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In
an email dated January 27, 2011, Joe McGinniss, author of The Rogue:
Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, says that Random House lawyers have
told him he has provided nothing more than “tawdry gossip” to
substantiate “any of the salacious stories about the Palin family.”
Below, I present each of these accusations in turn, and how McGinniss
used most of them in The Rogue, even though he admitted in his email
that he could not prove them:
[Excerpted]
a) Todd had sex with a hooker,
or with anyone else outside his marriage.
McGinniss dropped the
“hooker” accusation–probably because he was afraid, as his email
suggests, that the sole source “may be mentally unstable” and that even
the National Enquirer appeared to be ready “to back off this
story.” Yet McGinniss did publish allegations in The Rogue that
Todd flirted with other women
b) Sarah had an affair
with Brad Hanson, or anyone else.
McGinniss presents no named
source for this accusation in The Rogue other than an article in the
National Enquirer in October 2008 [and third party sources] McGinniss
does not quote Cottle directly, but says that she fills him in on local
gossip ... .
c) Track was a druggie
who enlisted in the army to avoid a jail term. Or that he
vandalized Wasilla school buses.
McGinniss’s basis for
accusations of drug use by Track Palin is the National Enquirer, which
in turn had quoted an unnamed “source” in 2008. He adds that “reports
of Track’s drug use persisted even into the summer of 2010” but does
not specify what those reports are, or from whom (p. 114). His primary
source for the accusation of vandalism in 2005 is local gossip: “word
spread immediately in Wasilla,” Blah-blah-nlah
d) Willow was involved in
the vandalism of the empty house in Meadow Lakes. Or that Sarah
rushed back from Hawaii to put the lid on that.
McGinniss’s only source is
the National Enquirer, which made these claims in 2010. He also claims
“[m]any in Wasilla” believe the story (p. 111). He also cites gossip
related by Colleen Cottle in 2010–again, Blah-blah-nlah
e) Trig is not Sarah’s natural
born child. [Me: I think this is the
most inexcusably malicious of the lot]
McGinniss provides no new
evidence for this debunked claim, quoting “questions” being asked on
“blogs” and the like (p. 316). McGinniss also cites “many Wasillans”
who allegedly say that “even if she had not faked the entire story of
her pregnancy and Trig’s birth, it was something she was eminently
capable of doing” Blah-blah-nlah
f) Bristol was
promiscuous as a high schooler and drank and used drugs, or became
pregnant again after Tripp’s birth.
McGinniss’s source is again
local gossip in the summer of 2010: “Rumors immediately run rampant,”
he says (p. 204). Once again, he also cites gossip allegedly related by
(but not directly quoted from) Colleen Cottle in 2010. He mentions a
July 2010 interview in The Daily Beast with Bristol’s alleged new
boyfriend at the time, Ben Barber, which does not discuss promiscuity
or drugs, and actually contradicts the claim that Bristol became
pregnant again Blah-blah-nlah
Read: Explosive Email Shows Anti-Palin Author McGinniss,
Random House Likely Published Literary Hoax
Read: Random House on Sarah Palin’s Privacy: A Tale of Two
Press Releases
Read: Random House ‘Rogue’ Scandal Update: McGinniss
Confirms, Griffin Fumes, ‘Hooker’ Responds
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