Remember the news coverage Joe McGinniss garnered when people learned he was moving next door to the Sarah Palin in May 2010? Accused of stalking her, his son came to his defense by telling reporters his dad had not sought to live by Palin. Yes he was writing a book on her, but the only reason he was living next door was because Palin’s neighbor wanted McGinniss as a tenant in order to get back at Palin because of bad blood between them.
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| McGinniss moved in next door to the Palins and could spy on them from his deck. |
(Quick side note: What does it say about McGinniss if having him next door is a way to get back at someone?)
Anyway, McGinniss’ son went on to talk of how Palin inspired “a lot of hate in people” by appealing to “their worst instincts.” And of course he added a heartfelt, “[It’s] sad and scary,” for good measure.
So the template was set: McGinniss had been looking for a place to live in Alaska because he was writing a book on Palin and low and behold, Palin’s neighbor wanted to rent her house to him. No, he wasn’t a stalker, and yes, Palin was scary.
Hmmm….
Fast forward to September 2011: McGinniss’ book The Rogue: Searching for the real Sarah Palin is out and it contains attacks on Palin that are so over-the-top, so undocumented, that even the New York Times is crying foul.
Moreover, the Times is actually lamenting what McGinniss has become, and calling to mind the year 1969, which is when they claim he actually wrote something worth reading. These days, even the Times says he’s writing trash based on sources gleaned from the Internet and producing books like “The Rogue” that make “the Palins’ widely publicized anger [over McGinniss moving next door] understandable, even to readers who might have defended his right to set up shop in their neighborhood and soak up the local color.”
Perhaps this is a good place to turn back the clock to June, 1993, and recount another time the Times took McGinniss to task. He had written a book on Ted Kennedy, and it contained a detailed description of how Kennedy struggled to tell his bedridden father that JFK had been shot in 1963.
In that moment, McGinniss described how Kennedy stood at his father’s bedside, unable to break the news to him. Of how he stood “at the foot of the bed, as mute as his father, his hands clasped behind his back, unable even to look the old man in the eye.”
The problem was that McGinniss never talked to Kennedy or anyone else about those moments. Thus the Times could only reach one conclusion: “[Although McGinnis’ book on Kennedy] is called nonfiction, much of the dialogue and internal monologues are compelling enough to be fictional — and they are.”
I wonder what the Times would have said if McGinniss had also positioned himself just outside the Kennedy compound so he could stare at the Kennedy women as they went through their daily activities? Or if he had come to the front door of the Kennedy home and tried to manipulate information out of one of the young Kennedy boys?
I only ask because this is allegedly what he did to the Palin family.
According to Todd Palin: “One summer day I found this guy on the deck of the rental property, just 18 feet away next door to us, staring like a creep at my wife while she mowed the lawn in her shorts, unbeknownst to her that he was prying.” And Todd also claims McGinniss used to do the same thing when his “teenage daughters…tried to enjoy [the] traditional Alaskan summer days outdoors.”
At another time, Todd says McGinniss “was on our doorstep…trying to make conversation with our son until Track cut the conversation short after discerning [the man’s] odd behavior.”
Folks, you can draw your conclusions and I’ll draw mine. But one thing’s for sure, McGinniss doesn’t strike me as the kind of neighbor I want to have. Nor does he strike me as someone who writes books I trust or want to read.
But one thing’s for sure – Palin derangement syndrome is alive and well in the McGinniss household.
Big Journalism
