The mainstream aka lamestream media constantly reports news about Sarah Palin by taking a grain of actual fact and spinning a story out of it and once again today, they have done the same thing.Here is The Politico's headline: "Sarah Palin team reaching out to Iowa activists for meetings"
Palin's response via Twitter: "*sigh* media making things up again MT @POLITICO2012: Sarah Palin reaching out to IOWA operatives http://politi.co/j9kQko by@maghabepolitico
So, the grain of truth? People were invited to a meet-n-greet after the premiere of "The Undefeated", a pro-Palin film, which Palin will be attending.
Was it "Sarah's team" that issued the invite?
Clarification: An earlier version of this post, based on an interview with Laudner, described "meetings" with Palin, which he later emailed to say was a post-film meet-and-greet with her, put together by an Iowa-based backer of the former Alaska governor.
Novel idea to the media, confirm, verify THEN write up the story.
[Update] RCP did their homework:
Laudner said that he received an invitation to attend the festivities surrounding the movie premiere from Peter Singleton, a California native who moved to Iowa several months ago to help organize in the state in advance of a possible Palin presidential run. Singleton is acting on his own and is not a Palin aide but has often been confused for one as he has made his presence known across the state.
"Putting me on this list doesn't really mean much to me," Laudner told RCP. "I'm on a list to go to this event, but I didn't expect there was going to be high drama. . . . He just said be there, and I said OK."
For his part, Singleton confirmed to RCP that he has not been working with the Palin camp.
"If Governor Palin was setting up meetings, she wouldn't set them up with me," Singleton said. "Not a single activist I've talked with has said anything about that. . . . I'm not affiliated with the Palin organization. I invited Chuck because he's a really great friend and a really nice guy."
Maybe Politico should ask RCP writers for some pointers on the confirm, verify thingie.
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