The American gossip blog, Gawker, which last week hawked a number of excerpts from Sarah Palin's upcoming book, America by Heart, flinched in the face of a threatened lawsuit against them by Harper-Collins, the book's publisher. They removed their post about the books and any references to it late Friday and early Saturday.The European blog, Palingates is continuing to publish new excerpts, including screen shots from the text itself. Last week, after receiving a letter from Harper-Collins attorney and senior vice president, Christopher Goff, who requested that Patrick Palingates remove the material, Patrick removed some pages, but has since published several more in two subsequent long, detailed essays. Gawker's piece was a bagatelle compared to Palingates' thoroughly annotated articles.
It is yet unclear why Harper-Collins has threatened to sue Gawker, but has only sent a single boiler-plate letter to Palingates, the source of most of the leaked excerpts last week. Several hundred blogs have picked up the excerpts from one source or another, and Palin's dishonest characterization of Michelle Obama and uncharitable mentions of the Obama kids have raised the eyes of many, as they should.
I spoke Friday with Patrick. He expressed his desire to "see this through." I suspect Harper-Collins has backed away from heightening the profile of Palingates through an international lawsuit over their and Palin's concerns about giving more prominence to the fascinating trove of information about Sarah Palin cached at the most followed of non-Alaskan progressive blogs that closely track the failed governor.
Palingates is a shoestring operation, run by two to three people who also have day jobs. Palingates is the most prominent of the Trig Truth sites, which claim that Sarah Palin is not Trig Palin's birth mother. A run through the comments will show anyone previously unfamiliar with the blog that it has a large, well-informed, international following. The current front page leading article, inelegantly titled Sarah Palin's next grand slam: Hollywood filmmakers "disparage the war effort","trash what the troops fight for", show "reflexive anti-Americanism," has over 1,800 comments. The main blog post about the Harper-Collins lawsuit threat against Gawker and Palingates' role in the affair at Palin's main fan shrine, Conservatives4Palin, has 48 comments. Here's a smpling from the comments at the Palinbot shrine:
[question:] Why aren't they suing the originator of the postings? If they can go after Gawker, then they should have a range of people that they can sue.Cue Glenn Beck and his chalkboard, eh? The next sample is from a Palinbot who is obviously new to C4P. You can tell, because the commenter doesn't, when referring to Palin, capitalize "She":
[response:] The Pig Palace was placed overseas specifically to avoid this kind of legal entanglement. I have always suspected Soros was behind those people, but to the point-the Pig Palace can really do anything it wants because it's behind a German legal firewall.
I'm still wondering if legally Fair Use goes to exact copy and paste of pages contained within the book or if sites that have typed out portions are also in this mix. If the second case, Huff Po can be sued. If not, I'd suggest she not allow Publishers to send out advanced copies.And at C4P, there's always a conspiracy behind the actions of people who question Her:
A lot of the comments at TMZ are alleging that the powder is all a publicity stunt cooked up - by the Palins - to either get Bristol the sympathy vote or to detract people from "facebookgate." You know the commenters are from the rabid hate Palin people when they use the "gate" term.At any rate, Palingates is probably safe to continue running excerpts of this trashy book right up to its debut. How much good could it do Palin, with a 22% favorability rating among Americans to sue a site where one can click on the following topics with ease:
New York City Mosque Controversy
CSU Stanislaus speech
Abortiongate
Babygate (Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy)
Troopergate - Sarah Palin's "vindictive streak"Wasilla
Pebble mine
Wildlife
Environment
Lawsuits
Alaska Natives
Civil rights
Race
Government
Big oil
Alaska Independence Party
Indifference
Special needs
Education
Cronies
Victims
Family
13 comments:
Great post, Phil.
Gawker didn't blink when they got Christopher Goff's letter, and they didn't blink when they were served with court papers. It's a different thing when a judge tells you take the pages down after they've been there for several days and served their purpose, though.
I'm sure Gawker took legal advice before they declined to take the stuff down. What HarperCollins' strategic objective was I have no idea. Publicity? (I haven't been hearing about this "book" being a million-seller yet - have you?)
Their legal argument is weak and if they did it for publicity because the sales aren't happening then they have made a bad miscalculation because anyone reading that rubbish would be completely turned off. I have to confess that beyond the first 3 or 4 lines I didn't even read those pages that were up ....
Thank you so much, Phil!! I am speechless! :-)
We are so lucky to have your support, and it was great to have talked to you.
It was a very eventful and incredibly motivating week for us, and we all know that Sarah was not happy at all.
Palingates is not just a blog, it's a community. From an early point onwards we realized that it's imperative to build up a lively and motivated community. That's how citizens can become powerful on the internet.
We wanted to "explore new grounds" and show that an investigative citizen blog with a great community can "move mountains." Last week proved that a lot can be achieved, but only if it's done properly, and only after many months of painstaking work and developing our contacts.
The internet is not a place for people who are egocentric and have a "me me me" mentality, it's a place where people have to share - but at the same time, they multiply their strength!
No, we are not paid by George Soros. Sometimes I wish we were. ;-)
It's nice to see that ABC, CBS, New York Times, AP, Politico etc. mention us and link to us. Now it would be nice if they would start to write about Sarah Palin's many scandals and secrets.
Loved your article, Phil! Isn't it interesting to note that the C4Pers avoid mentioning "Palingates" in their comments? I have seen their people chastise their own for even mentioning Palingates. It is best to keep their sheeple in the dark. If they violate that rule and mention Palingates, they must do penance & recite 5 Hail Sarah's.
Great post, Phil! And I love the blowback from people who are horrified at what Twitler wrote about the President and his family, among her other ignorant comments, "analysis" and conclusions. It was absolutely uncalled for. Someone who makes an ad hominem attack on a child, publicly and in print for the world to see, has crossed the bridge of no return. There is no comparison between the well raised children and successful partnership of the Obamas and what we have seen coming from 1140 W. Parks Hwy in Wasilla.
Proud to be a 'gater. And proud of this president.
Older_Wiser
Thanks for highlighting Palingates, Phil. Patrick and the gang over there do an awesome job.
I hope that you will continue with your Saradise Lost and Found series...and give it a prominent and easily found place on your front page. As election season revs up, I think that series will be important for the public to access this info in one place. Very well written, informative, historic record of Palin's hijincks. Maybe you could ask Palingates to give it a special link on their site as well.
Keep up the great work, Progressive Alaska and Palingates!
Now that the MSM has been alerted to Palingates, let's hope some of the reporters are reading through all of the info to use for now or later. Nobody should be making millions off of lying--and I think that is what so infuriates people about her.
Phil agree with all the posters above, and please continue Saradise found!
Thanks so much for supporting Palingates!
(Proud Gater)
Phil,
Thanks for your continued support of Palingates. The community remains alert and focused. The hypocrisy, stupidity, hate and lies revealed so far in her new book further demonstrate her total lack of qualifications to even be considered for any important role.
Phil, thank you for this post. My chest swelled as I read your tribute to Palingates (proud to be a part of it) and I am thankful that you have been there for us to read also, and as others mentioned above, the Saradise Lost and Found series. As Ms. Palin herself said the other day one of the hurdles she would have to face that others might not were she to run is proving her accomplishments over the last two decades (I believe she said - decades? give me a break). I think you could help her with that with your archived Saradise articles, cough, cough. I also love, love, love that you called her a failed governor. Thank you for that. You didn't say failed VP candidate, you said failed governor .... because she is, she did ... she QUIT! We love you. Now I want to go back up and read your post again.
Another "thank you" for recognizing Palingates and the impressive list of links to the various "gates."
Hi Phil - Thanks so much for your support for PalinGates (of course we support your blog as well - being from the SW, I love your local photographs. We don't see "much" snow here)
PG has been around for over 2 years. We are truly a community of friends with a common goal. Our blog now has two YEARS of Sarah Palin's (AIP) accomplishments she is welcome to come and review for her loss of memory.
Our goal was to dig and research - compile and maintain - sourced information proving every allegation ever made about Sister SnowFlake and her grifting Family Values team.
We appreciate your support and of course, invite anyone to come visit and READ for yourself. We do not level allegations. We include links and we source our articles.
Thank heaven's for RPK - they are a breath of fresh air in the fight to keep Palin (AIP) away from the Presidency. And thank you for your nice comments. They are much appreciated.
Gater here!
Great post. You are well written & researched. That is appreciated.
Keep up the good work.
Another thank you to Phil for a great story. I am also a Gater and love the website!
-Ardiva/Kilia
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