Thursday, April 14, 2011

The media finally discovers Sarah Palin's "Trig pregnancy hoax" - The wall of silence is being torn down, and more voices are being heard

By Patrick

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, an unbearable and at the same time seemingly unchangeable situation came to the end of its existence and caused a "shift" in reality. That's how I feel right now, although the Berlin Wall existed more than 28 years - and the "wall of silence" regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy has only lasted about 2 1/2 years. As far as I am concerned, however, it went on for far too long. Together with a constantly growing group of researchers, readers and supporters, we have "lived" the exposure of Sarah Palin's shocking pregnancy hoax virtually every day - and it felt like constantly running up against a wall of ignorance and silence. This has now changed, it feels like a little revolution.

Prof. Brad Scharlott's paper tipped the balance. It might have very well been possible that some journalists were interested to write about Sarah Palin's pregnancy - but it was a taboo subject, almost nobody touched it, and writing about the pregnancy would have resulted in immediate ridicule and abuse. Well, there is still no shortage of ridicule and abuse, but more and more citizens and journalists seriously start to ask themselves: Can it be true? Is Sarah Palin really a fraudster of epic proportions, in addition to being a gifted demagogue and pinnacle of vindictiveness?

The world will soon find out.

The media coverage continues to grow virtually every hour, and our very own Leadfoot_LA contacted a large number of media outlets and was incredibly successful!

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READ THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS AT POLITICALGATES:


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Here is a selection of the many websites which have so far reported about Prof. Scharlott's paper (h/t to Leadfoot_LA):

http://www.businessinsider.com/sarah-palin-baby-hoax-2011-4
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/12/scharlott_palin_trig/
http://gawker.com/#!5791915/did-sarah-palin-carry-out-the-biggest-hoax-in-american-political-history
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1376824/Teenage-stalker-Shawn-Christy-threatened-rape-Sarah-Palins-daughter.html#ixzz1JVN6N52o
http://www.metro.us/newyork/all%20usa%20cities/article/832686--sarah-palin-s-trig-hoax-liberals-have-a-birther-conspiracy-of-their-very-own
http://www.theblockradio.com/2011/04/41311/
http://www.politicususa.com/en/is-sarah-palin-finally-over
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/77752,people,news,sarah-palin-and-the-myth-she-is-trigs-mother-brad-scharlott-birther
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2011/04/14/dear-everyone-please-stop-with-the-sarah-palin-pregnancy-hoax-rumors/
http://www.businessinsider.com/brad-scharlott-2011-4
http://politics.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979222622
http://www.newser.com/story/116379/trig-palin-birtherism-is-back-new-paper-alleges-sarah-palin-really-isnt-his-mom.html
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/04/the-return-of-the-trig-birthers/
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/04/wimpy-and-gullible.html
http://thisisbrandx.com/2011/04/brand-x-files-catherine-zeta-jones-jennifer-lopez/

There is also a big new discussion going on at Democratic Underground:


And there is much more to come.

Let me also mention again that our very own ProChoiceGrandma did a great job as a guest on the radio show of "TYTNow" co-host Tim Mihalsky (audio).

Prof. Brad Scharlott gave a very interesting interview to the journalist Laura Novak, which was also reprinted in "Business Insider."

He said:

Well the first reaction was pretty odd. Last week I sent a copy of my paper to Sarah Palin’s former press secretary asking if he had any comments, since he is mentioned in an unflattering way. He went ballistic. He called me a “scumbag” who is “in the service of evil.” He said he would slap me if he ever saw me, and that in a former age he would have challenged me to a duel. And then, under the heading “Brad Scharlott disgraces your university” he sent that critique of me in an email to all my colleagues in my department. I’m guessing he was used to using strong-arm tactics like that in Alaska. I guess he didn’t realize that 1) I am a tenured professor who can research anything I want, and 2) no one in Kentucky gives a shit about what he thinks.

And then something happened he didn’t count on. The student newspaper at my university learned what he did. So they interviewed me about his toxic rant and effort to embarrass me, and then they called him and got his view (he called for me to be fired), and then they posted a story about the matter in the online version of the student paper. And I thought, “What a golden opportunity!” So I asked the student newspaper editors if they wanted to post my paper online next to the story – and of course they did. And then it started spreading like wildfire. Exactly the opposite thing that Bill McAllister would have wanted.

As for reactions from journalists, a writer at Salon.com took note of the paper in a negative way yesterday, suggesting my university should be embarrassed that I wrote it – but give the writer his due, he posted my paper for reading or downloading so readers could maker up their own minds. His article prompted Andrew Sullivan of Newsweek/Daily Beast to essentially defend the appropriateness of my research – and to make the observation that the Salon writer was basically providing evidence in support of my thesis about a “spiral of silence.”

So those are the heaviest of the heavyweights to weigh in on my paper. There are blog sites devoted to revealing the truth concerning Trig’s birth, such as ImmoralMinority.com and Politicalgates.blogspot.com, and folks there have treated me like a rock star. I’ve had dozens of emails and phone calls from people basically saying, “Thank God you’re doing this.”

Thank you, Brad! We are all very, very glad that you have taken the initiative, put your reputation on the line and pushed "Babygate" into the mainstream!

Andrew Sullivan today published some hard-hitting comments as well:

There was a strange collective decision not to know - and to stigmatize those who simply wanted to get the question resolved. And we still don't know. Now that Palin herself has joined the Birther nonsense, would it be too much to ask for former half-term governor Palin to provide some medical records - as she promised? (...)

But there really is no comparison. We have gotten all the data one can want out of the Obama administration on his birth certificate. He has delivered it. Palin has delivered nothing ... but a fantastical, un-fact-checked manuscript, bald-faced lies, and a campaign of media intimidation. Which worked.

So what is left to say right now? Events are moving very fast - and Sarah Palin's silence is deafening. The only weapon she and her fanatical fans have are ridicule, smears and diversions ("you are attacking Trig") - but that won't be enough, as the cat is out of the bag.

The truth is simple, it's in front of all our eyes, yet only few people wanted to believe it - and many still don't.

Just look at the "newborn" Trig on April 18, 2008. The most important document in this respect is the article which was published on the website of the Alaskan TV-station KTUU on April 18, 2008, and contained pictures of Trig which were taken only several hours after the official birth. Trig looks neither premature (born at "7 1/2 months", as Sarah Palin now persistently claims, contradicting earlier information) nor like a newborn baby. Because he wasn't. He was born much earlier, and if Sarah Palin hoped that the media wouldn't seriously discuss the faked pregnancy because the "maths doesn't add up", she was definitely not successful.

Yes, it is in fact very well possible that Bristol Palin is the biological mother of Trig as well as Tripp. Some people from Alaska told us that this is the case, but the final proof is still missing. I suggest that somebody ask Bristol herself - there will be either "deafening silence" or some fascinating answers, but probably not much in between.

Apart from that, it would take Sarah only about one day to prove that she is Trig's biological mother. Which she never will, because she can't.

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Click HERE to read all posts at Politicalgates about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy.

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UPDATE:

Leadfoot chimes in with some important observations:

I want to chime in and give the perspective of a PR person. Think about this -- how much has Sarah been in the news lately? We've all noticed a decline, right? Well, if you do a google news search today, 249 new stories come up about Sarah. The ones we have listed in this post are OUR story. The other 225 or so are about a stalker threatening to rape Willow and Sarah visiting Wisconsin. BOTH of those stories were from statements put out by SARAH HERSELF, TODAY. Why? The stalker story happened more than a week ago. It sounds like she just decided today to visit Wisconsin and make her big announcement. Why? Well, of course we all know the answer -- to deflect.

She generated 225 stories today.
We generated 25.

If I were HER PR person, I would have done EXACTLY the same thing. Get more google links out there -- content, content, content. Bury the "bad stories." It's all about content generation and managing the search crawlers in this day and age of news spreading.

What does this tell me, as a PR professional? Sarah is scared. VERY, VERY afraid. Her team worked their BUTTS off today to generate news.

So our work here is not done. We need to keep emailing reporters, keep tweeting, keep working. Sarah put her 2 announcements over the news wires (that costs about $1200 each) and reached 2500 media outlets at once. We just contact people, unpaid, one at a time.

But are WE scared? Nope. Our story is far more interesting. :)
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