Sarah Palin must be feeling neglected so she resurrects old stories from the past as an attack on journalists.

Courtesy of Palin's Facebook page: 

Nice to see light shine. Doesn’t it make you wonder about other accusations (absolutely false, in Todd’s and my case) that are reported as truth? Total lies that escape real journalists’ “who/what/where/when/why” ethical reporting practices. - SP 

I have to tell ya that this really feels like Palin is specifically baiting me, since a number of these stories involved me in one way or another. 

I guess somebody is feeling lonely, and is desperate for people to talk about her again.

Well I am pretty damn tired of constantly posting about Donald Trump so why the hell not?

That Star Magazine cover seems to be reporting on my Splitsville story so for the handful of you who may not be familiar with it, here is a link.

I will also include this follow up post that I made last year after receiving some corrections from Levi Johnston.

As you can see the post did contain some misinformation provided to me by Tank Jones, who I hired as a private investigator.  However the story of their marital problems, Palin's desire to leave the state, and the fact that she was looking to get a job in media (We thought at the time talk radio, but it turned out to be Fox News.) all turned out to be accurate.

Now let's move on to the Shailey Tripp story.

I first reported on that story only after The National Enquirer story came out with it, even though I had been hearing about it for weeks.

Later of course I made contact with Shailey and recorded an interview with her.

(Here is a transcript for those who do not want to listen to the audio.)

Of course Sarah and Todd denied the story vehemently ("Have you seen Todd?"), but this still remains a case of she said she said. You can choose for yourself who seems more believable.

I have to say that if Palin had not brought these old stories up that I was prepared to never talk about them again. They are, after all, old news.

But since she opened Pandora's Box, why not take a look at all of the embarrassing things inside?

Time to straighten out some facts about Splitsville. With assistance from Levi Johnston.

So as most of you know the 2009 post "Splitsville" was one of my biggest and most controversial posts of all time.

It was packed with all sorts of explosive and at that time unknown information about Sarah Palin, her marriage, and her plans for the future.

Unfortunately as it turns out much of it was also bullshit.

As most of you already know my source for the Splitsville story was Tank Jones who I had hired as a private investigator.

There is always a risk going with a single source on a story, but since Jones was both a well respected and licensed private investigator with unfettered access to Levi Johnston, there was literally no reason to question the "facts" that he was sharing with me.

At the time of the post Sarah Palin had essentially disappeared from Twitter and Facebook and people were wondering what was going on behind the scenes.

My post filled in a gap left by her sudden silence.

As time went on I became aware that some of the things that I predicted in the post did not come to pass, and that some of the things that Tank shared with me were never backed up with facts from any other news outlets or even gossip sites.

However until I talked with Levi I was never sure which things were for sure incorrect, and which things were true but never confirmed.

So let's just go through the post and knock them out one by one.

The first one, and the biggest reveal, was that Sarah and Todd were planning to end their marriage.

According to Levi yes that was accurate, and it was something that they argued and threatened each other with all of the time.

In fact the reason why the post blew up the way that it did is because my friend Dennis Zaki, who had home phone numbers for some of Palin's former staff members, was able to confirm that the story of their marriage falling apart was well known within that tight circle.

Of course the marriage remains, on the surface, still intact. However I have heard from other sources, not Levi, that the marriage is all for show and that part of the reason they will not simply get a divorce is because Palin refuses to give me, and others, the satisfaction of knowing we were right.

(Actually to be honest I find this staying together to spite me even more satisfying.)

The land purchase in Montana.

Yeah, that was bullshit. I have no idea why Tank told me that, but according to Levi he never heard them talk about it. And of course they ended up buying land in Arizona not Montana.

The missing wedding ring thrown into Lake Lucille.

Levi has no idea where that story came from, but it did not come from him.

(He did confirm the portion about loud arguments and Sarah's emotional distress however.)

The story of the Todd pulling a gun on Levi.

Now this one is particularly upsetting because even before I talked to Tank about the story, and had it confirmed by him, I was asked by another reporter in town whether I had heard it or not. Based on the fact that it was heard by others and Tank confirmed it, I felt confident in reporting it on the blog.

I should not have done so, because according to Levi it never happened.

In fact though things were strained between Levi and Todd on several occasions for the most part he always liked Todd.

In the post I also mentioned Levi's upcoming Vanity Fair article, which up until then nobody had heard about. In that article Levi confirmed a number of things mentioned on the Splitsville post.

The final part of the post was about Sherry Johnston's conviction for selling Oxycontin and yes Levi, along with his whole family, believe that Palin set her up.

Levi does not like to talk about that much, but my take is that he feels that it was a warning as to what Palin was willing to do to keep him in line.

In many ways Levi remains intimidated by the Palins and is afraid of what they might do in retaliation for things that he talks about publicly.

For all of you who are constantly complaining about folks in Alaska not divulging secrets about the Sarah Palin and her family, just imagine hearing how people were jailed, fired from their jobs, or run out of town for doing so, and you might understand why certain people in the know might decide it was better simply to keep that information to themselves.

Now I have more posts coming on this topic, but with all that is happening in politics, and the requirements from my actual job, I do not have the hours needed to devote to them right now.

I will post them when I can. Which will hopefully be soon.

Todd Palin finally replaces Sarah's wedding ring.

According to Bristol's Facebook page:

So precious. This was on my parents anniversary, right after my dad gave my mom a new wedding ring!! Made her cry.

Well it is about damn time! After all Palin threw her old ring away over four years ago now :

Do you remember all of that talk about her missing wedding ring during the three part going away picnics? Well it turns out that ring now sleeps with the fishes. Apparently in a fit of anger Sarah stripped the ring from her finger and tossed it into a lake. (It was Lake Lucille, though I was unsure of that fact at the time.)

I don't know why it took so long but I hope that she treats this one better than the last one.

(H/T to Gina M.)

About that confrontation between Todd Palin and Levi Johnston. Another confirmation of my Splitsville post!

"We can do what we want. Nobody dares to rat us out!"

One of the risks you run when you post articles based on information from sources speaking only to you, and that other media outlets may not be able to confirm, is that it opens you up to charges of rumor mongering or, as Palin likes to charge, "makin' things up."

As most of you know I have been accused of that quite a few times.

However this last e-mail dump has been very helpful in FINALLY providing some validation for previous posts, that up until now were considered questionable by certain people.

In my August 2009 post "Splitsville," I was the first person to publicize trouble in the Palin marriage, that the Palins had screaming fights, and that Sarah was shopping around for a radio gig (Which in fact turned out to be a television gig with Fox News.), all of which have since been confirmed by various books and newspaper articles.

However some of what I talked about in that post was NEVER confirmed, and may never be confirmed, by other media outlets, like Sarah's wedding ring resting on the bottom of Lake Lucille, or the land purchase in Montana.

However there was ONE story that I had been assured was about to break in another publication, and which never did, that I have been particularly troubled by. And that is the alleged confrontation between Levi Johnston and Todd Palin.

This is how I described it in the post:

I also learned that there was an incident back in the summer of 2008, before the McCain campaign officially tapped Sarah, where Todd Palin pulled a gun on Levi in a heated exchange concerning his relationship with Bristol. This news will be hitting the local papers here in town next week. Stay tuned.

Now as you all know that story never did come out, and in fact was also left out of Levi's book.

So reasonable people may have assumed that in fact it did not take place.

But then Palin's final treasure trove of e-mails were released. And guess what?

On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 2:39 PM, Brendan Joel Kelley wrote: 

hey Bill - this is an unfortunate inquiry for me to make, if you haven’t gotten it from other outlets already then it’s just a matter of time, but does the governor’s office have anything to say about what transpired late saturday night between the first gentleman and levi johnston? 

Brendan Joel Kelley 
Associate Editor 
Anchorage Press 

On Jan 9, 2009, at 2:50 PM, b.mcallister@alaska.comwrote: 

Please put a finer point on that question. Thanks 

On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 3:28 PM, Brendan Joel Kelley wrote: 

you know how this media game works Bill, it’s one of my favorite things about you - it’s what makes you so effective - so i can’t overplay my hand here. but i’ve got information, good information, about an incident between the two of them - which i agree shouldn’t be the business of state employees - that i can’t say more about, the first gentleman having a confrontation with the father of the first grandson, let’s say. it’s blowing up, much like the first daughter’s pregnancy prior to the official confirmation of it. and although i doubt it’s a viable proposition, i’d like to think that the guv’s office wants local media to have things first, unlike, say, one-on-one interviews. IMO - to use internet slang - the best thing the guv could do right now is make good with local media, not seem to be the vp candidate that won’t go away, to quote chris matthews on hardball last night, this thing about the levi/bristol situation isn’t our making, and i’d prefer that young people’s relationships not be newsworthy, but we both know that it is. if it matters at all, i’d love a sitdown one-on-one interview with the guv, no questions about the kids asked, just policy and governance; consider that a formal request, but the stuff i’m referring to now is something that’s gonna be out no matter what you say to local journos, i’m not driving this bus 

From: b.mcallister@alaska.com [mailto:b.mcallister@alaska.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 4:15 PM 
To: Brendan Joel Kelley 
Subject: Re: inquiry 

Interesting comment from Chris Matthews, who I talked to on the phone today regarding his willingness to go to any lengths, including Alaska, to get an interview with the governor. There’s a lot of hypocrisy in comments like that. Everyone wants to talk to her, no matter how much they trash her for speaking to someone else. Campbell Brown did the same thing. It would be funny if it weren’t so mean-spirited. 

The governor wants to have a relationship with local media, and just got done giving an interview to Channel 2. 

So let me be clear: you’re asking me to respond to something the details of which you’re not going to share? You might consider the possibility that I really don’t know what you’re talking about. But just in case, what’s your direct phone line, or cell phone, whichever is best to reach you? 

That is where the e-mail ends concerning this particular story, but I doubt that McAllister responded further. Instead he probably contacted Palin and they performed the Alaska version of damage control.

There is only one other e-mail string that I can find between McAllister and Brendan Joel Kelley, and that was one that took place three days later concerning John Ziegler. (It is also interesting that Brendan talks about a phone conversation he had with Palin in between these two sets of e-mails.)

 Now as I am sure that many of you already know, my source on this story was Tank Jones, who obviously got his information directly from Levi.  And the journalist who was supposed to publish the story was the above mentioned Brendan Joel Kelley.

However the interview with Levi came out in the Anchorage Press on August 6. 2009, sans the confrontation story between Levi and Todd. I e-mailed Brendan about it and he said that at the last minute Levi had refused to go on the record. However he did confirm that he heard the same story that I had.

Now a couple of things.

In the e-mail Brendan is talking about a confrontation that JUST happened. This was back in January, and it is VERY unlikely that Brendan got this story from Levi, who was extremely suspicious and closed mouth in those days, so that means he got the story from another source.

He also claims that he is NOT the only news outlet working the story, and further states, "but the stuff i’m referring to now is something that’s gonna be out no matter what you say to local journos, i’m not driving this bus." However, regardless of who had it besides Brendan, the story was clearly squashed.

I am also aware that in MY version of the story it took place in the summer, but according to Brendan it had just happened in January. That is a minor quibble (But I did just check my notes and I wrote it down as taking place in the summer), though it actually makes more sense that it happened around the time that Bristol unceremoniously kicked Levi to the curb which (According to Levi's book) was on January the 8th.

I am not sure exactly HOW Palin manages to bully people, as well as the press, into keeping these stories quiet (Especially these days!), but it is worth noting that to this day the ONLY place to write about this story, which remember various news agencies were pursuing, was right here on IM.

And for refusing to allow myself to be intimidated by the Palins I suffered no end of verbal abuse and attacks on my character.  And as Paul Harvey used to say, "Now you know the rest of the story."

Palin uses Twitter to claim she was mocking media for divorce rumors in 2007, that did not start until in 2009. WTF?

So here is the tweet that Palin sent out earlier today.

Really? Well color me confused because the e-mail she refers to was sent on September 26, 2007, but MY post about her marital troubles was not posted until August 1, 2009.

Up until that post NOBODY in the media had ever even heard of any marital problems between the Palins. Believe me I know, because that was why I suffered such an aggressive and sustained backlash after that post went viral.

So my question is, how could she have been mocking "divorce rumors" that first started in mid 2009, all the way back in 2007?

Methinks somebody did not think this tweet all the way through.

Or else she really IS a witch!