From Kansas City Star: Sarah Palin weighs in on Jeffrey MacDonald case
WILMINGTON -- The Jeffrey MacDonald case has pulled an unusual book
critic into its web of conspiracy theorists and strong camps of
opinions.
Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor,
has posted a complimentary review of Errol Morris’ new book about the
case, “A Wilderness of Error,” on her Facebook page.
It has her byline on it, too. ( tinyurl.com/8ndxtk8)
In his book published this month by The Penguin Press, Morris offers a fresh look at the MacDonald case.
The
Oscar-winning documentarian’s literary style is unusual, including
documents, transcripts and other details amid his narrative of a case
that spans four decades. Morris offers his readers no conclusion on
whether MacDonald is guilty of slaughtering his family, as a jury found
in 1979.
But in interviews since publication, Morris has said he
thinks MacDonald is the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice, likely
innocent and certainly suffering from a botched investigation and
prosecutorial misconduct.
Joe McGinniss, another author who has written about the case in the best-selling “Fatal Vision,” concluded otherwise.
And that debate between authors is where Palin comes in.
McGinniss
also wrote “The Rogue: the Search for the Real Sarah Palin” after
moving in next door to the Palins in Wasilla, Alaska, in May 2010.
Neither the Palins nor the Wasilla townspeople were too thrilled about the new resident or the work he produced.
And Palin makes that clear in her review of the Morris book.
She
endorses Morris’s description of her “old neighbor” as “a craven and
sloppy journalist who confabulated, lied, and betrayed while ostensibly
telling a story about a man who confabulated, lied, and betrayed.”
She went on to say:
“MacDonald
signed a contract giving McGinniss exclusive rights to his life story,
and so McGinniss was given unprecedented access to the defense team –
living with them, working with them, eating with them. But when the
guilty verdict came down, McGinniss did a one-eighty on them.
Apparently, falsely convicted men don’t make for good books. McGinniss
decided it was a better story to agree with the jury. MacDonald wasn’t a
sympathetic figure. He did himself no favors with some media
appearances. So, McGinniss went about writing a book that would convince
people the government got the right verdict and we could all pat
ourselves on the back and leave Jeffrey MacDonald to rot in his jail
cell till Judgment Day.
“McGinniss’ book actually embellished the
prosecution’s case – even supplying a motive. According to McGinniss’
theory of the case, MacDonald secretly wanted to break free of his wife
and kids and so he murdered them one night in a fit of rage induced by
some diet pills he was taking. (Oddly enough, the millions of other
people who were also taking those same diet pills somehow avoided
murdering their families.)”
Palin, no surprise, has a more glowing report about Morris:
“Morris
argues with refreshing clarity that objective truth is real and worthy
of being sought after despite the pretentious nonsense preached in
faculty lounges about all truth being relative. In fact, he argues
passionately that the search for truth is what journalism and justice is
all about.”
Morris and McGinniss are both in Wilmington this week.
Morris has been in the courtroom, taking volumes of notes.
McGinniss,
who was provided unfettered access to MacDonald and his defense team
during the trial, has been less visible. He is on the list of possible
witnesses.
Morris was outside the federal courthouse on Tuesday, waiting with a crowd of others to see the MacDonald proceedings.
A woman in line ahead of him asked about his book.
With a telling smile, he said he was thrilled with his latest review, a positive one, “from Sarah Palin.”
Palin,
some might recall, was the butt of many late-night TV jokes after her
inability in 2008 to come up with a list of the newspapers and magazines
she read during an interview with Katie Couric.
When asked whether he thought Palin had read his book from cover to cover, Morris said: “Somebody did.”
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