Sarah Palin - Satire's Latest Target

Former VP candidate Sarah Palin has released a new autobiographical work entitled Going Rogue: An American Life. The book is a New York Times bestseller that has Republican voters overjoyed and liberal pundits overjoyed as well.

Stephen Colbert, the ballsy "conservative" Comedy Central pundit reviewed her book on his show in the segment "The Word."

Jimmy Fallon had his fun too.

Why is this book being lampooned? Well, just look at Ms. Palin's Vice-Presidential run this past election cycle. Unless you've been living in the cave next Bin Laden (the one without the electronic radio/video hookups) you know Ms. Palin didn't exactly "wow" the American public with her qualifications for VPOTUS.

Let's also take into account that right-wing media figures aren't necessarily known for accuracy or truthfulness in news reporting. Ms. Palin continues this in her book:

PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking "only" for reasonably priced rooms and not "often" going for the "high-end, robe-and-slippers" hotels.

THE FACTS: Although travel records indicate she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard) overlooking New York City's Central Park for a five-hour women's leadership conference in October 2007. With air fare, the cost to Alaska was well over $3,000. Event organizers said Palin asked if she could bring her daughter. The governor billed her state more than $20,000 for her children's travel, including to events where they had not been invited, and in some cases later amended expense reports to specify that they had been on official business.

PALIN: Boasts that she ran her campaign for governor on small donations, mostly from first-time givers, and turned back large checks from big donors if her campaign perceived a conflict of interest.

THE FACTS: Of the roughly $1.3 million she raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor, more than half came from people and political action committees giving at least $500, according to an AP analysis of her campaign finance reports. The maximum that individual donors could give was $1,000; $2,000 for a PAC. Of the rest, about $76,000 came from Republican Party committees.

She accepted $1,000 each from a state senator and his wife in the weeks after the two Republican lawmakers' offices were raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into a powerful Alaska oilfield services company. After AP reported those donations during the presidential campaign, she said she would give a comparative sum to charity after the general election in 2010, a date set by state election laws.

PALIN: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, "you'll have to be brave enough to fail."

THE FACTS: Palin is blurring the lines between Obama's stimulus plan — a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts — and the federal bailout that Republican presidential candidate John McCain voted for and President George W. Bush signed. Palin's views on bailouts appeared to evolve as McCain's vice presidential running mate. In September 2008, she said "taxpayers cannot be looked to as the bailout, as the solution, to the problems on Wall Street." A week later, she said "ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy." During the vice presidential debate in October, Palin praised McCain for being "instrumental in bringing folks together" to pass the $700 billion bailout. After that, she said "it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in."

I guess if you're going to make a claim in well-publicized medium, you better know your stuff is on-point. If not, prepare to be torn apart by the likes of the Stuart Smalley.

Glenn Beck - Rapist/Murderer?

Nah, Beck didn't kill or rape anyone in 1990 (well, he wasn't caught raping or murdering someone....).

What did you infer from the parenthesis? Well, that's how satire works. Isaac Eiland-Hall just finished up a legal battle with Glenn Beck over the name of his satirical website glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com. The name alone is a play on Glenn Beck's gimmick of loosely relating unrelated people to a certain event (i.e. Obama, Obama sounds like drama, Gladiator was a drama movie, in the movie there was thunder, thunder = bad weather, weather and Weather Underground, William Ayers was in the Weather Underground, Weather Underground = terrorist - OH MY GOD! OBAMA'S A TERRORIST!!!!!).

Now let's remember, Glenn Beck works for a "news" station. Satire in a cable news setting should include a disclaimer to prevent any kind of confusion. I don't remember Fox News imposing any disclaimers on Beck's show. But then again, I don't watch his program normally so I wouldn't know of any recent moves that weren't included in the news.

Funny how Mr. Eiland-Hall's website has as part of the title,

The Official Parody Website About The Controversy

Why does Isaac Heiland-Hall have to use a disclaimer in case of litigation but Glenn Beck doesn't? We'll let the law students answer that one. But Heiland-Hall took advantage of the Information Superhighway to do the same thing Beck does every weeknight - flex his First Amendment rights.

After beating Beck in a legal fight over the domain name, Heliand-Hall wrote to Beck:

It bears observing that by bringing the WIPO complaint, you took what was merely one small critique meme, in a sea of internet memes, and turned it into a super-meme. Then, in pressing forward (by not withdrawing the complaint and instead filing additional briefs), you turned the super-meme into an object lesson in First Amendment principles.

It also bears noting, in this matter and for the future, that you are entirely in control of whether or not you are the subject of this kind of criticism. I chose to criticize you using the well-tested method of satire because of its effectiveness. But, humor aside, your rhetorical style is no laughing matter. In this context of the WIPO case, you denigrated the letter of First Amendment law. In the context of your television show and your notoriety, you routinely and shamelessly denigrate the spirit of the First Amendment. The purpose of the expressive freedoms embodied in the First Amendment is not to simply permit the greatest possible scope of expression, but also, in doing so, to also strive for excellence in the conveyance of ideas. Rather than choosing to strive for excellence and civic contribution, you simply pander to the fears and insecurities of your audience. And in the process, you do them, and all of us, a great deal of harm.

Shame on you Mr. Beck.

The website is no longer running at the disputed web address, but can be found here. It has some interesting clips of Beck exercising his First Amendment rights over the last 3 years, as well as some more satire lambasting him.