Debating Trig Trutherism

At the Journolist. The Daily Caller has the raw emails.

A sample, from Ryan Donmoyer, "objective" journalist:

Again, statistically speaking, I believe it is highly more likely that a teen mother would have a child with Downs than it is for a 44-year-old woman to conceive without fertility help.

As far as I can tell, the following is the circumstantial evidence, and not all of it is vetted:

1) Sarah Palin doesn’t look even remotely pregnant in photographs that are supposed to be her third trimester.

2) The state of Alaska yesterday removed official photographs of her the months that coincide with her third trimester.

3) Her staff was surprised to find out she was pregnant when she announced at 7 months.

4) Her teenage daughter disappeared from school for months, claiming mono during the time that coincided with her third trimester.

5) She opted to take a long flight after her water broke which probably isn’t consistent with anything any doctor would recommend. (But her daughter might have needed her).

6) She returned to work 3 days after the baby was born.

7) In undated photos, the daughter looks like she definitely could be pregnant. People who saw the daughter yesterday tell me that she def looks like she could be post-partum.

8 ) It’s far more likely for a teenager to have a child with Downs Syndrome than it is for a 43-year-old woman to conceive naturally.

9) Supposedly, the baby’s grandparents refused to issue any kind of statement when the baby was born, for whatever little that’s worth.

The thread also contains some important parenting advice from Dylan Matthews, whose name matches that of a researcher for the Washington Post.

I understand the impulse to dismiss this as non-news. But assuming the baby is Sarah Palin’s, her conduct was the equivalent of punching herself in the stomach. It’s gross, gross negligence. I still remember when a family friend delivered her baby, knowing from the amnio that it had Down’s, and the surgeries went on for days. The baby was declared dead, revived, etc., etc. It’s a horrendous process. It was hard enough for her at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the best hospital in NE north of Boston, but doing that in Wasilla? Doing it in Wasilla when she very well could have stayed in Dallas? That offends me. That sort of thing warrants a social services call.

So I’m inclined to believe that the girl’s the daughter’s, because Palin is an absolutely wretched parent otherwise. Believing it’s the daughter is probably the most flattering possible angle here.

If nothing else, this thread exposes the total contempt many in the media had for Sarah Palin. They were perfectly willing to believe the worst of a woman they had only known of for a short time. The only reason for their hatred was that Palin threatened the political fortunes of the guy they hoped would be elected president.

I've always wondered why Andrew Sullivan kept on the Trig story, even after the election. Now we know - it seems Trig Trutherism was kind of the norm among his peers. Sullivan was just more open with his conspiracy theory-mongering.

posted by Slublog at 11:09 AM

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