Palin Publisher Prevails--Putsdown Pugnacious Poster

Image via WikipediaIn HarperCollins, LLC v. Gawker Media LLC (Case No. 10 Civ.-8782), the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York this week sided with the publisher of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's second tome, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag, against the Gawker blog that published unauthorized excerpts.

The court ordered Gawker to take down the posted excerpts pending a Nov. 30 hearing, but the parties have since settled the dispute, with Gawker promising to keep the Palindrones off its site. The book was released--to bookstores, not the Alaska wild--on Nov. 23.

Gawker had alleged its posting of the Palin segments was protected fair use, a dubious position given the U.S. Supreme Court 1986 decision in Harper & Row Pub. v. The Nation Enterprises (471 U.S. 539), which involved the defendant's pre-publication lifting of roughly  300 words of verbatim quotes from former President Gerald Ford's memoirs. The High Court rejected the fair use defense in the case involving Ford, who like Palin, never served a full-term in office, though through no fault of his own.

Palin Periodical Hits Newsstand

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Sarah Palin: Faith, Family, Freedom, a glossy 100-page magazine published by a subsidiary of the IMG marketing firm and Imagine That Publishing, will be available through April 30 for those willing to dole out $8.99 for the periodical purportedly prepared without Palin's knowledge or authorization.

Editor/Publisher Steven LeGrice, founding editor of  In Touch magazine, said the journal is all in the words of the former almost 1-term Alaska Governor and current Fox News commentator without any opinion added in, which sounds like a fact-checker's and copy editor's worst nightmare. The periodical is replete with family photos the publisher obtained from private sources.

Included in the publication are segments on "Where Sarah Palin Stands on the Big Issues," and "The Wit & Wisdom of Sarah," which begs the question: Are there enough photos to fill 99 pages?  There are photos of Palin on her Going Rogue book tour and childhood pictures aplenty, including one featuring Palin, her siblings, and a dead bear bleeding over a stump. No, really.

"TUOL" believes LeGrice missed a golden opportunity by not having the magazine open from the right in honor of its namesake's politics. Wonder if Sen. John McCain plans on purchasing a copy, if for no other reason, than to complete the puzzle page.

William Paley, Not Sarah Palin, Is the Radio Giant

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Inside Radio reported this week that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was testing the waters for a possible nationally syndicated radio talkfest, but Broadcasting & Cable columnist Paige Albiniak debunks that rumor and suggests that Clear Channel, the largest radio conglomerate in the U.S., is on record as having no interest in hiring Gov. Palin because of concerns that she could not sustain a three-hour gabfest, unlike other Conservative stalwarts, such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck (though Beck fills long stretches of "dead airtime" with uncontrollable weeping).

Whether Gov. Palin could improvise on the radio for 15 hours a week like Don Imus or Howard Stern is beside the point. The truth of the matter is that anyone who has heard Gov. Palin speak knows she couldn't work for an organization that has the word "Clear" in the company name. Also, she would never take a job in radio because it would be too difficult to justify her wardrobe expenditures.