Palin Derangement Syndrome in the media

The office of the Alaska Governor has seen fit to post a page dedicated to refuting the latest falsehoods in the press.

And the Anchorage Daily News is pursuing the conspiracy theory alleging that Trig Palin is not Sarah's son, but her grandson.

On Dec. 31, eight days ago, I received an email from Gov. Palin asking several questions about news coverage in the Daily News. I took her inquiry seriously and by the end of the day had prepared a long email addressing each of her questions in detail.

This was her final question:

And is your paper really still pursuing the sensational lie that I am not Trig's mother? Is it true you have a reporter still bothering my state office, my very busy doctor (who's already set the record straight for you), and the school district, in pursuit of your ridiculous conspiracy?”

This was my reply:

Yes, it's true.

You may have been too busy with the campaign to notice, but the Daily News has, from the beginning, dismissed the conspiracy theories about Trig's birth as nonsense. I don't believe we have ever published in the newspaper a story, a letter, a column or anything alleging a coverup surrounding your maternity.

In fact, my integrity and the integrity of the newspaper have been repeatedly attacked in national forums for our complicity in the "coverup." I have personally received more than 100 emails accusing me and the paper of conspiring to hide the truth (about Trig’s birth.)

(I should acknowledge, however, that many people who commented on adn.com have alleged a coverup. Many of those were deleted as soon as we saw them, but many were not.)

I want to be very clear on this: I have from the beginning and do now consider the conspiracy theories about Trig's birth to be nutty nonsense.

If that's true, why has Lisa Demer been asking questions about Trig's birth?

Because we have been amazed by the widespread and enduring quality of these rumors.

I don't know. It just seems to me, if you're interested in the "widespread and enduring quality of rumors", that's asking the wrong questions of the wrong people. I can see talking to psychologists, sociologists, and the people who are propagating the rumors, but not pursuing the lines of questioning that a person who believes the rumors would follow. Unless you don't think they're rumors.