If you don't know what this is in reference to, let me bring you up to speed. Joe McGuiness, journalist, has moved next door; not down the street from, or in the same village as but NEXT DOOR, to Sarah Palin in Wasilla Alaska for a 5 month lease. He is in the process of writing a book about Sarah Palin and decided that living NEXT DOOR was perfectly fine for him and why not? It's a free country."He talked for a few more minutes beyond that, and he got, I'd say, increasingly hostile. And then he left, and I was still out here on this deck, where I'm sitting right now, when they took that picture for Facebook."
After Sarah Palin posted that photo Tuesday and wrote about McGinniss, radio host Mark Levin gave out the author's e-mail address and McGinniss got 5,000 messages in four hours, eventually shutting down the account. Wasilla police and state troopers are keeping a watchful eye on the place.
"The mayor said to me, when I chatted with him in his office a couple of days ago," McGinniss said. " 'You know, if Sarah had the brains that we like to think she has, Todd would have come back and said, do you know who's living next door? This son of a bitch McGinniss who wrote that Portfolio piece. He's writing a book about you. Sarah should have baked a plate of cookies, and come around the fence, and said hi, and laughed about this.' I would have happily accepted a cookie, and then in my book I would have had a lovely scene about how gracious she had been." He sighed. "She is, in many ways, a very gracious person."
McGinniss said he was offended by the way Palin described his presence next door. Contrary to what Palin wrote on Facebook, he said, he can't see into the windows of the family's home, and he can't hear the Palins' conversations.
Palin intimated that McGinniss could watch the family when it went swimming, but he said that only the edge of their land near the lake was visible from his property. He said he was deeply offended by the implication, not thinly veiled in Palin's note and subsequent interview with Beck, that he would be peering in on the children.
"These little kids, I couldn't care less about them," McGinniss said. "I have my own kids and grandkids to care about."
McGinniss added that he had been a responsible neighbor, shooing off a pair of Minnesota tourists who stepped onto his property to take photos of the Palins' home.
"Look, this is a pain in the ass for them," he said. "I understand that. If I were her, I'd be upset. I'd be annoyed. But I'd be an adult about it, and I would figure out, okay, how can we resolve this in a way that's not going to make this into something that everybody gets obsessive about? By being here, I have learned things, and I've gotten an insight into her character, into her ability to incite hatred, that before I only knew about in the abstract."
There was no warning "shot across the bow" or heads-up or "by the way.....". There he is one fine spring day and Palin takes a photo of him on his back deck, presumably minding his own business (did I mention he moved in next door and was overlooking HER backyard?) and posted it on Facebook with a neighborly "hello!" Complete with a suggestion of bringing over a blueberry pie as a way of welcome.
Within hours, a very tall fence was erected by her husband and friends. Good fences make, well, less observant, if not better neighbors. And now, in less than a heartbeat, look who's the victim!
Recap:
1 "He", Todd Palin, the husband, "...increasingly hostile. And then he left".
Well, I didn't see THAT coming! Did you? "He" LEFT! Shazaamm! Didn't throw a punch or anything all macho and redneck-like...... I'm stunned.
2. "...they took that picture for Facebook."
Mmmm, don't think so. "They" (Joke!- How many Palins does it take to hold a camera?) took a photo for evidence. They then posted it on Facebook to let the readers know what they know: a snooping journalist moved next door. One that has let anyone interested know he is writing an expose on his new neighbor. Pretty creepy, huh? How would YOU like that?
3. He in turn gets 5000 emails blasting him and ta-da! WE have the victim! HE was offended about the way SHE describes HIM! Well, I thought all was fair in love and war? It was going to be okay for HIM to write what he thought about her and sell it as a biography but she writes and offensive missive as an autobiography in real time and gives it away. I think I need to think about this........*
4. Now the MAYOR of Wasilla tells him, "If she only had a brain........" but that's heresay from a journalist and I thought they protect sources......... "... SHE would have baked him cookies...and had a laugh....." (hahahhaa! this is a hoot!) because either, a.) she has nothing better to do with her time and it's a neighborly thing for a WOMAN to do or b). she was better off being sweet to him (not to mention conniving) and he'd write nice things about her as well as whatever dirt would rake in the bigger haul.
BTW, don't you love this: "I would have happily accepted a cookie, and then in my book I would have had a lovely scene about how gracious she had been." He sighed. "She is, in many ways, a very gracious person." "
5. He was being neighborly when he shooed off tourists poaching on his prey. Good for him! and give him another cookie, dontcha know!
6. He freely admits he understands her frustrations and wouldn't be pleased himself if the tables were turned (in fact, he threatened a fellow journalist that he was calling the police to help protect him from a journalist who trespassed on his front door for an interview, Weird...... ironic even). He would even be annoyed! But he'd be an adult and try to resolve it amicably. Unlike I suppose building a really tall fence to block his view of NOT HIS portion of the lake, mind you, just THEIR backyard's view of said lake.
7. He didn't want this to escalate into something that "everybody " would get obsessive about. It's fine for HIM to obsess. You and me should butt out and buy the book if we want to read all about his experience delving into the"character" of Sarah Palin. I wonder if he has a minor in short-distance psychology......
8. After all, he learned about "her ability to incite hatred"; something he knew only peripherally "in the abstract" prior to moving next door and needing to be able to witness first-hand after inciting it himself.
Isn't this just amazing? I really feel so sorry for this man. I think I might have to bake him a plate of cookies....... There is MUCH more written in that David Weigel article but it is so much horse manure I really can't stomach it. Go read it yourself and boggle.
*thought about it some more.....I wonder if this is what peeved him off..... she wrote on Facebook:
".....including the bizarre anti-Palin administration oil development pieces that resulted in my Department of Natural Resources announcing that his work is the most twisted energy-related yellow journalism they’d ever encountered"
Ah.... "yellow journalist". Can you build a tall fence to shield that?
ONE MORE THING! Here we have a journalist (David Weigel-Washington Post) writing about the travails of a journalist (Joe McGuiness) trying to write a book about the life of a former journalist (Sarah Palin). This is just weird beyond words. Someone ought to write a book about it..........
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