Signs of the Apocalypse: Fact-Checking Sarah Palin’s Tweets

And seriously, dude… the interview was from friggin’ 1973. That’s 36 years ago. I think if you’re going to indict a profession you’ve got to come up with an example that’s a little more current. The simple fact is that since that time, 98% of journalism has transformed itself into the abode of two camps: (1) Fox News doctrinaire conservatives who are ideologues first, celebrities second and reporters third, and (2) the CNN/MSNBC crowd who are celebrities first, celebrities second, and celebrity anchors third.

Well, I don’t read Playboy for the articles.

I can guarantee you that in 1973 the only words in Playboy I read were “measurements” before my eyes glazed over and my palms got sweaty.

I did buy the 1980 interview with Lennon for the article, but gave studious attention to the photographic delights that accompanied it.

I replied to her:

@AKGovSarahPalin The Cronkite quote is taken out of context. He clearly differentiates between “liberal” and “left of center.” Shame on you.

and

@AKGovSarahPalin From same interview: “Being a liberal, in the true sense, is being nondoctrinaire, nondogmatic, noncommitted to a cause.”

Tan lines? How gauche.

@mellbell: I noticed the same thing, although I was thinking it was quaint…sort of like Gonzales’ opinion of the Geneva Conventions.

@flippin eck: I noticed the hat…

There used to be a difference between a “liberal bias” and a “democratic bias,” because “liberal” was not necessarily synonymous with “democrat” and “conservative” was not necessarily synonymous with “republican.” Back in those days, you could have a liberal bias, without having a political bias.

This all changed when the North finally got around to finishing the “Reconstruction” of the confederacy, with desegregation in the 50s and the Voting Rights Act in the 60s; at this point, conservative southern democrats, outraged that the northern liberal democrats were empowering their darkies, switched en masse to the republican party, which since has become monolithically devoted to a redefined “conservatism” which consists entirely and completely of reaction to desegregation and civil rights and essentially, the ideals and tenets of the confederacy. The “states rights” to mandate segregation, opposition to “activist judges” who force desegregation, reverence for individual initiative and opposition to welfare, which just encourages them lazy negros to lay around doing crack, getting tough on crimes committed by those crazy darkies, and the right to own guns and even artillery to protect yourself from depredation by criminal blacks.

So nowadays, if you are liberal, or rational, or knowledgeable, or intelligent, or non-racist, you will inevitably also have a political bias against the republican party.

@Nabisco say Relax: Of course, honey, I believe you…

@mellbell: Yes, tan lines, and beneath that shawl or whatever, I bet there is a luxuriant growth of this now-nearly extinct stuff called “pubic hair.” I think she looks much more like an actual woman than the current crop of covergirls, and I would daresay older, too.

@Prommie: I was mostly joking.

Yes, liberal in the same lower case l sense of the word that The Economist refers to itself as a “liberal newspaper.”

Of course, it doesn’t have fun little charts and graphs and slobbering profiles (plus it has those funny British spellings) like Time so she’s probably never read it.

It may be time to buy Playboy for the articles again: they’ve obtained rights to an unpublished Nabokov novel, and will be publishing it in installments.

@Serolf Divad: Speaking of, I am trying not to cockpunch Rick Sanchez when I see him walking down Marietta Street in downtown ATL. I can’t say Hotlanta today because it’s only going to be in the lower 80s. It feels. So. Cold.

@RomeGirl: She’ll have to change that Twitter account name from “AKGovSarahPalin” soon…

And hey, she’s up to 92,299 followers! I didn’t write it down a week ago, but I’m pretty sure that number was 39,000 when the story broke.

@Mistress Cynica: They also had a sneak peek from Ellroy’s third installment of the American Tabloid trilogy.

Bless her heart. She really puts the twit in twitter, doesn’t she?

@Jamie Sommers says take this job & shove it!: Is nojo paying you to come up with tweets for him? You are on a roll, girl.

@Mistress Cynica: If I’ve managed to wait all this time and have still bought an iPhone I guess I can wait till the ‘new’ Nabokov comes out as a book.

@Jamie Sommers says take this job & shove it!: Excellent.

Ah, 70s Playboys, that brings back a lot of good mammaries…

Memories, I meant memories. Great memories. Big memories.

And tan lines still rock.

Is that Angelica Houston on that Playboy cover?

@Jamie Sommers says take this job & shove it!:

Or would that be “…the twat in Twitter”?

Fuck Sully. I sent him a link to our post and the Playboy article two hours ago, and he runs with something else.

Dammit, I stayed up late to get first dibs on that.