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Journalism professor: former Palin flack trying to kill birth hoax discussionEditor's note: On April 7, the student newspaper at Northern Kentucky University, The Northerner, reported online about a reaction that research by an associate professor at the school, Bradford W. Scharlott, received from former Palin administration spokesman Bill McAllister. Subsequently, a political blog continued the story based on comments McAllister reportedly made to the Northerner. At the center of the dust-up is an academic conference paper draft by Scharlott that seeks to explain mass media's treatment of the rumor that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin didn't give birth to her son Trig. Read The Northerner's original report and the follow-up by the blog Politicalgates, both of which link to the full draft text of the conference paper, "Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor: Did a Spiral of Silence Shut Down the Story?" Read Bill McAllister's response to the following op-ed. Sarah Palin’s former press secretary Bill McAllister wrote this to me last Tuesday night. “If we ever meet, I'll slap you. In a different era, I'd challenge you to a duel.” And Mr. McAllister, not satisfied with sharing those thoughts with me alone, put them in emails under the heading "Brad Scharlott disgraces your university" that went to many of my colleagues at NKU. Here’s the background. I’ve written a research paper with the title “Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor: Did a Spiral of Silence Shut Down the Story?” I have submitted that paper to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, with the hope of presenting it at the group’s fall meeting. (Papers go through a judging process.) And, because he appears in that paper, I sent a copy of it to Mr. McAllister, asking if he had any reaction. (McAllister served as Palin’s director of communications from mid-2008 to mid-2009.) Ever since August of 2008, I have been fascinated by how the U.S. press reacted to the rumor that Palin did not truly give birth to Trig, reportedly born in April 2008, just as I have been fascinated by the claim that Obama was not born in the United States. Both rumors arose around the same time in 2008 (the Palin rumor started in Alaska), but they have had different histories. The Obama fake-birth-certificate idea (and variants of that) have had no problem getting into the press -- hundreds of stories about whether he is truly qualified to be president have appeared in the nation’s newspapers since the start of 2008, based on a search in the Newspaper Index database. By contrast, the idea that Palin may have staged a hoax concerning the birth of Trig has essentially become taboo in mainstream media, with only a few stories in the Anchorage Daily News treating the question in a serious way. Eric Boehlert summarized the situation nicely last July when he wrote in Media Matters for America that “back in 2008, 99 percent of people in ‘the media’ did the right thing and ignored the Trig nonsense.” And Newspaper Index shows the same has been true since then. Why the enormous difference in rumor coverage? In my paper, I suggest that the “spiral of silence” phenomenon came into play with the hoax rumor about Palin but not the one about Obama. In a nutshell, a spiral of silence takes place when people perceive an idea they hold is outside of what most people seem to think and therefore censor themselves, to avoid disapproval or ridicule. And the more such people censor themselves, the more outside the mainstream the minority idea becomes, until the idea is virtually extinguished from the mainstream, at least as represented in the mass media.
Why won't Palin just show us Trig's birth certificate, with her name listed under "Mother"? That would put the whole "babygate" thing to rest in an instant. Yet she doesn't do it. Why not? Sarah, show us the birth certificate! If Palin has nothing to hide, I have to wonder why she has spent over $5.5 million trying to keep the details of Trig's birth secret. (Disclaimer: That last sentence was not intended to be a factual statement.) hmmmm... As a woman, I can put forth one more possibility, Dr. Scharlott. This could just be Republican health care for all those expecting moms. Palin is in Texas when her water breaks. Her insurance won't let her deliver in Texas, and a good thing, too. So, she flies to Alaska. But, she can't go to the nearest, best hospital. Her health care "provider" makes her drive to the hospital on her plan. Of course. Sound familiar, ladies? Now, maybe the obstetrician might have been available if she had just waited her 9.3 months like EVERYONE ELSE, during regular business hours. But NO. She had to go to the family doctor to see if she could put a call into her plan to get approval for an obstetrician ASAP. Ooops. NOSAP. Sorry, no specialists without a week's prior approval. You're lucky you got the family doctor. But, wait. Did she? That non-committal response from her GP makes me think she had to do it the old fashioned way.... hey, boil the water, dude. The Alaska Dispatch caused this story because its "contributors" fed Andrew Sullivan really sick stories about Palin's pregnancy. Did not Palin release her OBYGN files? Did not Tony Hopfinger's friends at the Alaska Daily News trail Palin's Doctor, and then then the paper's editor was forced to go national TV to claim he was trying to debunk the story. Did not Palin release her OBYGN files? No she did not. But hey, thanks for playing. Hi Tullio1, Your facts are wrong. We did not feed any story to Andrew Sullivan. There is nothing here called the Alaska Daily News. Nobody here trailed Palin's doctor. And I was never forced to go on television to debunk any story as you describe. But thanks for reading. Tony Hopfinger Oh Shoot. Shortly before we heard of Trig's birth, I watched a news clip of Palin and remarked to my wife that Sarah face and neck made her look like she'd gained a bunch of weight. Only her head and shoulders showed in the video. I assumed the stress of the job had caused her to gain wt. As far as a spiral of silence; it could also be called a "recognition of the truth" so the media shut up and moved on to new material. I'm tired of encountering this on every blog and around every corner - I said a long time ago that Palin just needs to address this and everyone would move on. She hasn't, no one has moved on. Obviously, almost three years later from the first rumor murmurings in Alaska, this issue (question?) is still diluting the real discussions we need to have. She can't stem the tide at this point, so just spit it out and be done with it. However, she's waited so long and has been busted in so many lies that I'm afraid it will go on no matter what she says since she is completely untrustworthy as far as the truth goes. I'm going to have to go through life now with my hands slapped over my ears & eyes to get away from the speculation - it's everywhere. Freakin' WHO CARES? People, get a life. Whether Trig is her baby, her daughter's, the neighbor's, an alien's, or even Obama's, is her private matter. What difference does it make? Talk about mountains out of mole hills. Can't believe I wasted five minutes of my life on this tripe. Oh but it does matter, Doctor. Palin is thinking of running for president of the US. She already ran for vice-president. If she has demonstrated an inclination to lie to the public on this level and has perpetuated a world-class hoax for years, doesn't that at least slightly undermine her qualifications as a national leader? Or is lying about something this important simply "OK" with you? I don't get it. That would be true if she kept it her private matter. She makes about $10,000,000 per year selling the story of her heroic, self sacrificing and christian decision to give birth to a child she knew would have downs syndrome. She claims to have made a decision that 90% of women with planned and wanted pregnancies would not make in that situation. I suppose you believe that Bernie Madoff's claims that his investments would yield a guaranteed 10% every year were Bernie's private business. If she in fact faked the birth she went far beyond a personal matter and she profited by her fraud causing fools to part with large sums of money. If I, as a PhD candidate, showed up with a paper of such fabricated propaganda as Mr. Sharlotte's I would be drummed out of school. One might wonder where Mr. Sharlotte got his supposed PhD or if ever got one. Perhaps he has fallen prey to the communist academic thought that prevails on most campuses and indoctrinates those whose intellect is too weak to function except within pre-conceived trains of thought. There is no evidence to support his allegations that Sarah Palin did not give birth to Trig, nor is it any of our business. Who cares? It is definitely the business of every American, however, that the President of the United States meets the constitutional criteria for the office of President. And thus far, we have seen no evidence to prove Obama meets that criteria. And before the someone begins drawing the 'racist' weapon saying that no other candidate has been required to prove eligibility, McCain, whose blood may be more than half white was investigated extensively before being forced on the conservative public with an unenforceable Senate Resolution crafted by Hillary and Obama. Grow up, Sharlotte, you have no case here and you're making a fool of yourself trying to make one. Please tell us what school you are getting your "PhD" from so we can avoid it, as it has produced someone with poor reading skills and a lack of critical thinking. Or is it one of those phony "Christian" college/madrassas? We have "seen no evidence" of Obama's citizenship? Christ, you ARE crazy. My advice to you: Turn. Off. Fox. "News". Are you a PhD candidate? I would have thought that a self-proclaimed Ph.D. candidate would have better reading skills and a higher lever of comprehension than you display. Dr. Sharlotte's paper isn't about the pregnancy, it is about the "Spiral of Silence", the phenomenon that prevents people from talking about it. Your reply essentially gave an example that helps validate his point. Your ad hominem attack on Dr. Sharlotte further weakens your argument. Give my regards to the faculty at Liberty University. How inconsiderate of you to waste other reader's time commenting on a paper you obviously didn't take the time to read. Either that or you have very poor reading comprehension. The professor isn't making the case to prove that Palin faked the pregnancy. His whole point is that journalists didn't pursue the story when there was enough there to ask the questions. Again you show how lazy you are with your comments about Obama's birth certificate. If you can turn on your brain and be objective for a ten minute google search you will find that there is more proof that Obama was born in the United States than just about anyone else. Turn of Glen Beck and start using your brain. Grow up and get a brain, jai. Birthers like you need to get a life yourself and quit sitting in pews and taking what your reverend and his deacons tell you is the "Gospel". There is in fact not a shred of evidence to support the assumption that Sarah Palin DID give birth to Trig. It is the public's business if a person who holds/aspires to public office lies or perpetrates a fraud. It's time for her to provide the evidence. This is what Palin just said about Donald Trump's efforts regarding Obama's birth certificate. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52880.html Palin says: "Well, you know, I think that he was born in Hawaii because there was a birth announcement put in the newspaper," she said. "But obviously there's something there that the president doesn't want people to see on that birth certificate...he's going to great lengths to make sure it isn't shown. And that's kind of perplexing for a lot of people." So why hasn't she shown Trig's birth certificate when asked, and why wasn't there a birth announcement in the Mat-Su hospital where he was born? Oh, I forgot, Palin's a hypocrite- and intellectually celibate. Well, the ol' prof used "mysterious" and "viloence" at the end of his article. Two words guaranteered to keep the pot boiling. He's pretty good himself at selling the shill tomes, eh? This is a very interesting article. We don't know about those in power do we? It's so easy to mislead the public these days. Wow. In that one exchange, my respect for Bill McAllister diminished to close to zero, and my curiosity about evidence for Trig's origins grew significantly. What are they hiding? Prof. Scharlott, I just posted on an ABC site which is running a story about Palin and President Obama's birth cert. http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2011/04/sarah-palin-supports-trumps-birther-efforts/comments/page/2/#comments I directed them to this site and made a comment about the media being willing to discuss Obama's birth cert but not Trig Palin's birth cert. You'll never guess what happened to my comment - it was deleted. ... Which was the whole point of Dr. Scharlott's paper. Thanks for posting that. That has been the difficulty of getting the message out to the public. Huffington Post never allowed any mention of "fake pregnancy" for the longest time, and even now a comment will be deleted, depending on who is moderating. The MSM would never bring it up, and any links to the overwhelming circumstantial evidence were seldom allowed. I would love to see a poll asking people if they had even heard of Palin's fake pregnancy. I just found a person on Twitter who did not know about it! It is not a matter of trying to humiliate Sarah Palin, but to let the public know her terrible judgment to go to such an extreme deception. I agree and it infuriates me that they would delete my comment. They are also deleting anyone's comments mentioning Palin's "pregnancy" but still publishing comments on Obama's birth cert. It is like banging your head against a brick wall. Thank you Alaska Dispatch for being the first to expose this. "Gov. Sarah Palin's honesty & veracity are unassailable"......lol, lol, lol, lol, lol, jeez, sarah, you seem to be sensitive. Sorry, honesty and veracity are not words associated with the name Palin. Quitter and harpy are better. Bill McAllister had an interview with Sarah Palin in her Juneau office on 4-7-08 from 2:35-3:00pm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIjVYAhTwtA McAllister had to have been SHOCKED when he saw Sarah again on 4-13-08 when suddenly she looked like an orca whale. If he didn’t notice anything, then his self-identified stellar reputation as a reporter is grossly exaggerated. The only people who do NOT believe there is a discussion to be had here are those who have never bothered to examine the evidence. If you simply do a little research you should have little difficulty in finding that evidence. Here I will even start you off by directing you to one of the best resources for finding that very information on the internet: http://www.palindeception.com/ Try not to have your mind blown all at once. I'm glad to see the hard questions being asked. This topic is not off limits. All Palin has to do is produce documentation to put these legitimate questions to rest. Honest people produce honest documentation. Period. The "birth hoax" discussion is no discussion at all; it is malicious nonsense from misogynist weirdos like Andrew Sullivan to elicit squeals of delight from Bill Maher fans. Gov. Sarah Palin's honesty & veracity are unassailable. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! My goodness, it is extraordinary to see more than two-syllable words from a Palin supporter! The insults and vocabulary sound very much like Rebecca Mansour. Hi Bekkky. Seriously? Honesty and veracity? I guess that explains why she quit. Hardycase, you must be kidding!? Honesty? Veracity? unassailable? Surely you joke. Or perhaps you have forgotten the line "neither I nor any member of my staff tried to get trooper Wooten fired" or words to that effect. The woman is one big lie. |
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