HuffPo, gossip columnists caught in another lie against Sarah Palin

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When we reported Wednesday that Sarah Palin visited the Silver Spoon and made a sizable donation to the Red Cross, we warned that "The liberals, as with everything she does, will not be pleased." We were right.

Leftist website Huffington Post and a number of other hateful leftist and gossip sites wasted no time in bearing false witness against former Gov. Palin. This is nothing new; they have been lying about her for the past 18 months. But this whopper was particularly nasty, as the lying lefties took a story about Gov. Palin making a generous contribution to charity and portrayed her as selfish and uncaring.

We were sent a heads up by Andrew Malcolm on the original LA Times story we ran Wednesday. It was written by Matt Donnelly, one of Andrew's blogging colleagues at the Times. When we saw the HuffPo smear job, we told Andrew about it, and his reply simply stated that Donnelly had gotten it right.

Well, of course he did. We never doubted Andrew's word or the report for a second. He's a friend and a fellow blogger who has our trust. We just wanted to let him know that HuffPo was casting dispersion on Donnelly's report. Who are we going to trust -- a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist of sterling character, or an Arianna Huffington website with a history of prevarication? No contest. But the moonbatosphere has gone wild repeating the lie.

Now Melissa Lemer, one of the Silver Spoon's co-owners, has released a statement (PDF) detailing the actual facts of Governor Palin's visit and calling for those websites which spread the false stories to publish retractions immediately and apologize to Gov. Palin, The Silver Spoon and its vendors:

The Silver Spoon, a company owned and operated by women and established with a firm belief in supporting women in business and leadership, invited Governor Sarah Palin and her family to participate in a charitable function sponsored by The Silver Spoon and the Red Cross to support the Red Cross’ disaster relief efforts in Haiti. Governor Palin graciously accepted since it was in support of such a worthy and timely cause. The governor arrived with a small group about 15 minutes prior to our store’s official opening; and upon arrival, she and her entire group gave generous donations to the cause. We offered to open early to accommodate her schedule; she did not ask us to open early. The other vendors routinely set up an hour before the event opens, so they were already there when the governor arrived. No one was asked to come in early. When Governor Palin arrived, she and her guests made generous donations. I escorted her around and introduced her to every vendor, and they talked to her about their products and gifted her with samples. She never asked for anything but politely accepted the products. The governor and her family and guests were very gracious and respectful to everyone. We asked and the governor happily agreed to take a photo with the American Red Cross staff and the staff of The Silver Spoon. The governor stayed for a total of about 35 minutes, thanked everyone, made an additional generous personal donation pledge to the Red Cross, and then departed.

The stories currently circulating about Governor Palin’s attendance at our event are total fabrications. Just one example of the many falsehoods is the ridiculous idea that Governor Palin walked away with 40 AIAIAI headphones. In reality, she was given two pairs of AIAIAI headphones – one for herself and one for her daughter Bristol who could not attend the event. The idea that she took 40 pairs is an outrageous falsehood. It would have been impossible because the vendors only bring around 100 items for the entire two day event. They would have run out of product after an hour of opening yesterday.

Just to clarify things, the entire point of giving someone a swag bag is to have them take your product and hopefully purchase more. The whole point of giving away products is to “give them away.” That’s why we call this type of event style a “gifting suite.”

We would like an immediate retraction and an apology to The Silver Spoon, its vendors, and especially to Governor Sarah Palin.

Those retractions and apologies may be a long time coming. The left is quick to spread its lies but loathe to admit and retract them.

It rare that we have occasion to compliment the Associated Press, but the AP, to its credit, mentioned Gov. Palin's donation to the Red Cross in the first paragraph of its report (though the headline is misleading): 

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Sarah Palin showed up at a celebrity gift suite with two daughters, her brother and a small entourage in tow and loaded up with free cosmetic and fashion items being given away in connection with Oscar-week festivities. But she also left a check for charity, organizers say.

The AP story, which carries Sandy Cohen's byline, also quoted Ben Russo, a publicist who was at the event, regarding Gov. Palin's donation:

Silver Spoon spokesman Ben Russo said Palin made an unspecified "sizable contribution" to Red Cross Haitian relief before leaving the suite. Although Silver Spoon is not affiliated with the Red Cross, most Hollywood gift suites feature an opportunity for visitors to donate to a charity, if desired.

"Silver Spoon was very grateful (Palin) brought awareness to our Red Cross relief effort," said Russo. "We were happy to supply her and her family with some of our sponsor product."

So Bravo Zulu, Mr. Cohen and AP, but please fix that headline. Bravo Zulu to Matt Donnelly and the LA Times for getting it right the first time. Kudos to Just Jared for being one of the very few gossip sites to mention Gov. Palin's donation. Thanks to Melissa Lemer and Silver Spoon for standing up for the truth. Shame on Huffington Post and the other sites who propagated their falsehoods as part of the lying Left's continuing effort to denigrate Sarah Palin.

h/t: Doug Brady/C4P

Update: A shout out to Celebrity Mound for telling it true:

"A spy said, 'She picked up a ton of gifts, but she gave the lot to the Red Cross, along with a cash donation. The only thing she took for herself was a bottle of Ty Ku sake.'"

Also a good follow up post by Christie D'Zurilla at Ministry of Gossip, the LA Times entertainment blog which should be an example to all entertainment websites for honest reporting.

And a call for corrections and retractions from Big Journalism.

- JP