Nick Gillespie
Reason Magazine
9/16/2011
My Washington Post review of Joe McGinniss’ new biography of Sarah Palin, The Rogue, is online now.
Here’s how it starts:
In an America where a whopping 66 percent of adults hold an unfavorable view of 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (according to a recent Bloomberg poll), author Joe McGinniss has done something truly remarkable. He actually makes the short-serving former Alaska governor and widely panned reality TV star a slightly more sympathetic character, at least for the regrettable time one wastes reading “The Rogue,” his sketchily sourced compendium of low blows and inconsistent accusations.
I wrote about Sarah Palin in the March 2010 Reason, in an article called “Myth Alaska: Sarah Palin Bounces a Reality Check.”
CAJ note: We want our readers to know that we have not overlooked the other Palin controversy involving Mike Tyson, Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller, and ESPN radio. Bloggers Dan Riehl (in several articles on his site), American Power, and Sissy Willis have all covered this sordid, vile attack by Tyson, and Greta Van Susteren has taken Carlson to task for his part in it.
We have seen first hand the damage Mike Tyson did to a young woman who encountered him. We do not wish to waste your time, or ours, writing about this pig of a man for even one more moment.
Common American Journal welcomes readers from Blazing Cat Fur.
Update: Can The Daily Caller survive?
I haven’t posted about the Twitter and blog war which broke out over a clip of Mike Tyson trash talking Sarah Palin in very explicit and violent sexual ways, although I did spotlight Dan Riehl’s post about it as Post of the Day.
The controversy is not that a convicted rapist would make such statements, but that The Daily Caller would run the clip with a bold traffic-grabbing headline and keep it there without so much as any commentary (which was not added until later).
I can’t say it was the worst trashing of Palin I’ve ever seen, but it definitely was the worst I’d ever seen at a supposedly conservative website and one which has a high profile. While the post quoted Tyson, it was pure traffic-baiting using sexual violence against Palin as the tease…
