Vanity Fair Lays A Salmonella Egg

*
It's difficult to take Vanity Fair seriously. After all, it's one of only two major lamestream media outlets -- the other being CBS’s "The Early Show" -- which continues to take the discredited Levi Johnston seriously. Consider that even liberal Politico and gutter leftist site Jezebel have expressed their reservations about VF's latest hit piece on Sarah Palin.

When you have Jezebel characterizing your personal attack on Gov. Palin as "a hatchet job" and Michael Gross' reporting as "obsessive" and "breathless," you're not even preaching to the choir anymore. Jezebel recognizes the potential of the hit piece to backfire:

We're all for shoe-leather reporting, but at this point, this seems like a rather barren field to tread. A strong denunciation came early from Clara Jeffrey and Monika Bauerlein, co-editors ofMother Jones, on Twitter:

Meanwhile, Ben Smith at Politico says a former McCain campaign aide contacted him as soon as the VF hatchet job appeared to admit that a tale he only half-seriously originated was "embellished almost beyond recognition" by VF in its bumbling attempt to make a "monster" out of Gov. Palin:

This anecdote first popped up in London's Sunday Times, a regular landing point for political anecdotes that the less credulous American press won't print without checking. From that story:

Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. “It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”

The fantastic quote -- and perhaps the clue that this one hadn't quite risen to the levels of the principals -- is the guarantee that Levi would show: "“It’s a shotgun wedding. She kills things,” the source joked.

Indeed, the former McCain aide (my source and the Times') recalls gleefully that while he kicked it around a bit with other aides -- as the "end all be all stunt for a campaign of stunts" -- the idea was never brought to Palin, much less seriously considered.

But when it comes to lame Wyle-E-Coyote-style attempts to smear Sarah Palin, Vanity Fair lets the truth be damned. With this hatchet job, the troubled magazine has laid another egg. This time it has produced one infected with salmonella, that bacteria which causes an affliction even worse than Palin Derangement Syndrome. Know it by its symptoms: high temperature, nausea, abdominal cramping, and bloody diarrhea with mucous.

When even some of the left's most prominent usual suspects don't buy into a vicious media attack born of sick hatred and begin to call out the lies for what they are, it must be a sign that these Alinsky tactics have lost their effectiveness. Sorry, Vanity Fair, but rabid coyotes don't make good hunting dogs. They have a tendency to turn around and bite the hunter.

Updates: A growing number of voices on the left are speaking out against the VF smear job...

Notorious Palin critic David Weigel:

"Point is, this anecdote is bunk, and it makes me wonder about the rest of the story."

John Dickerson, Slate's chief political correspondent:

"Given the velocity of embellishment about Palin we should have a story about her bending metal with her eyes by winter"

Liberal pundit Kirsten Powers, in a series of tweets:

VF: Why do we only hear abt women "throwing things" but not the men, who anyone who has worked in politics knows happens all the time?

VF "article"criticizes Palin for flying 1st class & demanding nice hotels? DOUBLE STANDARD anyone? Guess little lady doesn't know her place.

VF: Palin is allegedly vengeful toward people who badmouth her, has temper and is controlling. In other words: a male politician.

Yeah at least one. RT @daveweigel: Via @benpolitico, at least one anecdote in the big VF Palin story is false. http://bit.ly/cGfLF3

Vanity Fair: Palin's a bad tipper & has bad temper. Just like HRC. What a coincidence. http://bit.ly/97TvsC

Leftist Newsweek:

"It is hard to know whether what Gross reports is true—many of his assertions are based on opinions, and anonymous ones at that."

CNN producer Peter Hamby:

"@benpolitico is right re: VF article. I was w/ Palin for entire VP bid. never got a hint that she 'lashed out at the slightest provocation'"

Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger at the Washington Post:

"The article by Michael Joseph Gross contains few verifiable revelations..."

Tennessee Guerilla Women:

"I stopped at the part describing Sarah Palin as an irrational shrew who throws things and screams at people.... I've read it before. Many times. The last time I read it, the hysterical [woman] who was screaming at people and throwing things was Hillary Rodham Clinton."

It's awful sad when you can't even get the left to go along with your made-up hatchet job on the most dangerous potential threat to your Obamessiah's second term.

VANITY FAIL.

PS: Be sure to read "Top Ten Crazy Things in the Vanity Fair Hit Piece" at Palin Promotions.

- JP