Salon: "...through sheer force of will and the devotion of her cult..."

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 17:25 ET
War Room
Sarah Palin takes on Joe McGinniss
By Alex Pareene

As you've no doubt heard, journalist Joe McGinniss rented a house next door to Sarah Palin while he works on a book about her. And Palin complained on Facebook about this fact, and many people seemed to take her accusations of stalking seriously.

McGinniss is by no means an ideal reporter, but he is a serious and talented one. He wrote a critically respected book on Alaska 30 years ago, and his one reported story so far on Palin was factual and responsible. There's nothing even remotely tabloidy about McGinniss' Portfolio story on the years Palin wasted not getting a gas pipeline built.

But Palin is banking on the fact that, much like she could turn the story of a right-wing blogger fessing up to an affair with a candidate into a story of liberal media smears, she can, through sheer force of will and the devotion of her cult, make this into the story of a creepy gotcha journalist stalking her, and threatening her children.

After a day or so of coverage that just repeated her Facebook claims, media critics and political journalists are wondering if she's crossed the line this time.

Jack Shafer says McGinniss is an asshole, but, because this is Jack Shafer we are talking about, he means that as an unambiguous compliment. He also points out that in-depth reporting is not pretty and requires that the reporter act like an asshole. (This is why there is so little of it in D.C., where friends so often cover friends.)

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/sarah_palin/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/05/26/palin_mcginniss