Palin Finally Unleashes on Media; Takes on Couric, Fey, Olbermann...
Ubiquitous
If someone told me five months ago that in early January I would pay
over $1,400 for an incredibly inconvenient plane ticket and $120 for a 3
a.m. cab fare to get from sunny Los Angeles to Wasilla, Alaska, I would
have told them there was a better chance the Dow Jones would be below
9,000 and a gallon of gas less than two dollars.
If they would have told me I’d be glad to have made the journey (even
with a seven-hour, weather-aided stop in Seattle), I would have told
them Sarah Palin had a better chance to be John McCain’s running-mate.
Of course, as we all now know this turned out to be true. And even
though I still have the flu I got just before the trip, I’m thrilled to
have experienced minus-eleven degrees in Alaska.
Obviously, I was there to interview Governor Palin for my forthcoming
documentary about the media coverage of election 2008. My understanding
is that the only reason Governor Palin did this interview (while
rejecting hundreds of other requests) is because of her sincere devotion
to setting the record straight on what really happened during the
campaign and to determine why the news coverage was as dangerously
slanted as it so clearly was.
Largely because of absurd claims by Democrats that she was violating
ethics rules by answering campaign questions on state grounds (one of
several ways in which the Democrats in Alaska, who used to love her, are
now fully invested in the “take Sarah Palin down” industry), we did the
interview at the Palin home. At 9 a.m., without a security guard or
handler in sight, Bristol Palin, eight days removed from giving birth,
politely answered the door and Governor Palin, not yet fully put
together, rushed out to tell myself and my crew to make ourselves at
home.
One of the things you quickly learn when you visit the Palins is that
the legend created around who they are and how they live is no myth. It
appears to be absolutely real and everything about them seems 100%
sincere. From the stuffed hunting trophies on the wall, to Track’s
military photo by the TV set, to Piper’s crayon school projects on the
refrigerator door - everything is exactly as you imagined.
What’s particularly valuable about my perspective is that I am not
Charlie Gibson, Matt Lauer or Greta Van Susteren (who I understand now
gets her mail delivered to the Palin home) — the conductors of the three
most prominent interviews done in this Wasilla home on a frozen lake at
the end of a drive with the sign “Palins” posted on a tree. I am
virtually unknown nationally and there was absolutely no reason for
anything to be done differently as “show” for us. We saw the genuine
Sarah Palin and it is patently obvious this is the only one who exists.
She is the real deal.
As a former TV sportscaster and radio talk show host I’ve interviewed a
lot big-time “celebrities,” and can honestly say that even though you
could argue Sarah Palin was the most prominent, she is also by far the
nicest, most sincere and seemingly honest subject I’ve ever questioned.
For context, I admit to being a Sarah Palin fan even before she was
named John McCain’s VP candidate. I attended her convention speech and
consider it by far to be the finest I have ever personally witnessed.
But being a world-class cynic I also wondered if maybe there was at
least some truth to the negative media narrative created about her.
Maybe she really wasn’t that smart, maybe she was indeed a “diva” or a
“wack job.” Well, if any of those smears are remotely true, Palin should
move to LA permanently because she’s a far better actor (not to mention
better looking) than the vast majority of actresses in Hollywood.
Our interview started early and ended late (ask Barbara Walters how
often that happens at this level). The Governor fully answered every
question, even though some of them brought up media episodes which
clearly upset her. When the subject turned to her kids being targeted,
she was even a little emotional. She then posed for pictures and signed
autographs for the entire crew, and casually discussed all sorts of
topics, including how the local newspaper is absurdly still trailing the
“story” that her youngest son is not really hers (this, while Todd
walked around with Trig on his back and Bristol cared for Trip, her
newborn, in a nearby bedroom; even Trig conspiracy theorist Andrew
Sullivan would have had a hard time not seeing the insanity in his own
delusion).
The madness of the local paper’s efforts to prove Trig is really not
Sarah’s baby is not all we learned in post interview conversations.
Conservatives will be thrilled to know she immediately “got” and seemed
to fully appreciate my joke that Pete Wilson (and not Arnold
Schwarzenegger) would go down as the last Republican Governor in the
history of California. If that wasn’t enough, when she looked at the
back cover of my first film (“Blocking the Path to 9/11”
www.blockingthepath.com) and saw the photo of one of the film’s targets,
Keith Olbermann, she literally let out a shriek and, pointing to his
photograph, declared, “THAT guy is EVIL!”
Beyond the great interview for the film (from which there is still
plenty of tremendous stuff yet to come), the most important part of my
visit to the Palin home was learning there’s a big difference between
thinking something is true and knowing for sure it is. I now know Sarah
Palin is exactly who I thought she was.
I also know, with moral certitude, that the media assassination of her,
her character and family, was one of the greatest public injustices of
our time and that I’m totally justified in devoting my life to
correcting the historical record in my forthcoming film, “Media
Malpractice… How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Smeared.”
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It's now time for healing, and for fixing the damage the Democrats did
to America.