NewsBusters: Contradictions Pile Up Around Vanity Fair’s Palin Hit Piece

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Vanity Fair attack dog Michael Joseph Gross has admitted to one glaring "error" in his smear job on Sarah Palin, but the reports contradicting his hatchet job continue to stack up, according to NewsBuster Nathan Burchfiel:

In a Sept. 7 post on The Corner, Katrina Trinko "refudiated" Gross's characterization of Palin as vicious, vengeful, and fake. Unlike Gross's sources, almost all of which were anonymous, Trinko provided citations.

Gross had cited "people who know" suggesting Palin's relationship with close friends Kristan Cole and Kris Perry had "deteriorated." But Cole reportedly told Trinko the charge was "absolutely not true. I don't know where they get this stuff from, honestly."

A former Palin aide, Ivy Frye, also contradicted Gross's characterization that she parted ways with Palin "on bad terms." "I didn't leave on ‘bad terms,'" she said in a statement. "Gross' 8 page hit piece is a complete work of fiction from beginning to end."

Although Gross admitted that he "misreported" an incident in his story in which he had alleged that Gov. Palin was using her Down Syndrome child to curry political sympathy, Burchfiel checked the Vanity Fair website, and the original story appears unedited, with no correction or apology added.

Related: Ben Smith has an update at Politico which casts some serious doubt on another Gross anecdote from his VF hit piece:

Now Scott Conroy, a Palin embed and co-author of the critical, reported book on Palin's rise Sarah from Alaska emails over his informed thoughts on the matter:

[Co-author] "Shushannah [Walshe] and I were fed the same story more than a year ago while we were researching our book. We decided not to print it because although it was related to us by a senior aide who claimed to have been on the receiving end of Palin's inquiry, the source had a very obvious axe to grind and insisted upon anonymity. Also, there were several other people present at the time that Palin supposedly posed the question. We spoke to all of them, and none recalled hearing Palin ask, at that time, about when Bristol should marry Levi. In fact, a couple of the people present said that they would have overheard the question if she had indeed asked it..."

- JP