Author of Vanity Fair article "Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury" answers his critics.

Here Michael Joseph Gross puts to rest some of the challenges to his reporting.

To the issue that he was told that the child backstage with Piper Palin was NOT Trig:

Let me state this as unequivocally as possible: Loudon’s accounts have no basis in reality. I do not mean simply that the facts are wrong—I mean that the episode did not occur. I have never met Gina Loudon. I have never spoken to Gina Loudon in person or by phone. I have never exchanged e-mail or snail mail with Gina Loudon. I did not even know Gina Loudon’s name until it began cropping up in connection with the accounts quoted above. Furthermore, I could not have spoken to her in Independence, because I was not allowed backstage on the floor of the arena, where Loudon was; that was a restricted space, and, as far as I am aware, all reporters were barred from the area. (I was sitting several rows up, in a place where I was able to observe what was happening both in front of and behind the curtain.)

On anonymous sources:

A number of commentators have noted the use of anonymous sources in my article. I explained in the article why this was necessary, but let me amplify the explanation here.

After the 2008 election, Sarah Palin and her advisers decided that it was time to “go over [the] heads” of the media, as one of her former press aides told me, and, in effect, invent a new way of doing political business. Palin began using Facebook and Twitter to send messages directly to the public. At the same time, she and her staff made themselves virtually inaccessible to reporters. Palin, moreover, is the most powerful person in a sparsely populated, geographically isolated community. She has often used intimidation. Many who have been close to Palin say they are frightened of her. They claim they have seen her ruin reputations. To speak out against such a person in a small community is risky.

This reality presents reporters with a choice: either repeat the official statements and official facts that are made in Palin’s name, or find a way to report other information under the terms that sources will permit.

I made the latter choice—very cautiously. Forced to rely on anonymous sources for certain information, I made an effort to get to know those sources well, talking with them over periods of weeks or months. If I sensed that sources were motivated by the desire to attack Sarah Palin, I did not use the information they gave me. Those who told the most startling stories about Palin spoke not with glee or satisfaction but with trepidation and sadness.

As I have mentioned before, this EXACTLY matches my experience during my attempts to get people to speak on the record about Sarah Palin.  And it matches the experiences of a number of other people as well, but I will let them tell you that for themselves when their articles or books are published.

This response by the pro-Palin people to find easily manipulated "liberal" journalists, and dishonest Palin-bots, to help discredit Mr. Gross is something we are going to see happen repeatedly when the books being written by Frank, Bailey, Geoffrey Dunn, and Joe McGinniss arrive in bookstores.  You mark my words.

Click the link I provided above and just read some of the comments being left on the Vanity Fair site if you have any doubt about how aggressively the Palin people are going to go after anybody who dares reveal the truth about their queen.