JOE McGINNISS

Uhm, “obsessive” more aptly describes palinblog visitors than anyone who does actual writing about her. Most of the writers are quite good–Sullivan and McGinness among them. But I’d bet there are a lot of us who are really just waiting for the day the train finally wrecks so we can find more useful ways to waste our time online.

What this New York magazine blogpost highlights is that unserious journalism is rewarded.

It seems the primary qualification for online success as a journalist is shallow thinking on a topic that has proven to get past pageviews. If you’re snarky and sheeplike with the rest of the MSM, all the better!

The MSM likes to jump on bandwagons, such as “MSNBC is the liberal version of Fox News.” It’s a given that to succeed in today’s media, a person or entity needs to establish a “brand.” MSNBC has grasped the “liberal” branding, but it’s lazy thinking to equate Ailes’ Fox News propaganda distribution factory (facts be damned) to the investigative reporting that Rachel Maddow pursues every weekday (although she too gleefully embraces snark). Based on Rachel’s appearance on David Letterman this week, the 9/11 documentary created by Rachel and Richard Engel will shed important light on the impact to our country and its citizens since that horrific attack on American soil.

I despair to think that this important reflection will be dismissed by the MSM as “merely” left-wing propaganda. You may not agree with Maddow and Engel’s conclusions, but Americans need to seriously compare where we are in 2011 versus 2001. The 10-year anniversary of this event should spur this discussion.

SCmommy:
August 26, 2011 at 9:55 pm

I’m on the same page with your analysis of this article. I re-read the statement a couple of times to make sure I was reading it correctly. And Joe, although you say “some”, a reader may deduce you are indicating in addition to ridiculing them…staunch supporters of your writing. It’s like “biting the hand that feeds you”. “Perception is reality”

Joe,
Are you aware that on September 20 1973 the tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs was played out with Billie Jean winning the $100,00.00 prize? As I am sure you are aware it was called “the battle of the sexes”. Here’s to you winning the “battle of the sexes” on September 20, 2011. Your win would mean a win for all of us here and around the world. I am sure everyone who is obsessed would agree:)
After all, the common thread for everyone’s obsessiveness (here and on sp watchdog sites) is seeing her fall epically and permanently……..yes?
Cheers for any and all obsessives – whether temporary, ongoing or intermittent, who have contributed to sp getting what she deserves…….

Stay safe and get your wife and dog (s?) out of harm’s way and into a cozy and safe hotel somewhere far from the coast.

peace.

I think a problem with Palin “obsessives” is, they heavily rely on rumors to get page loads. They don’t moderate ridiculous comments meant to confuse. They contribute to the “nothing adds up” mantra many of you have frustratingly screamed at times. In reality, if everyone’s sources were incredibly accurate and no one led people down the garden path for purely entertainment purposes, then things would probably add more better.

That’s not to say that the story is simple. It means it COULD be much simpler if people wouldn’t believe every tine thing that is written on a blog. Especially a blog that exaggerates and relies on propaganda.

PopSixSquish said, “[T]hings would probably add more better.”

Sounds like word salad. That you, Sarah?

I’m surprised that Malone didn’t notice Palin’s three year obsession with berating the President every time she finds a camera, microphone or a ghost-writer at her disposal.

Nothing we can do from the hinterlands to help all of you in the path but know that many of us are sending positive thoughts and prayers for everyone’s safety. This to counter Beck’s words that the hurricane is a ‘blessing’. Sorry Glenn, this is a tragedy in the making and no amount of handy survival packs will help those who lose their lives, homes and belongings. A pox on these malevolent messianics.

So Malone starts out her piece by saying: “I was a paid Palinologist in my former job at Slate” then goes on to list all the people who are still at it.

Hope while she was writing this sly mocking piece about Palin and all her professional chroniclers, she didn’t break her arm patting herself on the back for escaping the necessity to write about Palin. Now she write about Palin for the pure joy of it.

I will gladly admit my obsession with Sarah Palin. Like Enjay in E MT, I googled Sarah Palin on August 29, 2008 and within twenty minutes, I came out thinking that McCain had selected a know-nothing nut job for Vice President.

The woman knows absolutely nothing. She knew nothing in August of 2008, and she still knows absolutely nothing. I am horrified at how close she came to power. If residents of Alaska voted for her for their Governor, that is their business, but when she gets on the national stage, it becomes my business.

I am hard pressed to think of any other politician who is or was as ignorant as Sarah Palin. And she wears her ignorance like a badge of honor. Africa is not a country and the founding fathers had very good reasons to separate religion from government.

Her hypocrisy is also a source of contention with me. She claims Obama is a socialist, but it was Sarah who raised taxes on the oil companies in Alaska and used the money to cut a check to every citizen in the State. That is well beyond socialism and borders on robbery by the Government in my mind. When she took over as mayor, Wasilla had no long-term debt, but under Sarah, the little town is indebted to the tune of over twenty million dollars. She also left Alaska with the largest per capita debt in the nation. Hardly the fiscal conservative she would have us believe. As mayor, she remodeled her office, not once, but twice, at a cost in the tens of thousands. She even collected a per diem for living in her own home as Governor.

I am a direct descendant of Aquilia Chase (my maiden name), who came to this country in 1638. We Chases have fought and died in every war this nation has ever been in. I myself am a veteran of the U.S. Navy. And we didn’t do this so an ignoramus could come in and spout a bunch of nonsense. I expect the leaders of this country to know something, even if I disagree with their position. I didn’t care for Nixon, but he was a very smart man who knew more than I about most everything.

I would like nothing better than to go on with my life and never hear the name of Sarah Palin again. To put it bluntly, every American should be concerned, and a bit obsessed, when a dumbass is so close to power.

And that is why I was so happy to hear that Joe McGinniss was going to write a book about Sarah Palin. Finally, maybe, possibly, people will wake up to to how close we came to dodging a bullet. I am so hoping that September 20, 2011 will be the beginning of the end for Mrs. Palin.

All that being said, I read the article in the New York magazine and thought it was the lamest article on all things Palin that I have ever read. I don’t think Andrew Sullivan liked it any better than you Joe.

“One thing I need to do is shore up the sixteen-foot fence I built earlier this summer so my next door neighbor wouldn’t be able to see what I was cooking on my grill.”

Thats a good one Joe.

Best laugh I’ve had all day.

Thanks!

For what it’s worth………..we each decide on the connotative qualities of a word. Obsessive, obsessively, obsessives, etc. are not always a negative. I assumed Joe was stating the difference between him being labeled an “obsessive” and his actually being a “professional”. I did not see where he was defining the term in any way except by using himself as an example of not being an obsessive and sp watchdog sites and many of those who comment as being obsessive. His replies to several comments actually reveal that he values the many, many people who blog and comment and are obsessive. Being obsessed with bringing out the truth about a lying, hypocritical,vengeful, vindictive and ugly human being is not generally considered to be a negative unless of course it causes harm to the object of the obsession or the one who is obsessed. By harm, I of course mean physical harm.

Please don’t accuse me of having “fatal vision”…………………..LOL

Carollt

That was fabulous!!!!!! I wish I could put into words how I feel about the demise of our country with the likes of a Sarah Palin. You did it for me ………

I thank you!!!!!

Well said VV!! Kudos!

Paul Revere agrees with you about not talking for awhile and laughing instead – at least his reincarnated doll self does. He does like to yell “Blam!! Blam!! Ring Ring!!” a lot because it makes us all laugh for a moment or two!

http://theperilsofpalins.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/paul-reveres-midnight-ride/

Thank you Myboys. When it comes to Sarah Palin, I think we have a silent majority (Nixon’s words, not mine) who do want her anywhere near the White House.

The woman has been campaigning a loooong time. I’m waiting for her to say she’s NOT.

Ditto.

Could not have said it any better. Well done.

In defense of Alaska, I must aver Quitler was not going to be re-elected.

VA…you do purty good puttin’ words and such fer an “amateur.”

excellent comment…but..”Sarah is stupid, but not that stupid”-I wouldn’t bet on that, she’s narcissistic + stupid!

I can’t help but think that no one would be paid to write about Sarah, two years after her short campaign run, if it hadn’t been for the hard work done by bloggers and commenters from the very day her candidacy was announced. It seems to me disingenuous in the extreme to claim that, two years down the line, the person who gets paid to write about Sarah is “professional” while the people who ensured that enough details came out about Sarah to make her a marketable subject are “obsessive.”

I am not motivated to increase my bank account focused on Palin. Her not being elected was a great reward. I have a vested interest in family, grandchildren being born, citizens that a pathological liar possible sociopath not rise to power.

Rachel is not inane.

in my humble opinion, what Sarah Palin did was reveal reality. She revealed the dark side of our nation, its people, its media, and its lovers of anger and schaedenfreude. (sp?) She is only a vessel, indicative of so many uglinesses, reflecting us back at ourselves. she is not the biggest problem, because she will go away. who will replace her? the people who backed her, who love and adolize her will still be out there.

i am glad for people like Joe who expose the Beast for who she is. Hopefully his book will also highlight how her followers and the media are cause for concern, too. when SPAK is no more, we still must remain vigilant!

Yeah. Like the CeeOPee.

LMAO! Good one! Love it.
We can ALL borrow it yes?

This morning Politico.com asks, “Palin a “scam artist?”. I wonder. after all she, her family and friends have been living the good life with the Pac and legal funds and they keep begging for more and more money. It makes me wonder if she ever had any intention for running for the highest political office in the land with the lowest poll numbers.

From José Ortega y Gasset — “I prefer bad people to stupid people, because bad people sometimes give it a rest.”

I think a number of bad people found in Sarah, one who would play her role in a calculation that would allow them to “sometimes give it a rest”. Foolish calculation — they can’t now make Sarah stop.

Josh Greene in The Atlantic took a stab at painting her as a tragedy. I think he got it very wrong, and I’m hoping The Rogue tackles, at least in part, what it means about us as a polity that she’s still on the national stage after being found so undeniably wanting.

I noticed Malone neglected to mention the NYT in her “obsessives” grouping. They ran a front-page above-the-fold story accompanied by a rather large photo on the day she launched her breathless June bus “tour”. Her motorcycle appearance in DC earlier had gotten the same treatment. These told me that Palin is supposedly worthy of my immediate attention, as per the country’s paper of record.

That is a maddening editorial policy. Do they create her or cover her? I choose to read your book or Andrew’s blog entries. The Times, seems to me, is making value decisions about what is important to us all. Front page placement tells me I should read those stories.

Well, let’s take a look at that, shall we? Professional writer or obsessive. Professional or amateur (?).

Certainly professional writers can be obsessive. In fact, I would say most are. That’s some part of the element of being driven, and how they get it done. The skill set of writing, producing, publishing and going the entire distance of putting a volume of work on the shelf in the library and in the bookstore.

Professional writer. Author. One who is paid for generating pieces of writing. The career path of writing. A sports writer might never publish a book, but still earns a great living as a writer. An author is specifically what a book writer is called. Just so we’re clear.
People who write books for a living, a paycheck, have a publisher. Sometimes they have literary agents. Usually they set out to become writers and had writing-specific goals. Employed in that field.
Some authors write fiction, some write non-fiction, some write both. Both usually have a subject or topic they specialize in, for whatever reason (the “genre”), because of academic credential and training, personal background or expertise. Biographers typically write books on a number of different individuals of some import or broad public interest. Obviously.
Then there’s people who publish a book secondary to some other career, often academics, or because they have something to say – anthropologists, Carl Sagan, astronaut Neil Armstrong, Julia Childs, the Dalai Lama. Perhaps they earn money from it, perhaps not. Either way, one doesn’t consider them a professional writer. Sarah Palin has not earned being called a “professional writer”.

Then there’s the world of “recreational” writers, for lack of a better term. Hobbyists. Dabblers. People who really want to publish something but lack the professional resource or skill. My own term: vanity authors. People who pay a publisher for a publication to distribute themselves. There’s nothing that says that such a thing couldn’t be very good. But typically it doesn’t get broad acclaim.

The internet blog world is something different altogether. It’s a new medium of direct immediate “publishing” available to everyone. Part reading materials and part social environment. It replaces newsletters and old-fashioned “round robins”. It’s more communications and personal journals, than literary in the strictest sense. Very effective in real-time journalism. I believe this medium will eventually replace conventional news altogether, in some far-off time.

So, did we get there, yet?
Joe McGinniss. Writing is his profession. Trained for it and sought employment in the industry directly out of school. Started in journalism – Worcester Telegram reporter (1964), Philadelphia Bulletin sportswriter, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist (1966). Howard Cosell profile (TV Guide, 1968). Tried for Hubert Humphrey, but ended up with Nixon instead (1969).
A couple of books every decade, for 40 years. An Italian soccer team, Ted Kennedy, murderers and family crime, horse racing, politics, biographies.
Prolific writer, big bank account. McGinniss fits the criteria as a professional writer.

Does that mean that writers who are unpaid are less worthy? Absolutely not. There are wonderful writings and writers, unpublished.
Are the other players in this “Tastes Great/Less Filling,” who-gets-to-write-about-Sarah Palin-first thing, less credible? Absolutely not. Should they get to write, too? Of course! Should they write books and expect to be published? You bet! Whether or not they are published is a matter of committing to the work that part requires. Finding a publisher, marketing the book. That’s what the compensation is for.
Are they any good? Well, I don’t know. I suppose that remains to be seen, since none of them have published a book before now.

Mudflats – Really terrific writing. I love reading her stuff and very well-written. She didn’t actually start with Sarah Palin. She started with Don Young. Is she a professional writer/published author? Not as far as I know.
Politicalgates Patrick – Not too bad. I know nothing of him except what’s on that blog. I don’t know what he does for a living. He’s putting the time in to develop a writing career. But he’s anonymous. It’s going to be hard to buy his book. : )
Palingates Regina – Pretty good. Very readable. Sound arguments and well-developed case, easy to read. She may live in France, but her command of English and appropriate easy use of American vernacular, slang, jargon makes me think she’s an American/British expat. Definitely English is a first or primary language. Don’t know what she does for a living.
Frank Bailey – Alaska Airlines employee and eager campaign volunteer harvested to serve as an aide to Palin’s administration. A writer? No.
Linda, Gryphen, “Bladecatz”, Philip Munger, Shailey Tripp, et.al. – I don’t know if these people have published stuff or worked as journalists, etc, but based on the bits that I do know, they have not worked at it as a vocation.
Are they worthy? Sure. Are they dedicated to the topic of Sarah Palin? Yep. Do they work hard at it? Yes. Do they accomplish something and add to the knowledge base? Absolutely. Do they research and write about other topics? Nope, this is all about Sarah Palin. Are they professional writers? No.

Now, if we’re gonna start down the road of ethics about taking money for writing, then you’re going to have to consider whether folks should be taking money for producing movies, acting, works of art, painting, etc.
It’s a craft. Scribes have been paid throughout history. It was a limited and valuable skill up until the contemporary era and laws requiring children to be taught to read and write.

You don’t think Sarah and Bristol’s writers did it for free, do you?
Just my opinion.

Good post. Andrew Sullivan is an incredibly compelling and talented writer, and yes, touches upon a vast, vast range of subjects. And I respect his persistence, which I believe will one day be vindicated. As for lumping you, Joe McGinniss, in with the “Palin industrial complex,” the writer is completely off the mark. And, I suspect, feels guilty about her prior membership in this group to the extent she wants to lump anyone who examines Sarah Palin in the same shallow category of fluffy, speculative “reportage.” That’s ok, we know better. I’ve read several of your books, and am well aware of your extensive career as a REAL investigative journalist. (btw, Fatal Vision is one of those rare books that I have read over and over and over.)

You lost me, but I didn’t go read Malone’s article, so maybe that is why. I thought Joe was explaining that he is not obsessed with Sarah Palin. Then in comments he clarified that he does not look down on bloggers who are.

…add mo’ betta…
Sounds ‘local’ Islander to me! Perfect! We say exactly THAT all the time! Yay!

I was trying for diplomacy and a more insightful term than “obsessive”.
But okay. Obsessive = blogger = amateur. Better?

Unfortunately, publishers don’t pay for rank speculation. But maybe it’s time they did! Enough of the kibitzing and armchair-quarterbacking. Time for the Kingdom of Blog to fashion a marketable, readable, relevant 500-page narrative out of 50,000 blog comments.
It’s not going to be enough to just cut and paste entire threads of “I’ve conclusively diagnosed her with psychosis and autism!”, “She’s malnourished and needs to wash her hair!”, and “She was never pregnant because no real mother holds a baby like that.” It’s going to have to have a beginning and an end and some kind of flow to it. All those allegations are going to have to be woven in and out to produce a story.
Someone’s going to have quite the challenge of figuring out the liability to including the really good juicy illegal scandalous stuff (allegations that she uses Ecstasy and “Special K”, Todd pimps hookers to his friends, tax evasion, criminal fraud, forging documents and physician’s statements, etc.) and how to resolve intellectual property rights and divide up the advance and royalties fairly among the hundreds/thousands(?) of anonymous commentors entitled to a cut, without knowing identities.
And strategic planning for resolving the hundreds of lawsuits that will follow from blog readers who feel that they suggested it first. It’ll probably meet class-action criteria. Which means the editor would be well-advised to put the entire advance into escrow toward this eventuality.
I can’t even imagine the army of assistants this project is going to require. Just getting notarized affidavits will take years. You know, to back up the blog comment. For example, that anonymous commentor ‘A’ has personal knowledge that Sarah Palin had LipoDissolve injections while she was not actually pregnant in March 2008.

Yeah. Do it. I’ll buy that book.