality from New Yorker’s Amy Davidson
April 24, 2011
Finally, someone who personally believes that Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig respects the right of
Andrew Sullivan and others to ask legitimate questions. Amy Davidson, a senior editor at The New Yorker posts on her Close Read blog.
This is like a breath of pure oxygen after choking on the aggressive contempt spewed by Salon, HuffPo, etc. over the past few days.
I can understand skepticism. But what’s fueling the anger of MSM toward those like Andrew Sullivan, who simply keep asking questions because no one is giving answers? You would think journalists would applaud Sullivan for doing his job. Instead, so many try to marginalize and demean him. I would expect this from hack polemicists like Breitbart, but I’d really like to know what’s behind the defensiveness at MSM sites such as Salon, Slate, and HuffPo. They laugh at and scorn Sarah for everything else she says, but on this one issue she’s declared beyond reproach and taken at her word? And the thoughtful and diligent Sullivan is ridiculed for saying it does matter if Sarah’s whole bit of performance art with Trig was only that?
What could matter more? This woman almost became vice president of the United States, and still harbors hopes (because God will open the doors for her) of becoming president.
I suspect, and certainly hope, that we’ve not heard the last from Andrew Sullivan on this question. I know we haven’t heard the last from me.
Posted in 2012, Andrew Sullivan, Joe McGinniss, mainstream media, Palin children, Sarah Palin, The Rogue, Trig Palin | 
Tags: amy davidson, Andrew Sullivan, huffington post, joe mcginniss, MSM, salon, Sarah Palin, slate, the new yorker, the rogue, Trig Palin
29 Responses to “Refreshing Rationality from New Yorker’s Amy Davidson”
Breitbart-Palin Mob’s Next Target: Andrew Sullivan
http://wonkette.com/443957/breitbart-palin-mobs-next-target-andrew-sullivan
LOVE IT, Joe!
Me too! Keep talking, and we’ll keep commenting everywhere we don’t get banned!!!
Thank you. Finally a sane voice. It is terrifying to me that Palin was a heartbeat away.
She’s like a breath of fresh air. All I can say is that when the truth is “out” those reporters should publicly apologize to Andrew Sullivan who is doing his job and they certainly aren’t.
With Sullivan, they’ll be biting off more than they can chew. He’s got guts as well as brilliance,
and an abiding sense of fairness, empathy and compassion.
–Joe
Amen Joe!
I thank you for addressing the Trig question without (as of yet) taking “sides”, and I thank you for defending Andrew Sullivan, whose blog I’ve been enjoying for quite some time, with or without Sarah Palin references.
I strongly feel that “Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus” applies in weighing all of Sarah Palin’s words, including her story of Trig, given her other proven lies.
Joe, you are also a refreshing breath of air! After watching only a few diligent people trying to get to the truth and being ridiculed every step of the way, I’m relieved to see you and Geoffrey Dunn speaking out on this!
And Sarah keeps quiet, letting her minions do her dirty work. Isn’t that how she governed in Alaska?
Thanks Joe for this. I am wondering who bought off the MSM? Kochsuckers? Screech appears last weekend and this week suddenly #babygate is taboo? We have the #TrigScrew’d on twitter? Flying monkey’s everywhere!
Kochsucker money? So glad that people like you & Brad Sharlott and of course Patrick of Politicalgates and Andrew aren’t caving too the Big money “spiral of Silence” it has gone on WAY to long. Palin needs to be a ugly blot in history like McCarthy, a hate spewing puffing lying Screech machine.
Everyone is Damn sick of her vile lies!
Hey screech AK militia’s going down….They might need the prison in Wasilla after all… 🙂
Let’s be careful: “Kochsuckers” is clever, but close to the line.
–Joe
No matter how this goes from here, one thing is certain. This issue is NOT going away. And the more palin’s flying monkeys and thugs go after Dunn and Sullivan as they have done to Joe, it only brings the issue even more into the spotlight. Palin does not get a pass on this. I’m tired of being insulted, ridiculed and bashed for my questions on this matter. These far right fringenuts and people like palin have been holding the truth hostage with very unamerican tactics. Threats, bullying, extreme right wing religous propaganda and hateful attacks on those that seek the truth. What an irony that palin continues to claim herself a patriot and a ril american. I hope there are many others out there as sick of this behavior as I am. Whether you’re a democrat or a republian – doesn’t matter. Look at this woman’s actions – we need to make this insanity stop and show them we will not take another mintue of it.
Joe., you’re a brave man and a great writer. You have no idea how many of us are waiting for your book. Thanks for taking her on. We needed you. 🙂
Joe, you don’t know how many of us are so relieved that you are working this story. Some of us have been on board since the hours after McCain picked Sarah and we in the lower 48 started discovering her fishy stories. Those in Alaska who weren’t completely blinded by the dazzling Palin (unlike some of the reporters who were) already knew the scene, experienced it in actual time, and it didn’t pass the sniff test then.
Why have we devoted so much time since fall ’08 to research, discussion, and blogging, about it? Why have people from all over the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and other places around the world been relentless in seeking the truth?
You understand why, Andrew Sullivan understands why, and we are so grateful.
Thank you, and thanks to Sharon for her comment below, and Happy Easter to all.
Please stay tuned next week: Andrew Sullivan will have more to say.
–Joe
I’m sorry, I guess I meant thanks to Sharon for her comment above, not below. Still getting used to this.
I’m a techno-dolt, who wrote my first six books on a typewriter.
–Joe
Caribou Barbie was elected on a platform of open and transparent government. What we got was nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Many of us knew what she was about long before the gubernatorial election. The majority of the state did not. Many in Wasilla were/are in fear for their jobs/kids/lives if they open up about what they know, due to the ‘palin mafia’. It was that way even before the RNC took over the state. I hope your book covers this subject thoroughly, Joe.
What is happening in the media now is an extension of the ‘palin mafia’s’ influence – with the added steroid punch of McCain, the national GOP, and the Kochs. They know the truth, and it would embarrass the sh*t out of ’em if it ever gets out. Like the Wikileaks cable dump – it is not about physical harm to anyone, it is about embarrassment at the top echelons.
Why is it that the MSM was comfortable in allowing the “birthers” a platform to tell their story, Orly Taitz and Donald Trump have opined on their theories all over the airwaves, but the subject of Sarah Palin’s 5th pregnancy can’t even be broached?
I would like to see at least one main stream news outlet interview someone KNOWLEDGEABLE about the “Trig Truthers” theories.
It is “news” after all!
I find it very difficult to believe that this scum bag has any power to intimidate the residents of Wasilla , let alone the entire state. There seems to be an element of the etherial in all of this. 48 hrs ago, if one were to poll conservatives (which according to Websters definition they are anythnig but) or Palin supporting websites and asked them if HuffPo, or The Daily Beast or The Village Voice (the freaking Village Voice!!!) were bastions and defenders of “conservativism” one would be laughed at louder and harder than Robin Williams, Richard Pryor and Chris Rock put together. At least this column in the New Yorker takes the absurdity of her being qualified for anything to it’s logical conclusion while at the same time exhibiting (on behalf of the writer) an intellect that is at the same time aquiencing to her being the bio mom while simontainiously eviserating her ($arah) for being essentially a psychopath by defining the obvious.
I too have been following Andrew Sullivan for yrs and I cannot wait for him to through caution to the wind, so to speak. If anyone, he can make an argument, let alone THE argument against this wretch.
For those of you who are familiar with Joseph Campbell I offer the following. There is nothing new under the sun. The human drama is essentially the same through-out our history and $arah is Rumplestiltskin. Heads we win, tails she looses.
“Performance art”…what a wonderful phrase that sums up this entire situation. As a reporter I believe we must remain open to all possibilities with this story. And we must look at all angles. But as Sullivan said long ago, there are three possibilities here of how this played out. And none of them is good. Thanks for continuing this dialogue.
Happy Easter Joe and I would like to thank you for following up on what’s going on with Sullivan. As for the Wesley Loy who is one of the debunkers, he wants us to believe he touched Palin to feel her baby bump,and asked her questions in private after he asked everyone in the room to leave. What an amazing memory recovered. At the time he said he didn’t notice that she was with child. First of all, who believes him now saying he “asked people to leave the room”? He was and is a lackey, not an investigative reporter. Boy, it looks like cleanup time for left & right reporting.
..another thanks to all who keep the conversation going. It’s not going away, many more people are discussing this story than ever before. Based upon what I’ve personally heard, it seems that Sarah comes first – before her children – which might explain a lot…
I think that the Desperate housewives reference in Wesley Loy’s article may actually help to reinforce babygate instead of refuting it. The main character fakes a pregnancy in order to cover for an unmarried daughter who gives birth to a son named Benjamin Van deKamp if I remember correctly. Trig’s full name is Trig Paxson Van Palin.
Take Palin at her word? How about the word of a half-dozen or so people who’ve verified her story, as you’ve certainly seen given how closely you’re following Salon’s coverage? I guess next you’ll be throwing your support behind peoples’ right to ask “legitimate questions” about where Obama was born, whether Bush blew up the WTC, etc.
Give me a break, Joe. “Hack polemicist” indeed.
“This woman almost became vice president of the United States”
So this issue was almost relevant?
Wow! You’ve completely missed the point. This has nothing to do with the specific issue and everything to do with the fact that the media failed to ask anything but the most shallow questions about a relatively unknown person running for VPOTUS.
As for the specific issue, considering the suspicious circumstances surrounding the most recent pregnancy and birth story of this self-described grizzly mom (we were all supposed to believe that being a hockey mom somehow added to her ability to govern our country), it’s an outrage that nobody dared even discuss the wild ride or the rumors that Trig is not Sarah Palin’s biological child and that she FAKED her pregnancy.
It’s been years since I’ve pal’d around with Wesley, but I don’t see this man ever giving such courtesy and being sheepish/apologetic/contrite in questioning anyone. Even the vixen Governor.
I agree. Andrew Sullivan has had the courage to stand alone as everyone else in the media derided him for his skepticism about Palin, even though we all know she “embellishes” and bs-es regularly. Personally, I think Trig is her son, but that the whole story she told of his birth is utter nonsense, meant to conceal some other truth she’d rather not tell. Frankly, I’d have more respect for her judgment if she really did fake it for some deeper moral reason. Instead, I suspect she was completely reckless and/or spinning another line of bs. Either way, wouldn’t that be important information for the public to know? If she’s so irrelevant, why is she included in everyone’s 2012 primary polls?
I simply don’t understand why she was allowed to tell an obviously cockamamie story, and got a free pass on it from the press. The reason these rumors won’t die, even if they’re off-base, is that nobody who’s had a baby can buy it. It’s either a lie, or she’s a maniac.