Author of Vanity Fair piece on Palin: 'The Worst Stuff Isn't Even In There'

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Vanity Fair's Sarah Palin Profiler: 'The Worst Stuff Isn't Even In There'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/02/vanity-fairs-sarah-palin-_n_703412.html

The author of the blistering Vanity Fair profile on Sarah Palin says he wanted to write a positive piece, but was shocked by what he learned as he researched his story.

"The worst stuff isn't even in there," Michael Joseph Gross said on "Morning Joe" Thursday. "I couldn't believe these stories either when I first heard them, and I started this story with a prejudice in her favor. I have a lot in common with this woman. I'm a small-town person, I'm a Christian, I think that a lot of her criticisms of the media actually have something to them. And I think she got a bum ride, but everybody close to her tells the same story."

In the profile, Gross paints Palin as an abusive, retaliatory figure with an extreme ability to lie.

"This is a person for whom there is no topic too small to lie about," he said. "She lies about everything."

Asked about Palin's political future, Gross said it depends on what the media lets her get away with.

"If we decide to let her keep lying and getting away with it, she's gonna still be around," he said. "But if we start returning to the standard that a politician has to talk with people, and a politician has to tell the truth, then she's outta here, because she can't stand up to that."

Gross added that he takes exception to criticisms that he wrote a "hit piece" against Palin.

"I started this with every good intention toward her," he said. "I was just shocked and appalled at every step at what I found. And I wrote this story sort of against my will. It wasn't what I wanted to write, it wasn't what I wanted to find. It was what was forced on me by the facts."

WATCH: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/02/vanity-fairs-sarah-palin-_n_703412.html

[ThomWV]

1. I read the article this morning (link included), its worth the time

You can see he left a lot out, see for youself:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/10/sarah-palin-201010?currentPage=all

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. I posted a link and excerpt the other day, and yes, it's painted in broad strokes...

...the sad part is that the Palin we see ("we" being the consensus on DU) is the Palin she really is, only much worse. Petty, vindictive, self-absorbed, greedy, cheap, controlling, and...most of all...a compulsive liar.

And like the article said, she will get away with it as long as the bigger "we"...the media, her teabagger followers, etc....let her get away with it.

[tblue37]

19. Yes, and since the author admits that he is leaving out the worst of what he knows, he

is part of the problem, not really part of the solution. Like the rest of the press he criticizes for giving her a pass, he is giving her a pass.

[FirstTimeVoterAt37]

2. I think everybody needs to read this

[marmar]

3. She's always struck me as a liar without a conscience.....

...... and one that's too stupid to cover her tracks.

[tanyev]

5. Dang, what kind of journalist are you?

Let's see part II, pronto!

[dkf]

7. Yup, before we get another Bush on our hands

[peace frog]

6. And why isn't "the worst stuff" in the article?

Who the hell is this journalist trying to protect? Palin, the GOP establishment, the great unwashed public, WHO?
If you have the goods on the woman, PRINT IT, ffs.

[RamboLiberal]

10. Probably waiting till Palin runs for president

Then he can trot out the worst stuff for another paying article.

[Mariana]

11. Maybe he couldn't verify "the worst stuff".

I hope he's working on it, though.

[Raine]

15. "overkill"

too much could backfire and make people actually feel sorry for her. :yoiks:

[peace frog]

18. Nah

I say, expose her for what she truly is. Let everyone see the ugly, nasty other side of her face and try to "feel sorry for her". I'm guessing that would backfire.

[tblue37]

20. Then print the worst stuff and withhold the less terrible stuff. nt

[Evasporque]

8. So licking the mirror tasted bitter then.....nt

[Control-Z]

9. What does that

even mean?

[TroglodyteScholar]

14. The writer said he wanted to write a good piece about her, had a lot in common.

But when held up to even a small degree of scrutiny, she ended up being sleazy. So what does that say about the who has so much in common with her?

[SoCalDem]

12. She's a person who has always gotten her way ...on her looks

she never thought she actually had to KNOW anything, or that she had to back up things she said. She would just giggle & wink her way out of difficult situations.

I said, on DAY ONE of the Sarah-Saga, that she had to be mercilessly UNDONE, over that cock & bull "magical pregnancy" of hers, and I was pilloried..

Had that been done, THEN...Sarah would be nowhere in sight NOW..

[gratuitous]

13. Sounds like David Brock in reverse

He was the author who penned "The Real Anita Hill," a hit piece on the woman who damn near derailed Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court bid. It was such a success that he was commissioned to do a similar book on Hilary Clinton. Unfortunately for his bankrollers, Brock decided not to put anything he couldn't corroborate into the book, which came out as "The Seduction of Hilary Rodham." In the course of his research and writing, Brock found there was a lot more heat than light being expended in the right wing circles he moved in, and his book came out almost laudatory on Hilary Clinton. That was pretty much the end of his career as right wing hired gun.

It sounds like Michael Joseph Gross walked the same path, only in reverse. I don't know much about his writing career before this, but maybe he's had a little epiphany about the gap between reality and the star-maker machinery.

[JNelson6563]

16. Ok, I just read the whole VF article.

It's very good. In-depth.

Julie

[Blue_In_AK]

17. If Gross felt sympathetic toward Sarah before starting this,

he obviously hasn't been paying attention to the Alaska bloggers over the past 2+ years. He hasn't said anything that hasn't been common knowledge here.