Saturday, November 14, 2009

Fact Checking rogue Sarah Palin Going Rogue

While we are all facing some nightmarish future should we all be forced to purchase health care insurance or face fines and who knows what else if President Obama's health care plan (not a single payer system, not a single payer system), we have to be appreciative that we are alive at an astonishing timie in history. We have access to information at our fingertips unlike any other time in history. A new industry has arisen, but use caution, among and within the ranks of the mainstream press. Fact checking.

And we who proclaim to be part of the 'new' media, bloggers of all political stripes, or none of the above political stripes, can access this material and fact check the fact check and fact check... well you get the idea.

So now that the book's excerpts are available, a well known international media conglomerate, the Associated Press, has issued a fact Check report on Sara Palin's book Going Rogue.

We appreciate the clever title of the piece.

FACT CHECK: Palin's book goes rogue on some facts

But we've got to wonder when Hilary Clinton's book was published, where was the AP fact check then?

When Condoleeza Rice's book was published, where was the AP fact check then?

Well those will take some time to research, and we are anxious to watch as this Fact Check Story (published on one of the worst days for pick up for discussion anywhere) will either make it or not to the desks of everybody who is somebody among the 3 major news networks.

We'll track for just a few days... we really will limit ourselves to just a few days... we will limit ourselves to just a few days... we will... we wi-l-l...

All right. Turned on MSNBC at just the right moment in time. Going to discuss Going Rogue. Will they discuss AP's Palin's book goes rogue on some facts?

Nope, they instead focused on the criticisms Palin made of how the McCain campaign hampered her...

Wall Street Journal's coverage of the pre-release contains nothing about any inaccuracies or spins or skewed facts.

Sad...

Net the Truth Online

FACT CHECK: Palin's book goes rogue on some facts

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer Calvin Woodward, Associated Press Writer – 17 mins ago (that would be approx. 7:00 AM Saturday the day after Friday the 13th)

WASHINGTON – Sarah Palin's new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven't become any truer over time.

Ignoring substantial parts of her record if not the facts, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer's dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician roguishly indifferent to high ambition.

Palin goes adrift, at times, on more contemporary issues, too. She criticizes President Barack Obama for pushing through a bailout package that actually was achieved by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush — a package she seemed to support at the time.

A look at some of her statements in "Going Rogue," obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its release Tuesday:

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PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking "only" for reasonably priced rooms and not "often" going for the "high-end, robe-and-slippers" hotels.

THE FACTS: Although travel records indicate she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard) overlooking New York City's Central Park for a five-hour women's leadership conference in October 2007. With air fare, the cost to Alaska was well over $3,000. Event organizers said Palin asked if she could bring her daughter. The governor billed her state more than $20,000 for her children's travel, including to events where they had not been invited, and in some cases later amended expense reports to specify that they had been on official business.

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PALIN: Boasts that she ran her campaign for governor on small donations, mostly from first-time givers, and turned back large checks from big donors if her campaign perceived a conflict of interest.

THE FACTS: Of the roughly $1.3 million she raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor, more than half came from people and political action committees giving at least $500, according to an AP analysis of her campaign finance reports. The maximum that individual donors could give was $1,000; $2,000 for a PAC.

Of the rest, about $76,000 came from Republican Party committees.

She accepted $1,000 each from a state senator and his wife in the weeks after the two Republican lawmakers' offices were raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into a powerful Alaska oilfield services company. After AP reported those donations during the presidential campaign, she said she would give a comparative sum to charity after the general election in 2010, a date set by state election laws.

PALIN: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, "you'll have to be brave enough to fail."

THE FACTS: Palin is blurring the lines between Obama's stimulus plan — a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts — and the federal bailout that Republican presidential candidate John McCain voted for and President George W. Bush signed.

Palin's views on bailouts appeared to evolve as McCain's vice presidential running mate. In September 2008, she said "taxpayers cannot be looked to as the bailout, as the solution, to the problems on Wall Street." A week later, she said "ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy."

During the vice presidential debate in October, Palin praised McCain for being "instrumental in bringing folks together" to pass the $700 billion bailout. After that, she said "it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in."...

AP writers Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091114/ap_on_el_pr/us_palin_book_fact_check


November 13, 2009, 2:55 PM ET Palin’s Book: The Overview

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/11/13/palins-book-the-overview/

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