We may not believe The National Enquirer, but 15 million copies a month are sold and mailed (yes, one can subscribe) and the faithful readers just LOVE the stories in TNE.
Many of the stories are fanciful, but a precious few, like the John Edwards affair story, turn out to be very, very real. The gimmick the Enquirer has that no mainstream paper has is that they are permitted to pay cash for stories, once they are able to verify them to be accurate. So their business model is essentially to make stuff up, and occasionally have real facts that they paid generously for. How generously? The real numbers are not known, but some claim that up to half a million dollars has changed hands for a really juicy story. The kind that ends careers.
There is probably not a lot to do if you are young and restless in Wasilla, Alaska. Play hockey, shoot at things, drive on the relatively few roads, hike a bit, play video games. And do drugs. By coincidence Wasilla has been identified as the "Meth Capital of Alaska" based on statistics of the number of meth labs busted there. What that speaks to is a growing social problem in a certain demographic group, but it also speaks to what kind of community it is.
This is the sort of story that will reach a certain segment of the population. Interestingly, it is an almost perfect overlap of the households that Sarah Palin hoped to appeal to. On the one hand they may be sympathetic towards the problems of the Palin family, but they may also be the most critical, asking what exactly the Palins did to try to reign in their kids, asking whether running for Governor and serving as Governor took their attention away from their children at ages when parental presence and involvement was critical. We all know that children have an astounding ability to get into trouble even with parental oversight, but others may not be so charitable.
It is also fair to ask, given strains within the Palin family, whether it was wise to put their family into the glare of the national press? The only enduring message I can take away from this entire debacle is that a woman can screw things up just as well as a man can, and Sarah Palin is living proof of that. I happened to be in SE Asia when Indira Gandhi declared Martial Law in India. I was just about to go there, but stayed put until it was over. Gandhi had her army and police do nasty things to people. It did not leave me with an impression of women as the weaker or gentler sex. It left me feeling that when women go bad, they go very, very bad. A good friend of mine, a former diver for the Indian Navy, got caught up in the dragnet of India's Martial Law. He was hung over the edge of a five story building and asked to assist the police by becoming an unpaid informer, or, if he chose, he could fall to his death. True story. When I saw him he was a shell of himself. A happy, life of the party man was turned into a traumatized wreck. Sarah Palin reminds me of Indira Gandhi. No exaggeration, I sense that she is bad news. Very bad news. Fortunately, an increasing number of Americans feel the same. Oh, the press and Fox News had fun with a fresh face, but even they are starting to catch on to her creepy side and realize that the story is getting really old, really fast.
Oh, and is it "sexist" to say that a lady seems to be a thug? Nope, if she were a guy and acted as she does, I promise you I would say just the same. I am, if nothing else, an equal opportunity caller of bullshit. John McCain is a desperate and addled jerk to pull her out of the hat, like a pink rabbit. Nice trick, but no cigar, John.
Arthur
Many of the stories are fanciful, but a precious few, like the John Edwards affair story, turn out to be very, very real. The gimmick the Enquirer has that no mainstream paper has is that they are permitted to pay cash for stories, once they are able to verify them to be accurate. So their business model is essentially to make stuff up, and occasionally have real facts that they paid generously for. How generously? The real numbers are not known, but some claim that up to half a million dollars has changed hands for a really juicy story. The kind that ends careers.
There is probably not a lot to do if you are young and restless in Wasilla, Alaska. Play hockey, shoot at things, drive on the relatively few roads, hike a bit, play video games. And do drugs. By coincidence Wasilla has been identified as the "Meth Capital of Alaska" based on statistics of the number of meth labs busted there. What that speaks to is a growing social problem in a certain demographic group, but it also speaks to what kind of community it is.
This is the sort of story that will reach a certain segment of the population. Interestingly, it is an almost perfect overlap of the households that Sarah Palin hoped to appeal to. On the one hand they may be sympathetic towards the problems of the Palin family, but they may also be the most critical, asking what exactly the Palins did to try to reign in their kids, asking whether running for Governor and serving as Governor took their attention away from their children at ages when parental presence and involvement was critical. We all know that children have an astounding ability to get into trouble even with parental oversight, but others may not be so charitable.
It is also fair to ask, given strains within the Palin family, whether it was wise to put their family into the glare of the national press? The only enduring message I can take away from this entire debacle is that a woman can screw things up just as well as a man can, and Sarah Palin is living proof of that. I happened to be in SE Asia when Indira Gandhi declared Martial Law in India. I was just about to go there, but stayed put until it was over. Gandhi had her army and police do nasty things to people. It did not leave me with an impression of women as the weaker or gentler sex. It left me feeling that when women go bad, they go very, very bad. A good friend of mine, a former diver for the Indian Navy, got caught up in the dragnet of India's Martial Law. He was hung over the edge of a five story building and asked to assist the police by becoming an unpaid informer, or, if he chose, he could fall to his death. True story. When I saw him he was a shell of himself. A happy, life of the party man was turned into a traumatized wreck. Sarah Palin reminds me of Indira Gandhi. No exaggeration, I sense that she is bad news. Very bad news. Fortunately, an increasing number of Americans feel the same. Oh, the press and Fox News had fun with a fresh face, but even they are starting to catch on to her creepy side and realize that the story is getting really old, really fast.
Oh, and is it "sexist" to say that a lady seems to be a thug? Nope, if she were a guy and acted as she does, I promise you I would say just the same. I am, if nothing else, an equal opportunity caller of bullshit. John McCain is a desperate and addled jerk to pull her out of the hat, like a pink rabbit. Nice trick, but no cigar, John.
Arthur
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