Last October, "Vanity Fair" published an extensive, scathing profile of Sarah Palin's apparent descent into secrecy and paranoia—a "public" life turned inside-out.
The problem? Writer Michael Joseph Gross fudged one of his opening facts. In the opening, an anecdote that sets-up the Palins in their disingenuous tableau, Gross misidentifies a baby boy as Sarah's son, Trig.
The piece is more than 10,000 words, and in many cases quite effective: Gross trailed the campaign through Alaska for months, and prodded at many corners of the state, building a version of the Palins from the voices of the people they governed. But his slip-up at the beginning is crucial, because it underlines and undermines the rest of the piece, weakening it irrevocably, not libel, really, but sloppy nonetheless.
If one error slipped-in, went the thinking at the time, couldn't another?
Yeah, that was rough. All that work and one little slip ruined everything. Palin takes that mistake and runs with it, even though I'd argue that much of her life seems pretty...mythical...
ReplyDelete