Posted on 09/02/2010 2:14:25 PM PDT by curth
Yesterday, Vanity Fair released yet another long hatchet job piece about Sarah Palin. But what this piece has generated — well, besides incredulity that a magazine of Vanity Fair’s caliber would run a character assassination piece almost entirely based on anonymous sources — is a bipartisan backlash. Not against Palin, but against Vanity Fair.
Politico’s Ben Smith has already debunked two of the stories told in the piece. Clara Jeffery, editor of Mother Jones, tweeted that she was “annoyed by [Palin] being called to task things normal for any male pol. Like using cute kids as props.” Later, in response to Roger Ebert’s approving tweet, Jeffery sarcastically tweeted back: “Also bumming me out: That @ebertchicago would think Palin profile is ‘devastating.’ Uh, yeah, to journalistic standards.”
Fellow Mother Jones editor Monika Bauerlein was also annoyed, tweeting, “‘Sarah, these aides say, seemed comforted by having the children around, and she seemed lonely when they were gone.’ Truly a monster.”
And, via Ben Smith, former John Edwards aide and feminist/progressive blogger Melissa McEwan wrote:
Gross’ article, however, amounts to very little but “Sarah Palin is the worst because she’s in politics…and is A WOMAN.”
Sure, it’s covert sexism. Gross doesn’t talk about her boobs or use identifiable misogynist epithets to describe her, but it’s sexism nevertheless, as the (frequently dislikable) habits of many major politicians, of both parties, are used to build the case that Palin is remarkably awful. But there is nothing particularly remarkable about a politician who requires family members get permission to grant interviews. Nor about a politician who ambitiously trades favors and ruthlessly gets people fired who cross [him]. Nor about a politician who acts like an entitled a**.
What makes this article the worst thing I’ve read all day is the fact that most of what’s in it is the sort of s*** that is considered (rightly or wrongly) the mundane business of doing politics, and yet is somehow ZOMG SHOCKING when done by Sarah Palin. …
I will continue to defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because I endorse her or her politics, but because that’s how feminism works.
But I’d prefer not to be obliged in the first place.
For those who weren’t satisfied by 10,000-plus word screed against Palin, VF also published an online-only bonus article going over (again!) how much the McCain campaign spent on clothes for the Palin family. But when you’ve got even Meghan McCain — who’s admitted to being “conflicted” over what she thinks about Palin — taking Palin’s side on the wardrobe malfunction, that says something about how way overblown the hysteria is. From Jay Newton-Small, blogging for Time about McCain’s new book:
But McCain also sympathizes with the wardrobe debacle. “That’s what it costs to outfit seven or eight people in designer clothes,” McCain wrote. “Other candidates had spent just as much, or more, but kept those kinds of expenses under wraps – sunk into promotion and advertising costs. What surprised me was that our campaign couldn’t do the same.”
The debate over Palin’s policies and role in the Republican party will no doubt continue. But when you’ve got liberal feminists defending her, it’s clear that the level of vitriol toward her is long past acceptable boundaries.
If feminists were really indeed feminists, they would be entirely supportive of Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin has shown what a woman can become.
Sarah Palin is a smart intelligent feisty woman who does not take crap from anybody and is not afraud to speak her mind.
Sarah Palin was a mayor and then a govenror of a large state. That is a major accomplishment right there and then she was tapped as the VP candidate on a national presidential ticket.
Indeed many voters voted for the ticket precisely because Palin was on it.
The vanity fair article is vile.
Were some feminists at the Beck rally? ;-)
What do you expect from a guy that writes for a gay far left magazine..he hated Sarah since day 1, everything in that entire Vanity Fair sack of garbage article is a lie. Yeah, he went in there “Wanting to be fair towards her” OMG and he said that with a straight face too..he is a disgusting pig and my apologies to pigs out there
I think the Palin-haters will end up burning themselves out--you can't sustain that level of unjustified hostility without suffering its self-destructive effects-- and shooting themselves in the foot as their torrent of negativity rings increasingly hollow to those whom the haters would influence.
I know a few of these “feminists” were at the Beck rally and I know they support Palin:
http://www.feministsforlife.org/ (Palin’s a member.)
It is about time they came out from under Obama’s desk.
How true... If Palin had a (D) after her name, but had the same beliefs and agenda that she does today, she would have been celebrated by the same leftist media twits who are instead constantly bashing her (they all would have been patting themselves on the back for how tolerant and inclusive and open-minded the “big tent” Democrats were)...
Sarah Palin’s current—and likely greater, ultimate—success will encourage lots of women to dare. If the worst of unfair public ridicule didn’t do her in, what should the other women have to fear?
I know we all agree with Mother Jones about 2% of the time, but I give their editors credit for speaking up as they have. There is such a thing as honorable opposition.
I’m not so sure those are the same feminists.
I saw him on Morning with Kira and whoever, he went into article liking Sarah because he to was from a small town, christian, hunter. STOP THERE! Bullsheep. The hosts were even kinda embarrassed to interview him although they did and went through every incident. Its awful and I hope it backfires BAD.
Right, Vanity Fair is right up there with
He’s an Gay progressive, he NEVER EVER liked her from the start so he goes on to make up these HORRIBLE lies about her with of course no proof. He makes her out to be some like of mafia leader, throwing cans at Todd and shooting at the refrigerator, funny, when Greta was in her house the kitchen looked fine, no dents in the wall, no bullet holes LOL..stupid ass liberals, they can’t even lie with a straight face, they really should take a lesson from Clinton, at least he sorta knew how to do it right
Sarah, on her own merit, has essentially shattered the glass ceiling for women in politics. I am wholeheartedly for her.
But, it is so over the top, simply dripping with misogyny and overt sexist drivel, that it is a reflection upon VANITY FAIR and particularly upon the editors who permitted such tripe to be published.
The author obviously belongs over at the Atlantic where he can room up with Andrew Sullivan whose raison d'etre is also to Despise Hate Loathe Governor Palin.
They're absolutely pathetic, and worse yet, so utterly losers, so unable to observe objectively, that they don't realize that THEY ARE LAUGHINGSTOCKS by peers in their so-called profession.
VANITY FAIR must be about ready to collapse financially to have pulled such a stupid repugnant stunt as this, or maybe one of its editors is romancing the ridiculous author of the hit piece. In a word, it boomeranged.
How hollow a life
To have hate for a wife.
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