Palin Family Circus News - Wednesday, Januray 5, 2011

PopEater's Rob Schuter reports, in "Kathy Griffin's Newest Palin to Pounce On? Willow, 16:"

... "I think it's Willow's year to go down," Griffin snarked to The Hollywood Reporter. "In 2011, I want to offend a new Palin."

With her being only 16, Willow would seem to be a target fraught with disadvantages, but that doesn't matter to Kathy.

"[She] genuinely can't stand any of the Palin family," a friend of Kathy's tells me. "Yet, the real reason she won't leave them alone is she loves all the headlines she gets whenever she attacks them."

What would it take to pry Kathy's claws from the Palin family? My source thinks that if people would just doggone stop caring about the Palins, then Kathy would be the first to move on and "find another victim." ...


Uh-oh. Bristol Palin to run for John McCain's seat? David Kahane, writing in "I Hate You, Bristol Palin," has proposed:

... In the wake of Tron, the air has gone out of the market for film sequels in Hollywood, but reality television — that’s where the money is. So why not this:

Beyond Celebrity Thunderdome II: Bristol Palin vs. Meghan McCain — This Time, It’s Personal. Two babes enter, one babe leaves. Hosted by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Because you know — you just know — that one of them is going to run for Meghan’s father’s seat when it next comes up in 2016, by which time we’ll be in syndication and rolling in residuals.

Bristol, honey — have your agent call my agent and let’s make a deal. Better yet, let’s have lunch at Chaya.

Meghan McCain (born 1984) will be old enough for a Senate seat in 2016, but Bristol Palin will have to settle for a House seat. Sorry, Dave.


IM has posted a copy of an offer letter to Bristol Palin. Arizona is the land of opportunity, no?


CNN has "Political Circus: Former sitcom star blasts Palin, health care reform:"

... Roseanne Barr -- comedian, author, political activist and former star of the hit television sitcom "Roseanne" -- took shots at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin during an interview about her new book on ABC's "Nightline" on Tuesday.

In "Roseannearchy: Dispatches From the Nut Farm," she wrote that Palin is "ripping off my act."

"She's not even telling the truth to the American people. I think she took a lot from me and from my show, absolutely," she said. ...

I'll have to watch my intellectual property more closely. NBC New York and, now, CNN have started Circus News columns.


In another "roundup" post -- What did I just say about my IP? -- Oops! "Palingates in 2010 - The Year in Review" -- They do live in the past, a lot, don't they? -- palingates' Patrick may have admitted to having a ghostwriter!

... Then there is Kathleen, whose influence on Palingates is much greater than is visible from the outside. Kathleen is a highly skilled professional researcher -- Is that a fact? Show us the offer letter! -- who doesn't get fooled by anyone -- Oh, really? -- and that's exactly what you need when you deal with Sarah Palin, the woman of many, many secrets. Also, many thanks to Kathleen for correcting my grammar on a daily basis.

One day Patrick gloated over discovering, he said, that Sarah Palin's ghostwriter is Rebecca Mansour. Now, Rebecca Mansour can be linked stylistically to some of Sarah Palin's Facebook rants, but not to all of them. A blogger with a ghostwriter -- Ach mein Gott! -- hasn't completed his research :)

The Business Insider noticed that Ann Coulter not only used the word retarded but referred to a person while doing so, and titled its article, "Will Sarah Palin Call For Ann Coulter's Head Over 'Retard' Tweet?"

This may be a signifigant development, because The Business Insider may have carried water for Palin in the past. I'll have to watch it, though, because they (I think it was at The Business Insider, if I remember correctly.) posted an article about Sarah's reality show performing poorly, then, later, replaced the article at that link with an article that would be more pleasing to Sarah Palin.

Palin Family Circus News - Saturday, December 4, 2010

Here we see Sarah Palin trying to get the cobwebs out.

Two weeks ago, the ratings for Sarah Palin's Alaska collapsed. They were down 40% from the ratings of the first, debut show. The next week, ratings were up 17%. Woo hoo? No. Let's put things into perspective.

Suppose we buy a stock for $100. When it drops 40%, it has to go up $40, which is 66% of its price at $60, to get back to $100. So, the show's ratings then went up 17%? Let's see: 17% of $60 is $10.20. So, our stock is now priced at $70 plus change. Our stock is still way down. It's down 30%!

Of course, things can change. Tonight Tomorrow December 12th, the show's competition may not be as strong as it's been, and Kate Gosselin + kids are making an appearance.

Kate's show has drawn more viewers than Sarah's show has ever drawn; she's more popular. Won't we have to attribute any improvement in the show's ratings, tonight tomorrow December 12th, to Kate + kids' fans turning out to watch?

As with all things, "It ain't over 'til it's over," but Sarah Palin's show might have had a better reception if it had been more about Alaska than about Sarah Palin.

For another bit of perspective, Dancing With the Stars' final episode had about five times as many viewers as Sarah Palin's Alaska had when it premiered. Bristol won't be old enough to be President for some time, but she's already much more popular than her mom.

If you'd like to read a short comparison of Sarah Palin's show with Ronald Reagan's shows, you might enjoy "How Sarah Palin's Alaska is not like Ronald Reagan's Death Valley Days."


"Kate Gosselin breaks down in tears while camping with Sarah Palin in Alaska's wilderness" has some TLC photos from the show.

But "Sarah Palin & Kate Gosselin's Sucky Wilderness Adventure" tells of some scenes we may not see.

Update: The NY Daily News has an article about Kate Gosselin's appearance on the show. According to that article, the "entire episode" with Kate won't be shown until December 12. The article has a link to Us Magazine, where a trailer can be seen. I am not so sure that Kate will be on tomorrow night.


For a while, I was too scared to read "Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Violated By Sarah Palin!" Who knows what evil lurks ... ?


"Bristol Palin a Pawn in Mom Sarah's Lamesteam Media War" noticed that Bristol Palin's 'Facebook posting is well written and uses a lot of two-dollar words like “canard” and “incredulity.” ' At one point, the article calls MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who doubts that Bristol wrote the Facebook posting, a "fathead," but then the article expresses doubt about whether Bristol actually wrote the Facebook posting.

Whatever! But Bristol's Rebecca Mansour's line, "What Mr. Olbermann lacks in originality he makes up for with insincere incredulity," is a problem. Try removing the double negative: "What Mr. Olbermann lacks in originality he makes up for with sincere credulity." Still don't know what it means? Join the club.

That's my $0.02 on that matter.


Finally, what would life be like without Palinman (Palin' Man?):



He's a Superhero? To see Sarah Palin portrayed as a Superhero and read about some real ones, you may like "Sarah Palin: Superhero (?!)" (And pick up some holiday movie tips, too.)


Update, December 5th: I'm sorry about the confusion over what's on tonight's show. The episode with Kate + kids will be on December 12th, not tonight. Tonight's show -- December 5th -- is about hunting.

Sarah must be aware of the show's troubled ratings. She is now trying (Sunday, Dec. 5th) to gin-up a controversy over hunting in an attempt to attract more viewers. She's tweeting things like, "Unless you've never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather couch or eaten a piece of meat, save your condemnation of tonight's episode." Do people hunt cows?

Update, December 5th: ABC News' The Note has written quite a bit about tonight's show and mentions some of the upcoming shows. Of tonight's show, the column wrote: " ... Palin seems to relish not just the hunt itself, but the political language surrounding it. Her books are loaded with references to “organic sources of protein,” which is a long way of saying say “wild animal meat.” And while she alludes to the idea that the show is somehow controversial, it doesn’t seem that there has been a giant public outcry. Palin seems eager to pick a fight here, even if no one is fighting back." ... . [emphasis added]

Wendy Kaminer on Ghostwriters

Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer and writer. Recently, she wrote, in Ghostwriters, Speechwriters, and the State of Our Union,

... [F]reshman Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown is "writing a book," and I suppose that's an accurate statement if "writing a book" means hiring someone to write a book for you. As Brown's spokeswoman says, he "will work with a collaborator," indicating that like most celebrity athletes, pop stars, and politicians, he will be the "author" of a book (a memoir, no less) that someone else has written.

But the degradation of authorship, hardly a new phenomenon, does seem a most appropriate one today. When political inexperience and ignorance are practically qualifications for office, why should literary experience or talent be required of authors? People who can't or won't govern are elected to high office, so why shouldn't people who can't write win lucrative contracts to author books? ...

... [C]andidates for offices that require extensive knowledge, intelligence, reason, fairness, and nuanced judgment often boast of their ordinariness (at least you can't accuse them of false advertising). Scott Brown posed with his truck; Sarah Palin introduced herself as a "hockey mom[.]" ...

Ordinariness is supposed to signal the candidate's authenticity, but authenticity, in politics or publishing, is carefully constructed by agents, consultants, and other marketers--with the full cooperation of voters and consumers. (Voting, as many have observed, has devolved into consuming.) The construction process is surprisingly and disturbingly transparent. ...

... It's no secret that Lynn Vincent ghostwrote Sarah Palin's book, but her critics and detractors alike have treated Palin as both author and writer anyway. "She writes with sensitivity and affection," the Wall Street Journal's Melanie Kirkpatrick opines. (Actually she writes with Lynn Vincent.) ...

... Politics matters. Celebrating Ronald Reagan for what we knew to be Peggy Noonan's eloquence mattered. Political consultants openly fashion "stories" and "narratives" about candidates, as if they were fictional characters engaged in metaphoric quests. And we oblige them by reacting less like citizens than members of an audience, willingly suspending our disbelief.

Many leaders have used speech writers and ghost writers, but every thoughtful, intelligent one has the capacity to write for himself or herself, simply because they are able to think for themselves. We do need to know what and how candidates think before we vote for them, because they're going to be making decisions on our behalf, if they're elected. We shouldn't have empty vessels making decisions that will affect our lives and the lives of others. Perhaps we should give more weight to what candidates say during in-depth interviews, press conferences, and substantive debates, as well as what they wrote before trying-out for the big leagues.

Continuing with Wendy Kaminer's observation that voting has devolved into consuming, we might all be better off if the schools taught children to think critically about advertising. It could begin with taking apart toy and food ads, so they would grow up understanding how they're influenced by advertising and be able to see through it, appreciating it as entertainment that is sometimes done well, sometimes poorly, rather than the truth.


Here's Wendy Kaminer's website.


There are several blog posts concerned with the false narrative constructed by Sarah Palin. You can find them on the sidebar, by scrolling down to the Mythbusting Sarah Palin section.

PROOF! Sarah Palin Doesn't Write OR Read Her Facebook Posts - UPDATED

On Tuesday, January 26, 2010, Sarah Palin wrote signed this statement on Facebook:

Women’s Rights groups, like NOW, commendably call out advertisers and networks for airing sexist and demeaning portrayals of women that lead to young women’s diminished self-esteem and acceptance of roles as mere sexed-up objects.

On Thursday, January 28, 2010, Sarah Palin told Greta Van Susteren:

I mean, there are so many offensive commercials out there and, um. There's commercials out there that belittle women and demean them and make them feel like sex objects and I haven't heard a whole lot of protest from N.O.W. on that. H/T Bree Palin and a Guest commenter.

Tuesday, she commended N.O.W.; Thursday, she slammed them — for not doing what she had praised them for doing on Tuesday!

Who wrote the Facebook post? Why wasn't Sarah Palin familiar with the post's contents?


Update: Here is the snapshot of Sarah Palin's Facebook Post on Tuesday:










Update: Listen for Sarah Palin's statement on Thursday, about the 2:12 mark: