Forbes' Writer Goes Oliver Stone Over Sarah Palin's Sweatshirt Logo

This is the kind of childish speculation you expect to see at some lowly, left-wing hit site like the Soros’-owned, tax-exempt Media Matters — not at a brand publication like Forbes. Based ONLY on a sweatshirt logo, Jeff Bercovici, who writes at the Forbes’ Mixed Media site, created a 400+ word piece of wild speculation in order to disguise yet another tired Palin=celebrity article as “news” and, most importantly…

…to create the following anti-Palin headline:

Did Sarah Palin Use Newsweek for Product Placement?

Huh?

Whuh?

Where in the world did that come from? Well, it looks as though Forbes has some sort of editorial policy that allows their “journalists” to think and mull and speculate out loud. Because if you read the actual piece, there’s no beef there other than the subtext of a writer desperate to trash Governor Palin … just cuz.

Here’s Bercovici’s rationale. Don’t miss the closer, which is my emphasis:

The former Alaska governor appears on the cover of the new issue of Newsweek wearing a gray sweatshirt with a logo on it reading “Edge Fitness.” That’s the name of a gym in Palin’s hometown of Wasilla. Edge Fitness was featured last November in an episode of her TLC show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” and it also received a plug on a Facebook page Palin apparently created under an alias and used for posting pseudonymous comments.

You have to love the word “apparently.” It allows the MSM to say pretty much anything they want. To be fair, however, Bercovici does have more “evidence”:

But Palin is known for aggressive monetization of her personal brand and a taste for the material perquisites of Hollywood-style fame. It seems probable, therefore, that she’s getting something for her enthusiastic endorsements — perhaps free personal training?

Ahh, so there’s the proof worthy of a 400+ word hit piece. Two links. One to a biased story and the other to a story thoroughly debunked months ago. As far as link one: maybe the reason Governor Palin’s taking control of her name has more to do with making sure no one falsely uses her name to con people out of money based on products or events she has nothing to do with. (Hey, if Forbes can speculate out loud, we should all jump in!) As far as link two: Swag-gate is a total fabrication. Doesn’t Forbes give their writers access to Google?

Apparently (see how well that works?), Mr. Bercovici’s real motivation for writing this speculative hit-piece has to do with being all butthurt over Governor Palin’s open disdain for those in the MSM who, well, write stories like the one Bercovici just did. After all, he does his article open with this:

Sarah Palin is no fan of the “lamestream media” — except when she’s using it to serve her ends. …

You know, because that makes her so different from everyone else in politics … and America.

Here’s more “apparent” butthurtery.

Palin’s lack of respect for most journalists extends to a disregard for traditional journalistic norms. When she appeared on the cover of Time last December, she insisted on being interviewed solely by email. She has been known to seek payment from magazines in exchange for her participation in stories.

If Bercovici doesn’t want to be considered part of the “lamestream” and “disregarded,” he might try sticking to the “traditional journalistic norms” he wants us to believe he so cherishes. For starters, what he wrote here is not a story. It’s the beginning of a story. It’s the part of the story where you go to your editor and ask:” Do I have something, Mr. White? Should I investigate?” In traditional journalistic norm-speak, Bercovici is at the “sniff” phase of a story — the phase where you then go out and try to discover if a story even exists.

And a couple of emails and a phone call isn’t exactly the stuff of Woodward and Bernstein, now is it?

Apparently, Bercovici wrote up the apparent “sniff” phase of his story aparently wanting to create a wider speculative narrative that would catch on with others in the corrupt media in the apparent hope the Governor would apparently be damaged by yet another apparent phony scandal … apparently.

My guess is that the Governor uses the term “lamestream media” because it’s a little catchier than “dishonest, corrupt, left-wing propagandist media.”

But that’s just me speculating.