CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Sarah Palin is not laughing about the very NSFW Twitter rant Azealia Banks went on Monday in which she said that the former Alaska governor should be sexually assaulted. According to People, Palin is planning to sue. USA TODAY 
 
 Why are Sarah Palin and Azealia Banks fighting? (Photo: Cliff Owen/AP, Cassandra Hannagan, Getty Images) 
 
 This week's NSFW Twitter fight is brought to you by Sarah Palin and Azealia Banks. 
 
 Update: After Palin refused to accept Banks' apology and threatened to sue, the rapper fired back on Twitter with an incestuous trailer park joke about the Alaskan governor-turned-TV personality's family. 
 
 Why are they fighting, you ask? Let's rewind. 
 
 Their Twitter rumble all started with a satirical news article from Newslo.com on March 31 that Banks seems to have believed was real; it jokingly quoted Palin telling an Alaska newspaper that African Americans "enjoyed" being slaves. 
 
 That set Banks, an outspoken reparations advocate for African-Americans, off into a heated tweetstorm. The rapper issued missives that can't be reprinted here, but the implications included that Palin should be raped by a gang of black men. 
 
 Later, likely when Banks realized the original article was fake, she deleted the graphic tweets (Media Research Center captured them and Breitbart has them here), and said simply, "I can't." 
 
 Palin, 52, responded Tuesday morning on Twitter and Facebook. 
 
 "Hey Female Rapper," Palin addressed Banks in a post. "Listen up, little darling. No one has any idea what you're wigging out about in these bizarre, violent rants against me, but you're obviously not exercising enough intelligence to acknowledge you've been sucked into believing some fake interview in which I supposedly offered comments representing the antithesis of my truth." 
 
 Palin went on to encourage Banks to use her platform for social good, while promising to "go through my young daughter's playlist to make sure there hasn't been any inadvertent addition of any anti-woman, pro-rape garbage that you seem to endorse." 
 
 On Tuesday Banks was still tweeting about Palin, including this Saturday Night Live sketch starring Tina Fey. 
 
 Banks' latest rant joins a long list of feuds, fights and controversial statements begun by the young rapper, 24. Last fall she declared gay men are "like the KKK" before deleting the tweet, and was caught on video having a tantrum on a Delta airplane. In December she was arrested outside an NYC nightclub. 
 
 Recently, she declared she's voting for Donald Trump, because "Donald trump is evil like America is evil and in order for America to keep up with itself it needs him." Apparently voting for Trump is the one thing Banks and Palin have in common. 
 
 Update: Banks apologized to Palin – sort of – in an open letter via Tumblr later Tuesday. 
 
 "In my honest defense, i was completely kidding. I happen to have a really crass, New-York-City sense of humor," wrote Banks, in a meandering apology that attempted to define Palin's “je ne sais quoi," aimed for solidarity against "censorship" and clarified that her "joke" tweets referred to group sex "NOT" rape. 
 
 Then, in a kicker to her "sincerest" apology, Banks added: "If Bristol Palin listened to my music she probably wouldn’t have all those (expletive) kids!!!" 
 
 So, feud over? Doubtful. 
 
 The Sarah Palin page in history will be condensed to a footnote in the Azealia Banks chapter. Well behaved women seldom make history. — AZEALIABANKS (@AZEALIABANKS) April 5, 2016 
 
 For one thing, Palin isn't letting it go. She issued a statement to People that she will take legal action against Banks "on behalf of all reasonable women of every age, race and political leaning." 
 
 
 
 She said she's fed up with "unanswered threats and attacks against my family and me." 
 
 "So, for the first time I'm going to enjoy the only retribution some protected 'celebrities' seem to understand – I'm suing Azealia Banks and can't wait to share my winnings with others who have gone defenseless against lies and dangerous attacks far too long." 
 
 She said she was taking a stand against "problems like Azealia's mouth" and the "double standards that result in her actually being rewarded for her divisive tactics and aggressively inciting violence." 
 
 If a white girl had said what Banks said, Palin charged, "the screams for the entire white population's head would be louder than the nonsensical rap that Azealia spews all the way to the bank." 
 
 So no more just accepting lies and threats, Palin stormed. 
 
 "I think this time I don't just sit back and swallow it, but put the fear of God in her by holding her accountable. As many of you have for years implored me to do, I'm finally going to sue." 
 
 Details about how and when and where are still up in the air. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1MQvd4b ||||| Azealia Banks, the rapper known for calling paparazzi “f**gots” and demanding $100 trillion in slavery reparations, is calling for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be raped by a group of black men. 
 
 In a series of now-deleted tweets, Banks stated Palin “needs” to be gang raped and forced to perform oral sex on men [Warning: Graphic content]: 
 
 Banks wrote the rape should be filmed and uploaded to the website WorldStarHipHop, known for its graphic depictions of violence. 
 
 Within minutes after posting the tweets, Banks deleted them and stated she simply “can’t.” 
 
 Banks presumably fell for the satire article circulating that asserts Palin said African-Americans willingly accepted slavery. 
 
 Banks has not issued an apology for saying Palin “needs” to be raped. 
 
 Banks’ remarks on Palin come days after she reiterated her support for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump (who is also endorsed by Palin) and stated “minorities” have “nothing to show” for voting Democrat. 
 
 Banks’ new album, “Slay-Z,” was released on March 24. ||||| NOTE: We've posted the entire volume of 24,199 emails that Sarah Palin sent or received as governor in a series of large, downloadable files you can read here. The New York Times and msnbc.com have also made the emails available on their websites. 
 
 The state released the emails today as printed pages. The records begin when Palin took office in December 2006 and run through the fall of 2008, when she was a candidate for vice president (and media organizations requested them). 
 
 We've posted a who's who in the emails and want to hear what you're finding interesting. Email us at emails@adn.com with the details. 
 
 Daily News reporters reviewed a sampling of the emails throughout the day. Our notes: 
 
 Sarah, it's Lance 
 
 From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage, 11:30 a.m., Saturday -- 
 
 From: Lance Mackey 
 
 Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 7:59 PM 
 
 To: Governor Sarah Palin 
 
 Subject: RE: Other 
 
 Iditarod is closing in and still wondering if you are interested in riding my 2nd sled out of Anchorage? 
 
 The other option is an Iditarider which rides in the sled but is chosen by the highest bidder.all proceeds go to Iditarod. Please let us know ASAP and we can get into specifics or I can choose some one other than yourself If you are unable. 
 
 Lance 
 
 From: Governor Sarah Palin (GOV sponsored) 
 
 Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 6:11 AM 
 
 To: Lance Mackey 
 
 Subject: RE: Other 
 
 Thank you for writing to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. The concerns, opinions, and/or information you have sent are important and valuable to the Governor. Although she is unable to respond to each and every email herself, your message has been received and is being reviewed by the appropriate staff person in this office who can best address your need, suggestion, or comment. 
 
 "Play Tina Fey" 
 
 From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage, 6:45 p.m. -- 
 
 Pat Galvin to Palin on Sept. 16: Subject: "Tina Fey." 
 
 "My suggestion is you offer to go on SNL and play Tina Fey, and you interview her as she plays you," Galvin says. This advice seems unsolicited. 
 
 Haters and well-wishers 
 
 From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage, 6:45 p.m. -- 
 
 I've been going through the very last emails of the bunch, from the fall of 2008. This is post-fame Palin, and the messages reveal a little about what life was like in the governor's office after Palin had become a political rock star. 
 
 Haters and well-wishers e-mailed the official governor's account, seemingly in equal measure. Some called for Palin to be shot from a plane like an Alaska wolf. A Juneau woman decried the first dude's increasing role in state government. Others asked Palin to support charity runs or hold fund-raisers in their home states. 
 
 -- On Sept. 20, someone claiming to be a Wikipedia editor asked for a high-quality photo of Palin. The governor's office turned him down. "Any request that is any way campaign or partisan-related must be directed to the appropriate campaign," wrote communications director Kate Morgan. 
 
 -- On Sept. 17, Mike Nizich e-mailed to say that Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, hoped to met Palin the following month in Dallas. 
 
 -- On Sept. 15, a woman from Utah writes to say that she's an old aquaintance. Their kids used to go to elementary school together at Iditarod Elementary. Plus, like Track, her son is in the military. The woman's 17-year-old daughter "finds herself in the same predicament as Bristol." 
 
 "I hope you don’t mind if I feel I can (identify) with you in some small way," she writes. 
 
 -- On Sept. 15, Pat Galvin writes that the national media have suddenly discovered AGIA "and they WANT it to be wrong somehow." 
 
 "First, the New York Times wrote that the gasline is no sure thing, quoting Bert and Lyda as recent converts against it ("We're shocked that TC demands $500 million from the statel"), acting as if you had said the gas was practically flowing right now. Recently, we hear that a Newsweek reporter wants to "blow the lid" oli' the real story that everybody knows we'll never get through Canada, and AGIA was all a ruse to get you to the White House." 
 
 "Holy cow," Palin replies the next morning. "Thank you guys for continuing to get the truth out! And Meg can help." 
 
 -- On Sept. 12, Barbara Dewberry of Dallas, Texas, writes that she was visiting Alaska and overheard Jay Ramras talking about Palin at the Snow City Cafe. "We said hello and asked if you were in town and that we loved you - wanted you to come to TX. He said you were not 
 
 smart and were dangerous." 
 
 What's NOT being released 
 
 From David Hulen in Anchorage, 1:25 p.m. -- 
 
 Hundreds of Palin emails are not being released, with various reasons cited by the state. Here are spreadsheets of what were withheld or redacted posted by msnbc.com. It's a big file. 
 
 Palin on Don Young: "I don't want to get chewed out by him yet again again" 
 
 From Richard Mauer in Anchorage, 12:20 pm. -- 
 
 Here's an email that touches on Sarah Palin's difficult relationship with Rep. Don Young and her apparent weakness in dealing with him. 
 
 On Sept. 16, 2008, about three weeks after she was selected as John McCain's running mate. Chief of staff Mike Nizich tells Palin that Young wants a call from her. Palin responds: "Pls find out what it's about. I don't want to get chewed out by him yet again again, I'm not up for that." 
 
 Ghost-writing letter to editor 
 
 From Kyle Hopkins in Anchroage, 11:35 a.m. -- 
 
 In another example Palin’s effort to counter-punch criticism in the media, she ghost-wrote a letter to the editor – quoting herself – that would reply to a complaint that Palin had failed to appear at the 2008 Miss Alaska pageant. 
 
 In the July 26th, 2008 note to Frank Bailey, Kris Perry and Rosanne Hughes, Palin drafted a letter to the paper and asks her aides to find someone to send it to the Daily News under his or her name: 
 
 Palin writes: 
 
 “I’m looking for someone to correct the letter writer’s goofy comments, but don’t want the letter to ADN in response to come from me.” 
 
 Palin then provides her aides a draft of the letter: 
 
 “Dear Editor: To address Judi Spry’s Anchorage Daily News letter-to the editor on July 26 asking where the governor was during this year’s Miss Alaska Pageant: 
 
 First, when I asked Gov. Palin if she was ever Miss Alaska (as Ms. Spry stated), our Governor replied, “Nope, a mere “Miss Congeniality”, one of the runner-up sashes, and much-needed college scholarships were my wins as a participant in that scholarship program, about 100 years ago it seems now.’” 
 
 Palin tells her staff she wants the letter to argue that she didn’t blow off the pageant because of a “lack of support” for the event, but in order to keep a commitment to travel to Fairbanks to meet with U.S. Congressmen who were touring ANWR. 
 
 Palin aide Ivy Frye replied to the e-mail later that day, suggesting Palin friend Kristan Cole could send the letter. 
 
 “Kristan Cole would be perfect as she knows the pageant world but also she knows how busy you and Todd are. I’ll touch base w her today, and Frank too to make sure we’re sending variations and not duplicates of this letter,” Frye wrote. 
 
 “Also, we’re rallying the troops re: letters for dps and agia. Phil Schneider’s should run this wkend,” Frye added. 
 
 A few days later, on Aug. 2, a letter appeared in the paper attributed to Hughes, Palin's director of "external communications." It paraphrased some of the same points that Palin made in her e-mail, but did not include the quote. 
 
 Palin on blog commenter: "Our security guys should check into her..." 
 
 From Sean Cockerham in Juneau, 11:10 a.m. -- 
 
 Palin seemed to be particularly sensitive to the comments posted on the Anchorage Daily News politics blog, at one point asking that her security team check out one of the most critical commentators. 
 
 Palin wrote her staff on July 9, 2008 about comments posted on the ADN by Sherry Whitstine of Wasilla. 
 
 “I think our security guys should check into her because the times she’s blogged about Todd’s schedule and what we drive have really infringed on our privacy rights and potential safety when psychos know when Todd’s out of town,” she wrote. 
 
 Where to read the emails as they're posted 
 
 From David Hulen in Anchorage, 10:30 a.m. -- 
 
 In addition to the links I posted earlier below, msnbc,.com now has a searchable archive of 500+ pages (out of 24,199) up online. 
 
 The Washington Post has posted a searchable PDF of roughly the first two months of Palin's governorship - December 2006 through most of February 2007. 
 
 Again, we want to hear from you about you're finding interesting as you read through these. Email us at emails@adn.com with the details. 
 
 "Now. About the blogs..." 
 
 From Sean Cockerham in Juneau, 10: 20 a.m. – 
 
 The emails show Palin and her team obsessive about countering criticism of the governor. One example, from April 24, 2008, is an email from Palin communications director Roseanne Hughes to the top members of the governor’s staff. 
 
 “Now. About the blogs. As you know, our boss is getting pounded. Let’s take action. TODAY. 
 
 Frank and Ivy, if you could get the word out to your contacts – grassroots supporters who love our boss – we need to get them out there FLOODING that Anchorage Daily News Alaska politics blog. I mean FLOODING. 
 
 She then offered ideas of what people could say, including “Quoting Newt Gingrich that Governor Palin is one of the most aggressive reformers in the country.”' 
 
 Per diem 
 
 From Sean Cockerham in Juneau 10:10 a.m. -- 
 
 Another email string shows Palin chief of staff Mike Nizich giving Palin advice in how to handle the issue of her taking state per diem for nights she spent in her own home. 
 
 This email, sent to a personal account of sp@hslak, was from Sept. 11, 2008, as Palin was running for vice president. 
 
 It includes talking points like “State of Alaska rented an apartment in Anchorage for Governor Murkowski” and “Governor Murkowski’s travel in 2006 totaled $525,392.” 
 
 It also said that Palin prefers to driver herself, “no chauffeur” and that Palin does not travel with an entourage. 
 
 “Just some info we have used to counter comments on the per diem issue,” he wrote to Palin. 
 
 Tell us what you're finding in the emails 
 
 From David Hulen in Anchorage, 10:05 a.m. -- 
 
 It looks like the New York Times has a partial easily searchable archive of emails up online now. it covers nine days, with new material being added. The Huffington Post also has some emails posted. 
 
 Readers: As you're going through the documents, we want to hear what you're finding interesting or newsworthy. Email us at emails@adn.com with as many specifics as possible. 
 
 A list of the emails withheld from release has been scanned and posted by msnbc.com. It's a big pdf. 
 
 "This is of course ridiculous." 
 
 From Sean Cockerham in Juneau, 9:50 a.m. -- 
 
 I’ve just started going through the 24,199 pages of Sarah Palin’s emails. One, from July 3, 2008, has Palin expressing incredulity that the Daily News is working on a story about the state paying for her daughter, Piper, to come with her to an event in Barrow, 
 
 “Huh? Is he writing a story on the First Family’s invitation to attend a native celebration? The state bought one, one-way ticket for only one other member of the First Family (only the return flt,) as not all 7 of us attended of course. 
 
 …And we didnt even spend the night so no hotel! And my travel is ¼ what Murk’s was, despite having a large family that’s always invited to all these Alaskan first family events,” Palin wrote her top staffers from her gov.sarah@yahoo.com private email account. 
 
 Someone with the email account ftb907@yahoo.com wrote back (might be Palin aide Frank Bailey) Comparing Murki’s travel is key here. 
 
 “Also I bet Kris could get Mayor Itta or someone to indicate the desire and/or specific request from the community of Barrow for the whole family This is of course ridiculous. The community of Barrow was elated that you and Piper visited,” the person wrote. 
 
 "The emails detail a Governor hard at work. Everyone should read them." 
 
 Update, 9: 05 a.m.: 
 
 This from the Palin camp: 
 
 Statement on email release by Tim Crawford, Sarah PAC Treasurer. 
 
 "The thousands upon thousands of emails released today show a very engaged Governor Sarah Palin being the CEO of her state. The emails detail a Governor hard at work. Everyone should read them." 
 
 Released 
 
 From Sean Cockerham in Juneau, 9:02 a.m. -- 
 
 We picked up our set of the documents and are headed to the airport. The whole things seems to be going off without a hitch so far. 
 
 Palin emails to be released this morning 
 
 Original post: 
 
 From Sean Cockerham in Juneau, 7:19 a.m. -- 
 
 In less than two hours the state will be handing over 24,199 printed pages of emails that Sarah Palin sent or received as governor, a massive trove that has the potential to give insight into how she governed Alaska before vaulting to celebrity. 
 
 I’m in Juneau to pick up the boxes of emails being released under public records requests made by more than a dozen media outlets, including the ADN. The document release has attracted intense media attention, with network television crews and reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and other outlets descending on Juneau to pick up their boxes. 
 
 Media organizations are recruiting volunteers from the public to help them sort through the enormous stack of emails, and going to convoluted lengths to figure out how to get them all scanned and posted up on their websites ASAP. 
 
 We're inviting readers to share what they're finding newsworthy or interesting (or not) as they read the documents later today. Let us know what you're seeing that's interesting at emails@adn.com 
 
 It’s not clear just what all this effort is going to reveal. The emails being released cover from when Palin took office at the end of 2006 until the end of September 2008, the heat of the vice presidential campaign. What they don’t cover are the tumultuous final months of Palin’s term, when she returned to Alaska after the McCain-Palin loss until her abrupt resignation in July 2009. 
 
 Other records requests have been filed for those emails, the state isn’t saying when they’ll be released. 
 
 The state is withholding more than 2,000 pages of Palin’s 2006-2008 emails, having deemed them private, personal or otherwise exempt from Alaska’s public disclosure law. The state’s lawyers made recommendations for what to withhold and the final decision was made by the governor’s office, which includes holdovers from the Palin administration. A set of the emails to be released was also previously sent for review to Palin’s lawyer, John Tiemessen of Fairbanks. The state says the Palin team made no requests to redact or withhold any of those records. 
 
 It’s also questionable if the state even has all of Palin’s emails. Palin did state business using her private yahoo account. The state has sought to retrieve those records, but it’s not clear how many of them remain outside of the public’s view. 
 
 But with Palin coming off her East Coast bus tour and flirting with the idea of running for president, the interest is enormous in whatever she had to say. For Alaskans, the release also has the potential of giving insight into how their governor and state government did the public’s work. 
 
 Our plan is to get our six boxes of emails as soon as they are released and use a hand truck to bring them to the Juneau airport. I’ll start going through them while waiting for the next flight to Anchorage, scheduled to leave at 12:20 p.m. 
 
 I’ll try to blog and post photos of what I see, although I’ll only be able to get a taste of what’s in the emails before we need to check the boxes for the flight to Anchorage. Once in Anchorage, though, the plan is to have a local document firm scan them into electronic form so we can post them for the public on adn.com starting later in the afternoon. 
 
 We plan to by Saturday have them up in searchable form, allowing readers to narrow their look at the huge email archive into topics, whether they’re interested in how Palin dealt with the oil companies, or what she had to say about specific issues or people during her time as governor. ||||| Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor: Did a Spiral of Silence Shut Down the Story?By 
 
 By Bradford W. Scharlott, Ph.D. Northern Kentucky University Media Matters for America, a liberal online site that monitors press performance, has steadfastly maintained that the press has no business looking into the rumor that Sarah Palin faked the birth of her fifth child, Trig, in 2008 to cover for her daughter, Bristol – and it has repeatedly commended the U.S. press for doing the right thing by ignoring the rumor. Ten days after McCain named Palin as his running mate, Eric Boehlert wrote in MediaMatters: “We haven't seen the name of one reporter who pressured the McCain campaign about Palin's pregnancy.” The following January Boehlert wrote that while reporters heard the rumor of the fake birth immediately after Palin was nominated, in the 48 hours after the nomination the press “did not touch the story”; and after that the press only mentioned it in passing because the McCain campaign brought it up, revealing Bristol’s then-current pregnancy as a way to rebut the “smears.” And then last July Boehlert defended the U.S. press again after Palin on Facebook asserted that the press had pushed the fake pregnancy story. Palin, he wrote, had no grounds for complaint, “Because back in 2008, 99 percent of people in ‘the media’ did the right thing and ignored the Trig nonsense.”1 What Boehlert wrote about mainstream press performance in 2008 concerning Trig’s birth applies to the time since then, also. A database search of articles in more than 40 leading newspapers showed that the U.S. press has almost entirely treated the question of Trig’s maternity as a taboo subject. But it’s fair to ask if the U.S. press should have treated the fake pregnancy rumor as untouchable, both in 2008 and up to the present day. After all, if there seemed to be any real chance that the rumor was true, that might mean that a candidate for the vice presidency had staged a hoax 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 about the birth of a Down syndrome child and then used that birth to promote her political career. This article looks at what American journalists knew, and when they knew it, concerning the fake birth rumor – and it finds there was insufficient evidence for the press to conclude that Palin was telling the truth about Trig. The article then looks at what factors may have caused the press to give Palin more deference than she was due, and how journalists might have reacted differently. Finally, the article considers how the spiral of silence theory casts light on press performance relative to the Trig hoax rumor and, relatedly, the Obama fake birth-certificate rumor. Palin and the Fake Birth Rumor in 2008 Sarah Palin and her husband Todd attended a meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Texas in April of 2008, but rather than stay through the end, they left after Sarah gave the keynote speech around 1 p.m., April 17, and caught a flight to Anchorage, which had a layover in Seattle. The total travel time for the two legs of the flight plus layover plus car ride from the Anchorage airport to Palmer was more than 10 hours.2 The next day, a crew from KTUU-TV showed up at the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer, close to the Palins’ home in Wasilla, after receiving a tip that Palin had given birth. The crew taped Chuck and Sallie Heath, Palin’s parents, in a hallway holding an infant that Chuck said was their new grandchild, Trig. No other media were present. Sarah Palin did not appear. The baby apparently arrived a month earlier than Palin had said it was due.3 On that same day, Palin’s office sent out a press release saying: 
 
 Governor Sarah Palin and her husband Todd welcomed the arrival of their fifth child this morning. The Palins were thankful that the Governor’s labor began yesterday while she was in Texas at the Governor's Energy Conference where she gave the keynote luncheon address, but let up enough for her to travel on Alaska Airlines back to Alaska in time to deliver her second son. …4 
 
 The press release did not mention where the birth took place. The Mat-Su hospital did not list Trig Palin among the babies born that day, nor apparently has any official of the hospital ever publicly said a word about the birth of the baby.5 However, a story that appeared in the Anchorage Daily News four days later, which presumably relied on Palin’s account, said Sarah and Todd 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 “landed in Anchorage around 10:30 p.m. Thursday and an hour later were at the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Wasilla. [Cathy] Baldwin-Johnson [Palin’s personal physician] said she had to induce labor, and the baby didn't come until 6:30 a.m. Friday.”6 It should be noted that soon after Palin gave her speech in Texas, Todd e-mailed three of Palin’s aides, saying her speech “kicked ass” but remarkably said nothing about the pregnancy or the hastily arranged return trip, and that airline personnel said they did not notice that Palin was pregnant on her flight back.7 Palin returned to work three days after the purported birth and held a press conference. A reporter there asked if her water broke in Texas. When Palin balked at the question, the reporter said Chuck Heath, Palin’s father, had said that, and then Palin seemed uncertain how to answer: “So that was again, if, if I must get personal, technical about this at the same time, um, it was one, uh, it was a sign that I knew, um, could lead to, uh, labor being, uh, kind of kicked in there, was any kind of, um, amniotic leaking, amniotic fluid leaking, so when, when that happened we decided let’s call her [“her” being Dr. Baldwin-Johnson, Palin’s physician].” 8 Palin thus seemingly confirmed that her water broke in Texas, although her answer was sufficiently muddled that one might argue otherwise. In any event, KTUU reported that Palin’s water indeed broke in Texas, and if that is true, then it’s also true that she waited some 20 hours before going to a medical facility. Palin later recounted in her book “Going Rogue” how at 4 a.m., “a strange sensation low in my belly woke me ” (neither confirming nor rebutting the broken-water idea), and how she, over the course of the next 24-plus hours, gave a speech at the conference, then returned to Alaska and finally gave birth at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center to a premature baby that she already knew had Down syndrome.9 The Mat-Su medical facility, it should be noted, lacks a prenatal intensive-care unit, which would make it a less-than-ideal choice for the delivery of a premature baby with complications. Also, the Palins passed several hospitals in Texas and Anchorage equipped with prenatal ICUs in 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 their trip to Palmer. (In 2005, Palin was a board member of Valley Hospital Association, which runs the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.)10 After McCain named Palin as his running mate on August 28, at least a few posters at Internet sites almost immediately began saying that Bristol, Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, was really Trig’s mother. The post that made the biggest splash appeared at the popular left-leaning Daily Kos blog site, where “ArcXIX” wrote on August 28: “Well, Sarah, I'm calling you a liar. And not even a good one. Trig Paxson Van Palin is not your son. He is your grandson.”11 In that post, the author quoted an Anchorage Daily News article written by Wesley Loy on March 6: 
 
 JUNEAU -- Gov. Sarah Palin shocked and awed just about everybody around the Capitol on Wednesday when she announced she's expecting her fifth child. … Palin said she's already about seven months along, with the baby due to arrive in midMay. That the pregnancy is so advanced astonished all who heard the news. The governor … simply doesn't look pregnant. [Italics added.] Even close members of her staff said they only learned this week their boss was expecting. … 
 
 (Interestingly, Palin had announced she was pregnant the day after McCain clinched the Republican nomination. Palin had already been mentioned as a potential choice for the VP slot on the ticket.)12 As noted, the mainstream press essentially ignored the allegation that Sarah Palin was not Trig’s mother. An exception was the largest paper in her home state, the Anchorage Daily News. On August 31, reporter Kyle Hopkins, in a story with the headline “Rumor Patrol – Baby Drama,” wrote: 
 
 OK - the Palin baby speculation is inescapable at this point. The left-leaning Daily Kos posted an item Friday called "Palin's fake ‘pregnancy’? Covering for teen daughter?" It's a version of a rumor - long simmering in Alaska -- that Palin's daughter Bristol was pregnant and the governor somehow covered it up by pretending to have the baby (Trig) herself. 
 
 Hopkins thus made clear that many Alaskans already had heard the fake birth rumor. And the next line of his story quoted a poster at the liberal Huffington Post as saying, "Guys, it’s a loser. Can we not do this?" – the point being whether the rumor was true or not, Democrats would 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 probably hurt themselves by pursuing it. Apparently, ArcXIX reached the same conclusion. In an August 31 update to the original story, she (or he) wrote that despite the strong circumstantial evidence that Palin faked the birth, an Juneau-based newsman, Gregg Erickson, had written to her that, “The press did a pretty good job of following up on the substitute child rumor. It proved baseless.” Therefore, she wrote: “I think it's fair to say that if he says the rumors were investigated and debunked, that should be that. …” – an about-face that seemed more tactical than heartfelt. (I later contacted Erickson myself to ask if the press had truly debunked the rumor. He did not directly answer that question but suggested I contact reporter Wesley Loy, who had investigated the matter; I tried to but got no response.) Even though the mainstream press in the lower 48 ignored the birth-hoax rumor, the McCain campaign felt a need to respond. Therefore the campaign chose to reveal on September 1 that Bristol was pregnant, alleging that she was in her fifth month – and thus, the logic went, she could not be the mother of Trig, who was allegedly born on April 18.13 A couple of things should be pointed out about the campaign’s strategy for responding to the birth rumor: 1. It seemed strange and needless. A birth certificate would have settled the matter, as would a statement from the hospital or from the doctor who delivered the child. And if Bristol’s pregnancy had already remained a private matter for several months, why subject her to the embarrassment of having it revealed at the Republican National Convention in front of the national media? 2. The validity of the logic that Bristol could not have been Trig’s mother depended on two unsupported suppositions – first, that Bristol was indeed five months pregnant at the convention, and second, that Trig was in fact born on April 18. Concerning Trig’s date of birth, the Mat-Su hospital will not confirm whether Trig was born there, let alone when. (Blogger Andrew Sullivan called the hospital and was told there would be no comment regarding Trig Palin.)14 And no evidence was offered concerning Bristol’s stage of pregnancy. Thus, if Trig was born, say, in 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 January, and if Bristol was only four months pregnant at the convention, not five as alleged, then the logic of the argument that she could not be Trig’s mother falls apart. (Bristol’s whereabouts in the year before the Republican National Convention will not be addressed here. Suffice it to say that she was out of school and public view for long stretches of time, for reasons Palin has chosen not to share publicly.) Quite arguably, the oddness of the McCain campaign’s response to the fake birth rumors should have caused reporters, ostensibly skeptical by training and nature, to wonder if something was amiss. This is not to say the press should have referred to Trig as Palin’s “alleged” fifth child in 2008. One might assume that, even if Bristol had been the birth mother, Sarah Palin had effectively become the child’s mother. However, if journalists had serious questions about whether the fake birth rumor might be true – and they should have – then the press was under no obligation to accept unproven claims as established fact. But that is exactly what happened at many top-tier news organizations. On September 8, a highly flattering article titled “Fusing Politics and Motherhood in a New Way” in the New York Times said: “She traveled to Texas a month before her due date to give an important speech, delivering it even though her amniotic fluid was leaking.” Then, continued the article, after giving birth and returning to work, “with Trig in her arms, Ms. Palin has risen higher than ever.” Palin had declined to be interviewed for the story, so the reporters (there were three) must have gotten the leaking-fluid tale from a published news story. They portrayed in a favorable light the improbable notion that she gave a speech several hours after her water broke, as if that were evidence of her toughness and grit. The Washington Post, on September 7, 2008, in a flattering piece titled “Palin’s Family Has Always Held a Place in Her Politics,” wrote: “The April birth of Trig, Norse for ‘brave victory,’ turned out to be a powerful credential for the national Republican base, delighted that Palin delivered a child who tests foretold had Down syndrome.” And the Philadelphia Enquirer, on October 22, 2008, in an article titled “It’s Supermom! Or 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 Is It?” wrote, “Palin's decision to chase the vice presidency even as she gave birth to a son with Down syndrome seems naive …” – the article’s point being it may be unrealistic for any woman to try to be a great mother and a great politician simultaneously but giving Palin credit for trying. The idea that Palin knew in advance that she was carrying a Down syndrome baby and chose to give birth rather than abort, which stories like those above amplified, helped launch her into the stratosphere of popularity with the right-to-life wing of the Republican party. And Palin seemed fully cognizant of how powerful a symbol Trig was, because she took him with her throughout the campaign and almost invariably displayed him on stage with her. During the campaign, Palin had promised the press that she would release her medical records. The evening of November 3, the day before voting began, the McCain campaign released a page-and-a-half-long letter signed by Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson regarding Palin’s health. A section on Trig’s birth read: 
 
 … She followed the normal and recommended schedule for prenatal care, including followup perinatology evaluations to ensure there was no significant congenital heart disease or other condition of the baby that would preclude delivery at her home community hospital. This child, Trig, was born at 35 weeks in good health. …15 
 
 Four things stand out about this statement: 1. While suggesting that the birth might have taken place at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center (Palin’s “home community hospital”), by using a tortuous circumlocution the doctor manages to avoid saying exactly where, or when, the baby was born. 2. Palin had said in a press conference in April that Dr. Baldwin-Johnson had delivered Trig, and the doctor’s own comments to the press suggested the same (even though she is a family practitioner, not an obstetrician). But in the statement above the doctor uses the passive voice to describe the birth (“This child, Trig, was born …”), thus avoiding saying who delivered the baby; it’s not clear from the statement that the doctor was even present. 3. Nothing in the doctor’s account of Palin’s pre-delivery medical care suggests that the 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 doctor was personally involved or had first-hand knowledge; in other words, it’s possible that she was simply copying information from Palin’s file, which Palin could have related to her during an office visit. 4. The timing of the release of the statement ensured that reporters would have no chance to ask follow-up questions before Election Day; and afterwards, Palin and the doctor could decline to answer questions since Palin would no longer be a candidate. The doctor seemingly has refused to talk to the press since issuing the statement. This last-minute statement by Baldwin-Johnson did not prove that Sarah Palin is Trig’s biological mother. If anything, its roundabout wording and use of the passive voice raise the question as to whether its purpose was more to mislead than clarify. But if reporters for the mainstream press found anything dubious about this medical statement, they did not say so in print. Palin and the Fake Birth Rumor Since the 2008 Election After the election, press scrutiny of Palin understandably became less intense. The question of Trig’s maternity arguably was no longer an issue in which the press outside of Alaska should take much interest – although Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic, who pursued the baby hoax vigorously early on, argued otherwise in his very popular political blog, The Dish, and he continued to raise the question for many months after the election. (Sullivan, in fact, began a running tally of what he calls The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin, which recently stood at 49.)16 And after she resigned as governor of Alaska on July 3, 2009, perhaps interest in the Trig maternity question in her home state declined as well. But a strong counter-argument to the idea that the fake birth story is now irrelevant is that Palin continues to say she may declare herself a candidate for the upcoming presidential election, and she is still popular enough to be a potent force in the election. So the question is important because, if Palin has lied about the pregnancy, it says a lot about her character, her fitness for the presidency, and maybe even her mental health. Because the stage of Bristol’s pregnancy during the Republican National Convention 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 mattered in rebutting the Trig hoax story, the date of Tripp’s arrival deserves attention. To cut to the chase on this pregnancy, People magazine, quoting a great-aunt in Seattle – who said she got the news in an email from Palin’s father, Chuck Heath – reported on its website that Bristol gave birth to Tripp on December 28, then later changed the date to December 27 for its print issue.17 The great-aunt’s report in People was the only contemporaneous account the press would receive about Tripp’s birth, and while that story said the baby was born in Palmer, no hospital was named. The Mat-Su Regional Medical Center is in Palmer, so the implication was that Tripp was born there. But the Associated Press called the Mat-Su medical center and was told there would be no comment regarding Tripp.18 The hospital of birth would not be identified in subsequent press reports, nor would pictures of the newborn appear in the media, and nobody outside the family saw the baby until seven weeks after his birth, as far as press reports reveal. Governor Palin’s office at first declined to comment on the birth – "This office will not be issuing any statements on [Bristol's baby]. We’re here to talk about state government and that matter falls outside of that," Bill McAllister, Palin’s director of communications, told People on December 29. But on January 2, two days after the magazine’s story appeared, Palin’s office issued a statement quoting Sarah Palin as saying, “We are over the moon with the arrival of this healthy, beautiful baby,” and commenting on Bristol and Levi’s prospects in raising the child. McAllister, in that press release, said this about the delay: “The governor’s office previously declined to comment to honor the family’s wishes that the event remain as private as possible. However, the high volume of press inquiries, along with some erroneous information that was published, prompted the governor to make a statement.”19 The press release did not mention a hospital or even city as the place of birth, which would have seemed like a significant oversight if the governor’s office had made the original birth announcement. But coming two days after the People magazine “announcement,” the press made no comment about it. It seems odd to read that Sarah Palin was concerned about Bristol and Levi’s privacy, since Palin choose to reveal Bristol’s pregnancy to the nation during the Republican National 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 Convention. One might have expected her to trumpet the birth immediately, because a December birth was “proof” (in the logic of the McCain campaign) that Bristol could not be the mother of Trig. One might think that Palin, a master of publicity, would have seen the advantage of getting some newborn pictures of Tripp to the press right away, unless perhaps the baby was not born on the date given, or had arrived prematurely, or maybe was not born to Bristol at all (as some extremely distrustful Palin-watchers outside the mainstream media suggested).20 Tripp was the second Palin baby born within a year for whose birth no hospital can definitely be identified and about whose birth there seems to be a surprising lack any verifiable information. In Tripp’s case, the oddness is striking of having a great-aunt living hundreds of miles away make the birth announcement to a celebrity-oriented magazine. (Why were the Alaska media bypassed?) But if journalists found these things strange, no mention of it appeared in the mainstream press. As noted, the poster ArcXIX at the Daily Kos said the press had “debunked” the fake birth story in 2008, although that conclusion seemed unwarranted. However, after the election, the Anchorage Daily News decided the time had come do just that – debunk the rumor. Executive editor Pat Dougherty assigned reporter Lisa Demer the task of putting the baby hoax story to rest by obtaining indisputable proof of the birth from Sarah Palin’s office or from her physician, Dr. Baldwin-Johnson. Demer hit a brick wall – no one would provide the evidence she sought. Furthermore, Palin fired off a furious e-mail to Doughterty, who posted the contents of her e-mail, along with his response, in his Editor’s Blog of January 12, 2009. Palin’s e-mail first complained about some coverage issues relating to Levi Johnston (her supposed soon-to-be son-in-law) and his mother, and then she wrote: “And is your paper really still pursuing the sensational lie that I am not Trig's mother? Is it true you have a reporter still bothering my state office, my very busy doctor (who's already set the record straight for you), and the school district, in pursuit of your ridiculous conspiracy. ...” Dougherty responded: 
 
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 You may have been too busy with the campaign to notice, but the Daily News has, from the beginning, dismissed the conspiracy theories about Trig's birth as nonsense. … In fact, my integrity and the integrity of the newspaper have been repeatedly attacked in national forums for our complicity in the "coverup.” 
 
 He then assures Palin that he has always considered the conspiracy theories “nutty nonsense,” then asks rhetorically, Why has Lisa Demer been investigating Trig's birth? 
 
 Because we have been amazed by the widespread and enduring quality of these rumors. I finally decided, after watching this go on unabated for months, to let a reporter try to do a story about the "conspiracy theory that would not die" and, possibly, report the facts of Trig's birth thoroughly enough to kill the nonsense once and for all. 
 
 Dougherty then notes that Demer had received no cooperation in getting any information from Palin’s side to quash the rumors, and that therefore the story was shelved. He concludes: 
 
 Even the birth of your grandson may not dissuade the Trig conspiracy theorists from their beliefs. It strikes me that if there is never a clear, contemporaneous public record of what transpired with Trig's birth, that may actually ensure that the conspiracy theory never dies. Time will tell. 
 
 Dougherty wrote that Palin never responded to his e-mail.21 Why the Press Treated the Fake Birth Rumor as Taboo The way almost all U.S. journalists unquestioningly accepted Palin’s claims regarding Trig’s birth is puzzling. The McCain campaign’s odd response to the fake birth rumor should have been a giant red flag that something deceptive possibly had happened. After all, providing a birth certificate (for example) would have instantly settled the matter and made it unnecessary to throw Bristol under the bus, just to provide a complicated argument that supposedly proved Sarah was the mother. So what would a skeptical, truth-seeking press corps have done after the McCain campaign told the world that Bristol was pregnant to rebut the hoax rumor? For starters, the press would not have repeated as fact Palin’s incredible claims relating to the birth, such giving a speech several hours after her water broke. Beyond that, organizations with significant resources could have put reporters on the birth hoax story itself. As noted above, Boehlert of MediaMatters said ten days after Palin’s selection that he had heard of no reporters who had “pressured the McCain campaign 
 
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 about Palin's pregnancy.” Why not? Isn’t that what reporters are supposed to do when facing facts that seem fishy? The McCain campaign never put Palin in an open press conference – something unprecedented for a vice presidential candidate in modern U.S. political history – so she was shielded from direct questions about the birth hoax. But journalists in editorials and columns could have raised questions about the hoax rumor – or more to the point, about Palin’s truthfulness and judgment in relation to the rumor – and then a failure by Palin and the McCain campaign to address those questions would have been noteworthy itself. And, likewise, why didn’t any journalists try to interview Dr. Baldwin-Johnson, Palin’s physician? (Or if they did and she refused, why wasn’t that noted?) A story in the Anchorage Daily News quoted her as essentially telling Palin there was no reason she could not fly back to Alaska after labor had commenced – whereas Andrew Sullivan wrote that leading obstetricians he interviewed characterized Palin’s behavior in allegedly doing so as “reckless beyond measure.”22 It seems several things about the circumstances of this particular hoax rumor caused reporters to suspend their normal reporting reflexes. Here are five possible factors: 1. The view that it was unbelievable such a hoax could happen, especially given that a far-fetched Obama birth hoax rumor had recently surfaced. Colin McMahon of the Chicago Tribune, on December 6, 2008, in a story headlined “Internet rumors about two births just won't die,” wrote one of the few stories that appeared in the U.S. press that dealt with the fake birth rumor. In this story, he equated people who believe the Trig hoax rumor to “birthers” who embrace the claim Obama was born outside the United States. Neither rumor made good sense, he suggested, because it would take “a lot of people telling a lot of lies … from state bureaucrats to medical staff to friends and family of Palin and Obama,” to pull off such a hoax. In other words, McMahon suggested, the odds against such a large-scale conspiracy working is a reason the Trig hoax almost certainly did not happened. But would a large-scale conspiracy 
 
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 truly be needed? For example, as noted, Palin’s staff expressed surprise along with everyone else when Palin announced she was seven months pregnant. After that until she allegedly gave birth, she generally wore a coat, even when indoors, with a big flowing scarf in front. The N.Y. Times article cited above said Palin “began an elaborate game of fashion-assisted camouflage,” using scarves to hide her pregnancy, but they just as easily could have disguised a lack of pregnancy. Thus, contrary to what McMahon suggested, there need not have been a conspiracy involving Palin’s staff for a birth hoax to work. Or, to take a hypothetical, if on April 18, 2008, an infant had been surreptitiously brought into the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and handed over to Chuck Heath to later show off to KTUU-TV in a hallway, no one at the hospital needed to be involved. As to what may or may not have happened to Sarah Palin at the Mat-Su medical center that day, federal law prevents the hospital from saying a word without Palin’s permission – but presumably (another hypothetical here), as governor and a former hospital board member, Palin could have obtained a room the night before and then demanded, and received, absolute privacy – and in that case, again, nobody employed by the hospital needed to be involved in any conspiracy. (Dr. Baldwin-Johnson does not work at the hospital.) About a year after that story ran, I contacted McMahon by email and asked him if he still believed that Palin was Trig’s mother. He said yes, and he cited Tripp’s birth the previous December as strong evidence that Palin had told the truth. Many journalists who have not closely examined the facts surrounding the birth hoax rumor probably view the matter the same way. 2. The likelihood that one might be ridiculed or attacked for even bringing up the fake birth rumor. Palin and her supporters have consistently suggested that raising the question of the birth hoax is outrageous or even the mark of a deranged conspiracy theorist. For example, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin wrote on December 5, 2008: “Did you know that Sarah Palin-haters are still trying to prove she didn’t give birth to her youngest son, Trig? These tinfoil hat-wearers are as obnoxious and unhinged as the 9/11 Truth cultists who insist that America engineered the jihadi 
 
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 attacks on itself.” 23 Andrew Sullivan has been the object of many slings and arrows over Trig questions he has raised. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, on September 24, 2008, in the only major newspaper column devoted to the birth hoax rumor, noted that the McCain campaign (clearly in an effort to embarrass Sullivan) had forwarded to the Post questions that Sullivan had privately sent to the campaign seeking proof that Trig was Palin’s son. A McCain spokesman told Kurtz that Sullivan’s e-mails showed “the insanity that this campaign has had to put up with." (The campaign did not respond to Sullivan.) To his credit, Kurtz asked why Palin’s hospital records had not been produced, as Sullivan had requested, and the spokesman said: “We believe that a candidate should be able to preserve some privacy in this process.” Kurtz went on to note harsh criticism Sullivan had received, such as Jonathan Last of The Weekly Standard calling Sullivan’s request for proof of Trig’s maternity “a disgrace for the magazine [The Atlantic] and everyone associated with it.” 24 3. The appearance of two photos after her nomination showing a very pregnant-looking Palin. Here are two photos that were made public when “erik09559” posted them to Flickr on August 31, 2008, two days after ArcXIX accused Palin of carrying out a hoax:25 
 
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 The two pictures were taken within minutes of each other (revealed by the photos’ metadata that appeared on Flickr) on April 13, 2008, five days before Palin’s alleged delivery of Trig. In the first photo, Palin is shown standing to the left of KTUU-TV newsman Bill McAllister, who coincidentally would become her director of communications in July. (The other person is KTUU-TV cameraman Dan Carpenter.) In the other picture Palin is being interviewed by KTVATV reporter Andrea Gusty. These pictures show Palin looking far more pregnant than any others. (Indeed, her appearance in these two pictures essentially contradicts what Palin and reporters had said earlier in the year, which was that she “did not get big” in her pregnancy with Trig.26) Researchers for FactCheck.org of the Annenberg School of Communication called Andrea Gusty to determine if the second photo was real. On September 16, 2008, they reported that Gusty said she was “surprised” the photo had made it onto the Internet, adding, “I was under the impression that nobody had it except for me.” Gusty went on to say that the photo had been taken while she interviewed Palin in April and had not been altered, and she added that she was sure Palin had given birth to Trig. The FactCheck report did not say who had taken the photo or who 
 
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 “eric09559” is.27 That Flickr account disappeared around April 2009; the two photos of the very pregnant-looking Palin were apparently the only photos ever posted to the account.28 The appearance of the Gusty-interview picture on the internet killed speculation at various sites that Palin had faked the pregnancy and perhaps saved her place on the ticket.29 It should be noted that some other photos from the spring appeared to show a remarkably thin Palin. For example, here is a photo taken at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau on March 26, about three weeks before the alleged birth, and also posted on Flickr: 
 
 Now here is the same photo after I lightened it in Photoshop: 
 
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 Palin was at the museum to sign a bill, and photographs of the event showed that she left that heavy coat on throughout. But in an unguarded moment, when a woman asked to photograph the governor with her daughter, Palin allowed her coat to open. Palin appears to be wearing some sort of pad strapped around her midsection; her lower belly, where a fetus would normally reside, seems flat.30 Also, here is a photo of Palin on March 14, about a week after she announced she was seven months pregnant. (The photo appeared in the Anchorage Daily News.) 31 
 
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 Now here is the same photo after I lightened it and adjusted the contrast in Photoshop: 
 
 Even though Palin was wearing her scarf “disguise,” the photograph shows a extremely flat 
 
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 stomach. This Anchorage Daily News photo, whose authenticity is beyond dispute, shows a very un-pregnant-looking Palin. A trim woman simply can’t hide a fetus in her seventh month of pregnancy, and Palin in no way looks four and a half weeks away from giving birth to a 6 pound baby. To state the obvious, an un-pregnant woman can make herself appear pregnant; a very pregnant woman cannot make the physical mass of a fetus in her lower belly disappear. 4. The idea that, if true, the deception was an understandable, maybe even a commendable act on Palin’s part. At least a few journalists in a left-leaning online chat group call JournoList seemed sympathetic in late August 2008 to Palin’s dilemma if she truly had covered for Bristol’s pregnancy. One wrote: “Palin would not be a liar or hypocrite even if this [fake birth rumor] were true. Talmud instructs lies are sometimes permissible in difficult family circumstances. … This [alleged hoax] is obviously way out of bounds.” In the same vein, another poster wrote, “what I see – if Trig is indeed her grandchild – is a strong woman trying to protect her family.” 32 (Ezra Klein of the Washington Post ran JournoList, a private Google Groups forum, for about three years before shutting it down in mid-2010 after comments posted in the forum were leaked to the public. The leaked posts concerning Trig’s birth appeared in the forum from August 29 to September 1, 2008.)33 5. The idea that the birth hoax rumor involved children who might be hurt by revealing the truth. Another poster at JournoList wrote that if the birth hoax rumor were true and was exposed, “It might hurt Palin politically … It would certainly hurt the actual mother, and the child.” Therefore, he concluded, “it would be wrong to reveal the deception even if the evidence were in hand. … So this story desperately needs a good leaving-alone.” Some other posters agreed with this view. For all these reasons, and perhaps others, many journalists decided that pursuing the fake birth rumor was not a good thing to do. But I would point to the first principle listed in the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics: Seek truth and report it. Of course, a balancing of values 
 
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 often must take place, and the second principle is: Minimize harm.34 The item above, relating to the interests of the children involved (Bristol and Trig), deserves consideration. The public’s interest in knowing about the truthfulness of Palin should have trumped speculation by journalists as to what may have been in the children’s best interests. As one poster at JournoList pointed out, if Trig was Bristol’s child, journalists were in no position to know whether or not she had been forced to relinquished her parental rights in Trig. It is worth remembering that the executive editor of the Anchorage Daily News publicly confronted Palin in January 2009 with the fact that no “clear, contemporaneous public record” of the birth had surfaced; but the nation’s press (or at least those paying attention) chose to overlook this glaring lack of evidence. Nothing could be simpler for Palin than proving she is Trig’s mother, if she really is – yet she has failed to produce a birth certificate, any bona fide medical record, or any other real evidence. It is beyond the scope of this article to try to resolve the question of Trig’s parentage. The purpose here is to show that a diligent reporter could not conclude with certainty that Palin was telling the truth and thus should not have treated her incredible story as beyond scrutiny. With very few exceptions, members of the press in the United States have failed to show appropriate skepticism about Palin’s unproven claim that she is the birth mother of Trig, a claim she has used to turbo-charge her career. As Andrew Sullivan, who grew up in Britain but now lives in America, put it: “Maybe we have witnessed one of the biggest frauds in American political history and the biggest failures among the American media in a very, very long time.” 35 The Birth Hoax Rumor and the Spiral of Silence Theory Christopher Hitchens, a well-known British author, wrote the following in February 2010 in his Washington Notebook column for The Spectator, a British newspaper: “An astonishing number of well-informed people tell me that Sarah Palin is not in fact the mother of baby Trig, but that she is ‘covering up’ for another family member whose child he really is.” 36 
 
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 If, for the sake of argument, we generalize from Hitchens’ observation and say that many well-informed Americans share that view, then the curious thing is that this view about a highly prominent political figure, which if true speaks volumes about her honesty and maybe even her mental health, is virtually a taboo subject in U.S. mass media. The sole prominent writer who has been willing to broach the subject of Trig’s maternity skeptically and repeatedly is the blogger Andrew Sullivan. I strongly suspect that, as Hitchens’ observation would imply, many among America’s welleducated citizens believe Palin has lied about Trig’s birth. After all, the main points I recount above are well known: that Palin claims (sort of) that her water broke and labor started in Texas but that she gave a speech, flew thousands of miles and finally more than 20 hours later went to a small regional hospital in Alaska ill-equipped for a premature birth (thus recklessly endangering the life of the baby by waiting so long); that instead of producing a birth certificate when confronted with rumors of faking the birth, she (needlessly, if she is the real mother) outed her daughter’s current pregnancy at the Republican Nation Convention; and that she has steadfastly refused to produce documentary proof she is the mother despite repeated requests from Andrew Sullivan and also a plea from the top editor of the Anchorage Daily News. While none of that proves she is not Trig’s mother, I would argue that those facts, plus a host of others recounted above, make it unlikely she truly is. By contrast, the rumor that Barack Obama was not born on American soil and thus is not eligible to be president is not a taboo subject at all in U.S. media. The rumor originated during his primary race against Hillary Clinton, and has been reported on frequently since then, even though authorities such as the U.S. Supreme Court and the state of Hawaii agree Obama has proved his citizenship.37 A search of the Newspaper Source database shows 121 newspaper articles since January of 2008 dealing with Obama’s birth certificate.38 The same database over the same period shows just three newspaper articles dealing with Palin’s alleged birth hoax. The alleged Obama and Palin hoaxes are not perfectly comparable, but they are roughly so. 
 
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 As the current president, Barack Obama receives more media attention than any other politician in the United States. But since August 2008, Palin must surely be the second-most reported on politician in the country. Her book tours, reality show, provocative comments in social media, and role as a commentator on Fox have kept her in the limelight. So one could not say the lack of coverage of the Trig rumor derives from a lack of interest in Palin herself. What can explain the extraordinary difference in the coverage of the two alleged hoaxes? A key factor, perhaps, is that a “spiral of silence” may have kicked in with regard to Palin’s fake birth rumor but not Obama’s alleged fake birth certificate. A quick review of the spiral of silence theory: individuals who sense that their views are outside of what the mainstream of society considers acceptable will censor themselves, so as to not be subject to scorn or rejection by those in the mainstream. The more individuals who hold a minority view censor themselves, the more outside of the mainstream the minority view will seem – and hence there is a downward spiral of silence until the minority view is virtually extinguished, at least in mainstream mass media.39 It seems clear from Hitchens’ comment above that there are individuals who believe Palin has lied about Trig; indeed, since the fall of 2008, numerous blog sites devoted to exposing Palin’s alleged hoax have appeared. So why has mention of the Palin hoax rumor been practically exterminated in the mainstream U.S. press, while stories on the alleged Obama birth-certificate hoax have been plentiful? I would suggest four reasons for the disparity: 1. Conservative politicians have been willing to boost birther claims by proposing legislation relating to birth certificates, by favorably commenting on the credibility of birther claims, etc., thus generating press coverage. For example, earlier this year a legislator re-introduced the so-called “Birther Bill” in Arizona, which would require all presidential candidates in the state to submit an original birth certificate, a standard which the “certificate of live birth” from Hawaii that Obama shared with the press in 2008 would not meet.40 
 
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 2. Birthers have been aggressive in generating news, such as taking demands for Obama’s original birth certificate to court. The U.S. Supreme Court on March 7 rejected an appeal that likewise had been rejected by lower courts to consider a claim that Obama does not meet constitutional requirements for being president.41 Of course, this action generated news stories. Clearly, someone with deep pockets thinks the legal expense of such actions is justified, perhaps just for the news value since success in the courts is almost inconceivable. 3. Conservatives have made a concerted effort to marginalize people who bring up the Trig hoax rumor, thus trying to set off a spiral of silence. I noted above that Michelle Malkin said in a blog post that people who question whether Palin gave birth to Trig are “tinfoil hat-wearers” who must be “unhinged.” What prompted that post from her was a well-reasoned column by Andrew Sullivan the day before asking for proof relating to Trig’s birth. Did Malkin seriously believe Sullivan was unhinged? Of course not. (A brilliant writer, Sullivan has a doctorate from Harvard.) However, her post was meant to marginalize Sullivan in the eyes of others, and perhaps to let others know they would face similar slurs if they followed in Sullivan’s footsteps. 4. The idea that it is in the best interest of the Palin family to leave the alleged hoax alone. I documented above how liberal journalists at JournoList voiced this idea. It is interesting to speculate on what conservative journalists would have said if a Democratic vice presidential nominee had been in the same position. Figuring out what is or isn’t ultimately true is a precarious business. But I will offer my views here. It seems likely that 1) Sarah Palin staged a hoax concerning the birth of her son Trig; and 2) Barack Obama truly was born in the United States and meets all other constitutional requirements to be president. I recently had the students in my undergraduate classes complete a short survey. Here are four questions and their answers: 
 
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 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 As the tables show, 82.7 percent of the students have heard the rumor Obama was not born in the United States, and (combining the extremely and moderately likely figures) 22.8 percent believe the rumor is likely to be true. (Similarly, a recent CNN national poll found 25 percent of respondents thought Obama was likely born outside the United States.)42 By contrast, only 45.3 percent of the students had heard the Trig hoax rumor, and only about 17.4 percent thought it was likely to be true. In other words, the conservatives who have sought to make the spiral of silence work for them (whether they use that phrase or not), have done a remarkable job. A majority of college 
 
 25 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 students (if mine are typical) have not heard of the Trig hoax rumor, and less than a fifth believe it is true. Meantime, the “birthers” (who tend to be allied with the conservatives) have promoted the Obama hoax rumor to the point that more than four out of five students have heard of it, and more than a fifth think it is true (again, based on my sample). If events ultimately show that Palin did indeed perpetrate a hoax, and that Obama in fact meets all constitutional requirements to be president, then the results of my survey will have revealed a topsy-turvy world: a big lie about Palin will have been made to seem more likely true than a big truth about Obama – a testament to the power of clever media manipulation and perhaps also the efficacy of the spiral of silence phenomenon. 
 
 Postscript This paper is something of a hybrid. The part before the spiral of silence section is journalistic in nature. One cannot find mainstream media reports that try to make sense of the strange facts surrounding the birth of Trig. Therefore, I felt the need to lay out the facts in order to make the case that Palin may have staged a hoax. The section on the spiral of silence is my attempt to use an existing theory to explain the vacuum of information surrounding Trig’s birth. So, in a way, the theory propounded in the last part of the paper helps explain why the first part had to be journalistic – I felt the need to do something U.S. journalists, perhaps themselves caught up in a spiral of silence, have so far failed to do: take a sweeping look at the evidence surrounding the birth hoax rumor and try to make sense of it all. I might add that the spiral of silence phenomenon has certainly been evident in my personal life. I used to avoid telling people my views about the Trig hoax rumor because I have literally been subjected to comments like “Shouldn’t you be wearing a tin hat.” So this paper is an effort to stop the spiral. 
 
 26 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 Eric Boehlert, “We wish The National Enquirer editor would stop lecturing journalists,” http://mediamatters.org/blog/200809110019 (Sept. 11, 2008); Boehlert, “Palin, the press, and her pregnancy,” http://mediamatters.org/columns/200901130015 (Jan. 13, 2009); “Boehlert, Palin's now scolding journalists who didn't write about Trig in 2008?” http://mediamatters.org/blog/201007270015 (July 27, 2010), all at Media Matters for America.com. 
 
 2 
 
 Sarah Palin, Going Rogue: An American Life (HarperCollins, 2009), 193-195; Lisa Demer, “Palins' child diagnosed with Down syndrome,” Anchorage Daily News (April 22, 2008). 
 
 3 
 
 Lori Tipton, “Welcome to Alaska, Trig Paxson Van Palin,” KTUU-TV, http://www.ktuu.com/community/ktuu-welcometoalaskatrigpaxso-8194634,0,5629481.story (April 18, 2008). The last line of this story is: “An unnamed source that is close to the family has said that the early testing revealed Trig Palin has Down Syndrome.” The “unnamed source” is probably the same person who tipped off KTUU to cover this – perhaps KTUU’s own Bill McAllister, who became Palin’s director of communications about three months later. 
 
 4 
 
 Governor Palin has new baby boy – Trig Paxon Van Palin, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fnews/2071657/post (April 18, 2008 ). 
 
 5 
 
 Andrew Sullivan, Births At Mat-Su Medical Center In April 2008, The Atlantic http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/births-at-mat-s.html (Oct. 8, 2008). 
 
 6 
 
 Lisa Demer, “Palins' child diagnosed with Down syndrome,” Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com/2008/04/22/382864/palins-child-diagnosed-with-down.html (April 22, 2008). 
 
 7 
 
 MSNBC Palin Mail Collection, http://crivellawest.net/palin/pdf/1085.pdf (April 17, 2008); the email is shown also in the YouTube video “The Perfidy of Sarah Palin; Chapter 2. The Wild Ride,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZSVMzeR5jU. On airline personnel not noticing the pregnancy, see Lisa Demer, “Palins' child diagnosed with Down syndrome,” Anchorage Daily News, April 18, 2008. 
 
 8 
 
 Audio of the press conference http://tindeck.com/listen/zcnk (April 21, 2008). Sarah Palin, Going Rogue: An American Life (HarperCollins, 2009), 193-195. 
 
 10 
 
 See http://www.matsuregional.com/Services/Pages/Maternity%20Services.aspx, which does not show prenatal ICU as among the maternity services of the hospital. On Palin being a board member, see “Palin vs. Obama: Line by Line Resume Comparison,” http://rootswire.org/conventionblog/palin-vs-obama-line-lineresume-comparison. 
 
 11 
 
 That post is no longer available, but I saved it. Contact me for a pdf. 
 
 SJ Reidhead, “Could Alaska’s ‘Hottie’ Governor Be the GOP’s VP Nominee in 2008?” http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/could-alaskas-hottie-governor-be-the/#ixzz1IJO3QSvt (Aug. 17, 2007). 
 
 12 
 
 Samuel Goldsmith and Clemente Lisi, “PALIN ADMITS HER 17-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER IS PREGNANT,” New York Post (Sept. 1,2008), http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/item_kPSGUCH6gEOaMsnWNrqGQJ#ixzz1IJQZSS00. 
 
 13 
 
 27 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 14 
 
 Andrew Sullivan, “Births At Mat-Su Medical Center In April 2008,” The Atlantic http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/births-at-mat-s.html (Oct. 8, 2008). 
 
 15 
 
 Andrew Malcolm, “Sarah Palin's physician says she's in 'excellent health',” L.A. Times, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/11/polling-places.html (Nov. 3, 2008). 
 
 16 
 
 Andrew Sullivan, “The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin XLIX: Willow's Smacktalk On Facebook, The Atlantic, http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/11/the-odd-lies-of-sarah-palin-xlvix-willowssmacktalk-on-facebook.html (Nov. 26, 2010). See also Sullivan, “Why Palin Still Matters,” http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/why-palin-still.html (Nov. 12, 2008). Lorenzo Benet, “Bristol Palin Welcomes a Son,” People, http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20245389,00.html (Dec. 29, 2008). 
 
 17 
 
 Associated Press, “Palin's daughter gives birth to son named Tripp,” Houston Chronicle, http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6186555.html (Dec. 30, 2008). 
 
 18 
 
 Steven Ertelt, “Sarah Palin Speaks Out on the Birth of Her Grandson Tripp, Teen Pregnancy,” Lifenew.com, http://www.lifenews.com/2009/01/01/state-3730/ (Jan. 1, 2009). 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 Blade, “Did Bristol Palin Fake The Tripp Pregnancy?” Sarah’s Scandals, http://shesnohockeymom.blogspot.com/2010/07/did-bristol-palin-fake-tripp-pregnancy.html (July 24, 2010). My own guess is that Tripp arrived prematurely. Recall that Dr. Baldwin-Johnson said labor was induced in Trig’s case. Could the same thing have happened in Tripp’s case? 
 
 21 
 
 Pat Dougherty, “Full text of the Palin-ADN email exchange,” Anchorage Daily News, http://community.adn.com/adn/node/136523 (Jan. 12, 2009). 
 
 22 
 
 Lisa Demer, “Palins' child diagnosed with Down syndrome,” Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com/2008/04/22/382864/palins-child-diagnosed-with-down.html (April 22, 2008); Andrew Sullivan, “A Fourth Picture,” The Atlantic, http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/12/afourth-pictur.html (Dec. 5, 2008) 
 
 23 
 
 Michelle Malkin, “Truthers to the left of me, truthers to the right,” MichelleMalkin.com, http://michellemalkin.com/2008/12/05/truthers-to-the-left-of-me-truthers-to-the-right/ (Dec. 5, 2008) 
 
 24 
 
 Howard Hurtz, “Baby Talk,” Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/09/24/AR2008092400797.html (Sept. 24, 2008). 
 
 25 
 
 Audrey, “Last day of legislative session- April 13, 2008,” PalinDeception.com, http://www.palindeception.com/calendar/days/041308.html. The photos are shown and described here. 
 
 26 
 
 Lisa Demer, “Palins' child diagnosed with Down syndrome,” Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com/2008/04/22/382864/palins-child-diagnosed-with-down.html (April 22, 2008). Demers writes, “Palin never got big with this pregnancy,” which I believe was her way of signaling skepticism about the pregnancy. Recall that her fellow reporter Wesley Loy wrote that Palin “simply doesn’t look pregnant.” 
 
 27 
 
 Emi Kolawole and Jess Henig, “Muting the Mommy Melodrama,” FactCheck.com, http://www.factcheck.org/2008/09/muting-the-mommy-melodrama/ (Sept. 16, 2008). 
 
 28 
 
 Running head: Palin, the Press, and the Fake Pregnancy Rumor 
 
 28 
 
 Audrey, “Last day of legislative session- April 13, 2008,” PalinDeception.com, http://www.palindeception.com/calendar/days/041308.html. 
 
 29 
 
 Red Pen, “Sarah Palin Baby Story Ender,” The Daily Kos [no longer available] (August 31, 2008). 
 
 30 
 
 Audrey, “The Nail in the Coffin,” http://www.palindeception.com/blog/2008/12/nail-in-coffin.html (Dec. 2, 2008); see also “Alaska State Museum Bill Signing- March 26, 2008,” http://www.palindeception.com/calendar/days/032608.html. 
 
 31 
 
 Audrey, “More on Last Night's Photo; PDF Questions,” PalinDeception.com, http://www.palindeception.com/blog/2008_12_01_archive.html (Dec. 11, 2008). 
 
 32 
 
 “Raw Journolist emails on ‘Palin’s Downs [sic] child,” The Daily Caller, http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/26/raw-journolist-emails-on-palins-downs-child/ (July 27, 2010). 
 
 33 
 
 “JournoList,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JournoList. “SPJ code of Ethics,” Society of Professional Journalists, http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp. 
 
 34 
 
 Andrew Sullivan, “A Fourth Picture,” The Atlantic, http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/12/a-fourth-pictur.html (Dec. 5, 2008). 
 
 35 
 
 36 
 
 Christopher Hitchens, “writing from Washington [...],” Daily Mail, Feb. 4, 2010 p. 19. 
 
 37 
 
 “Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories. 
 
 38 
 
 That database contains complete coverage from more the 40 newspaper, mostly in the United States, plus selective coverage from over 380 smaller newspapers. 
 
 39 
 
 “Spiral of Silence,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence. 
 
 40 
 
 Michael Sheridan, “'Birther Bill' back in Arizona; Rep. Judy Burges pitches birth certificate legislation again,” NY Daily News (Jan. 26, 2011). 
 
 41 
 
 Bill Mears, “High court turns aside another lawsuit questioning Obama citizenship,” CNN, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/07/supreme-court-rejects-appeal-from-birther-advocate/ (March 7, 2011). 
 
 42 
 
 Alexander Mooney, “Trump aide says release of unofficial birth certificate an 'oversight',” CNN, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/29/trump-aide-says-release-of-unofficial-birth-certificate-anoversight/ (March 29, 2011).0 
 
 29
– Sarah Palin is feuding with notoriously outspoken rapper Azealia Banks—and even some of the Alaskan's detractors say this time, she appears to be in the right. Palin has threatened to sue Banks over an NSFW Twitter rant—which was deleted but can be seen here—in which Banks suggests Palin should be gang-raped by black men. Palin tells People that she is suing "on behalf of all reasonable women of every age, race and political leaning." "I've had enough of the unanswered threats and attacks against my family and me," says Palin, who, in an earlier Facebook post, said she would go through her "young daughter's playlist to make sure there hasn't been any inadvertent addition of any anti-woman, pro-rape garbage." Banks appears to have gone on the attack after reading a satirical news article with a fake Palin quote about black people enjoying slavery, USA Today reports. The rapper later "apologized" in a rambling open letter posted on Tumblr. "I want to start this letter off by telling you that I actually, really like you," she said, going on to claim that she had only been kidding, and the language she used referred to group sex, not rape. "Woman to Woman, I hope you will accept my sincerest apology," she concluded, adding: "If Bristol Palin listened to my music she probably wouldn't have all those cotdamn kids!"