Stupid Clowns and Their Stupid Clowning
Oct 1
Jim Geraghty, run-of-the-mill idiot at National Review Online, has an angry column in which he claims the Boston Globe is guilty of “libel” in criticizing Palin for presiding over her local police’s plan to charge rape victims for medical examinations to gather evidence in criminal cases against their assailants, and for noting that that is of a piece with her generally punitive stance on women and sexuality overall.
His claim is that, because the plan was the work of her police chief and not Palin directly, and, apparently, she’s not expected to be responsible for, or even know about, the policies of her hand-picked underlings (this from a mayor who not only fired every single city department head and replaced them with individually chosen stooges to ensure “loyalty”, but also involved herself at the level of harassing a single police officer for personal reasons, and attempting to ban individual library books), it’s conceivable she might not have been aware of the policy or at least you can’t prove otherwise when she claims so. Therefore, “the editors of the Globe must print a retraction.” (emphasis, high dudgeon, and credulous grandstanding original)
The piece runs directly opposite an ad that consists entirely of a picture of Al Gore and the words “He Invented the Internet”. (It’s a rotating ad spot; it may not always be there.)
Geraghty is so bent out of shape at those who would dare make factual statements which are reasonable but which he doesn’t like about Sarah Palin that he not only demands their retraction, but helpfully prints the main and editorial e-mail addresses and phone numbers for the Globe in his column. I’m sure Geraghty has an equal concern for lies about Al Gore involving claims he never made, using words he never said. I’m sure Geraghty is equally eager to have his own editors badgered with phone calls examining their policy of carrying ads with factual propositions are that both flatly false and in fact made up (in part, by themselves). The NRO’s advertising URL is http://www.nationalreview.com/mediakit/. Their letters-to-the-editor address is letters@nationalreview.com?subject=letter. Their main phone line is (212) 679-7330. They’re waiting to hear what they must do.
#1 by gattsuru at October 2nd, 2008
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If she wasn’t a public figure, he’d be closer — I hate to paraphrase Slate, but the “rape kit” idiocy is about there on the “Obama is a secret Muslim”.
It’s hard to prove that something didn’t occur. That said, it’s not hard to present the preponderance of evidence : there are no records of any rape victim being directly charged, no evidence that the hospital policies on the matter changed, and while hospitals (which are not police) sent bills to insurance companies in an area the size of the NorthEast which included Wasilla, there’s no evidence that this policy began during Palin’s mayoral career (the “started” word) or actually touched a rape victim in Wasilla.
Despite planned Parenthood’s best attempts, they haven’t been able to find someone from Wasilla who was charged for a rape kit. There were running an ad with a gal from somewhere else, though.
If you want the existence of an unknown and unenforced law to count against a political officer, that’s your prerogative, but I would advise against doing so (section 7, the part about insurance providers getting hit by it).
Since the accusation is one of a currently illegal act (even if it was not illegal at the time of its alleged occurrence), identifies Palin, and was published, the Boston Globe would need a much stronger defense than their current attempt at truth, if she were not a public figure.
As a public figure, it’d have to be stated with knowing falsehood or reckless disregard for the truth, and I can think of few individuals better suited to arguing ignorance than the Globe’s editorial staff (with the arguable exclusion of Jacobs).
The Gore thing may fall under the Hustler Magazine v. Falwell exception. Not sure. Probably under the public figure and ignorance thing, too, since Geraghty could give the Boston Globe a run for the money.
#2 by Elaine at October 2nd, 2008
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It was actually Palin’s hand-picked police chief who slashed the budget for paying for the “rape kits.” Palin signed her approval on the new budget. So either (a) she was aware of the policy and is now lying about it or (b) she signed off on changes without actually reading the proposed budget as she was supposed to do. Additionally, when the state legislature passed a law (aimed directly at Wasilla) requiring towns to pay for the forensic tests, her police chief was quite vocal in his opposition. How could she have not been aware of that?
Of course no woman who was charged is going to come forward. Remember what the GOP did to that poor kid in the SCHIP ad?! They dragged him through the mud and harassed his family at home and at work. Can you imagine what horrid things they would say about a woman who was raped?!?!