McGinniss' book "Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin" comes out Sept. 20, and the claims he makes in the book are raising eyebrows - and tempers - according to the New York Times' Janet Maslin.
On May 22, 2010, Joe McGinniss moved into a strategically well-situated house in Wasilla, Alaska. It was next door to the home of former Gov. Sarah Palin and her family...Mr. McGinniss explains that he was shocked, just shocked, at the angry response his presence in Wasilla provoked. But "The Rogue" makes the Palins' widely publicized anger understandable, even to readers who might have defended his right to set up shop in their neighborhood and soak up the local color. Although most of "The Rogue" is dated, petty and easily available to anyone with Internet access, Mr. McGinniss used his time in Alaska to chase caustic, unsubstantiated gossip about the Palins, often from unnamed sources like "one resident" and "a friend."
And these stories need not be consistent. "The Rogue" suggests that Todd Palin and the young Sarah Heath took drugs. It also says that she lacked boyfriends and was a racist. And it includes this: "A friend says, ‘Sarah and her sisters had a fetish for black guys for a while.' " Mr. McGinniss did in 2011 make a phone call to the former N.B.A. basketball player Glen Rice, who is black, and prompted him to acknowledge having fond memories of Sarah Heath. While Mr. Rice avoids specifics and uses the words "respectful" and "a sweetheart," Mr. McGinniss eggs him on with the kind of flagrantly leading question he seems to have habitually asked. In Mr. Rice's case: "So you never had the feeling she felt bad about having sex with a black guy?"
In addition to claiming that Palin had, ahem, relations with the NBA player, he also questions whether Palin is really Trig's mother. Since I am not a Palin fan, it would be easy for me to just take this all at face value and assume that these accusations are true. Of course, doing that without reading the book would be stupid, but just taking what McGinniss says at face value wouldn't be smart, either. To me, unnamed sources scream "tabloid," and I don't believe in jumping to conclusions on information that doesn't have solid facts to back it up. What do you think about this?
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