Q. Palin is a pretty well-covered subject, and I think it's difficult to make a case that she's been treated with kid gloves by the mainstream media. Her popularity persists regardless. What does this book add to the conversation?
A. Not kid gloves, but maybe 16-ounce gloves. Part of the problem with mainstream journalism is their 24-hour news cycles and lack of in-depth reporting. The major example is TrooperGate. I turned up several emails and records that never have seen public light. And I've turned up dozens, if not hundreds of documents, that no one had ever seen before. Now, was it because I was a great investigative journalist? Not really. It was because I was persistent, and developed sources.
Q. Could you talk about some of the sources you were able to develop? How did you get that kind of access? Did writing for the Huffington Post help?
A. The fact that I knew Alaska, that I had a history in the state really helped me. I knew my way around the state, and I knew my way around the culture, helped me. The fact that I came from a fishing family here in Santa Cruz helped me. That I had family members that had been going up there to fish for years. But I didn't just do this as a fly-by-night reporter. I developed friendships; people had a confidence in me. In addition to that, the fact that I was breaking stories for the Huffington Post, gave people confidence that I could, one, respect confidentiality, and two, do a good job with it. They worked hand in hand. I thought I was going to have to tell the story of the election through the eyes of Democrats, that the only people that were ever going to talk to me were Democratic operatives who were following Palin around, so that's how I was going to tell the story. In fact, the Republicans leaked me everything. There are documents and emails in the book from Republican operatives during the McCain campaign, and no one's ever seen those. And they really tell the story on the ground of what it was like to work for Sarah Palin.
What's fascinating to me is the reaction of two people to her selection as vice-presidential candidate: George Bush and Barack Obama. Both said she'll never get up to speed. There's no way she can ever get up to speed. This is unfair to her and unfair to her family.
Two national figures who know how hard that road is, knew she wasn't ready for it.
I am sorry I am posting this so late. I tried to put put up yesterday, but you all know what yesterday was like.
Anyhow click the link and give it a read, it has more interesting information about Dunn's research and his opinion of her political future.
I REALLY hope that Geoffrey gets much more attention in the near future. His book
is really quite good.
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