I don’t know what’s more pathetic, the fact that the Associated Press assigned eleven writers to fact-check Sarah Palin’s new book (Did the AP assign even a single person to fact-check Barack Obama’s book? After some googling, I can’t find any hint that they did.), or the thin gruel they came up with.
Here’s the first instance in the AP says her book “goes rogue on some facts”:
PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking “only” for reasonably priced rooms and not “often” going for the “high-end, robe-and-slippers” hotels.
THE FACTS: Although she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard) for a five-hour women’s leadership conference in New York in October 2007. With air fare, the cost to Alaska was well over $3,000.
So she didn’t “often” stay at expensive hotels, but on one occasion she did. This doesn’t contradict her in the least.
Another:
PALIN: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, “you’ll have to be brave enough to fail.”
THE FACTS: Palin is blurring Obama’s stimulus plan—a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts—and the federal bailout that President George W. Bush signed.
Palin’s views on bailouts appeared to evolve as John McCain’s vice presidential running mate. In September 2008, she said “taxpayers cannot be looked to” to bail out Wall Street.
The next month, she praised McCain for being “instrumental in bringing folks together” to pass the $700 billion bailout. After that, she said “it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in.”
With only a sentence fragment’s worth of quotation, the AP is asking us to trust their characterization of the book to be accurate. I’m unwilling to do so, but for the moment let’s just stipulate that it is.
Many people’s opinion of the bailout changed over time. In my own case I was convinced at the time that it was necessary, but the scheme later turned out to be a fraud. The bailout was supposedly necessary to buy up “toxic assets”, but not a single cent was ever spent that way. Instead, the money was used to buy equity in banks and various companies. It’s not a contradiction to support the use of TARP to buy toxic assets, which might well ultimately have turned a profit, but then oppose its use to buy corporate equity.
And while President Bush and Secretary Paulson deserve most of the blame for TARP’s misuse, President Obama’s hands are not at all clean. A large chunk of the automakers’ bailout was given by Obama, at a point at which it was already clear that the money would never be repaid. (Okay, it was pretty clear all along.) (UPDATE: There’s also the fact that Obama took the person responsible for the AIG bailout disaster, Timothy Geithner, and rewarded him by making him Treasury Secretary.)
Perhaps the best one is the one they conclude with:
PALIN: “Was it ambition? I didn’t think so. Ambition drives; purpose beckons.” Throughout the book, Palin cites altruistic reasons for running for office, and for leaving early as Alaska governor.
THE FACTS: Few politicians own up to wanting high office for the power and prestige of it, and in this respect, Palin fits the conventional mold. But “Going Rogue” has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto, the requisite autobiography of the future candidate.
Beautiful. They write “THE FACTS”, then a colon, and then two sentences that contain no facts! In their opinion, Palin’s book contains all the unspecified characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto. Let’s suppose that that’s true — insofar as it’s far too vague to contradict — how does that contradict Palin’s claim of purpose over ambition?
(Via the Corner.)
UPDATE: Fox News notes:
Reviewing books and holding public figures accountable is at the core of good journalism, but the treatment Palin’s book received appears to be something new for the AP. The organization did not review for accuracy recent books by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, then-Sen. Joe Biden, either book by Barack Obama released before he was president or autobiographies by Bill or Hillary Clinton. The AP did more traditional news stories on those books.
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