Boston Globe Leads With a Lie — Debunked Palin Rape Kit Story Again

October 2, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

I would urge someone close to members of the editorial board of the Boston Globe to let them know that the world is not flat, the moon is not made of green cheese, and Elvis is, indeed, dead. I say this because obviously the Boston Globe is way behind the times in discovering facts that debunk rumors and it’s clear they have no capacity to do any research. I mean, they must not be paying attention to reality because in today’s editorial, the Globe again raises the thoroughly debunked claim that Sarah Palin charged rape victims for their rape kits when she was mayor of Wasilla. The claim is a straight out lie that has been demolished by many writers (including myself), yet the Globe obviously took no efforts to research the facts before they revealed their incompetence to the world.

It’s no surprise that this proven lie against Palin is being whipped up again just before the VP debates by the Obama flacks at the Globe. They want her to be tagged with this lie to distract her from real issues, it is plain. And that isn’t just my opinion because they justify the re-raising of this long ago debunked charge as one that should be asked of her during the debate on Thursday.

ONE QUESTION that Sarah Palin should answer during tomorrow’s debate is why, during her tenure as mayor of Wasilla, the town started charging rape victims or their insurers for hospital emergency-room rape kits and examinations.

And the answer for the Globe’s edification and education: she didn’t charge anyone anything. Further, she wasn’t even aware it was going on because it was never an issue brought to her attention as far as anyone can tell.

But one lie in the first paragraph wasn’t enough. The Globe had to fill the second paragraph with another one.

The policy so outraged the Alaska Legislature that in 2000 it passed unanimously a bill forbidding such fees. But Palin has never explained why, under her leadership, the town stopped picking up the cost of the swabs, specimen containers, and tests.

It is absolutely untrue that the town of Wasilla was the one town that caused the Alaska Legislature to ban the fees in question. As reported in multiple sources, the records of the debates about the 2000 bill in the Alaska State House shows not a single mention of Wasilla or Sarah Palin. Further there is no mention at the time of either Wasilla or Sarah Palin in any of the media from the rest of the state outside her own town newspaper. If the Alaska Legislature were “so outraged” at Palin, why did neither her name nor that of her town show up in the debates or the rest of the media at the time?

The FACTS behind this issue are diametrically opposed to the claims the Globe makes. There is no evidence Palin ever knew about this rape kit policy during the time the issue was being debated in Juneau, no rape victim was ever charged for a rape kit being administered, Wasilla was only one among several Alaska towns with the policy under question, the Alaska Legislature did not have any conflicts with Wasilla nor is Wasilla mentioned anywhere in government records, and no mention of Mayor Sarah Palin was raised at any time during the 2000 debate on this policy.

The rest of this Globe piece contemptuous of truth isn’t worth bothering with as it is all predicated on the lies in the first two paragraphs.

Obviously the lazy, incompetent writers at the Boston Globe have allowed the DailyKos to do their writing again. Or maybe they already know that they are perpetrating a lie? If that’s the case, if the Globe knows that their editorial has already been proven a lie, doesn’t that make them something worse than merely incompetent?

Either way, this editorial is proof that the Boston Globe is useless as a source of real news as well as in the tank for The One.

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston