AAR

[Jane G]

I've seen so much conflicting information about this-- I've seen it both confirmed, multiple places, by people who actually lived in Wasilla, and also refuted in multiple places.

The story is that while Palin was mayor, she attempted to ban a number of books from the town library. The librarian refused, and then several months later was fired (though she was reinstated after a lot of public outrage).

What do you think about this story? Is it legit, or more smear tactics?
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Jane AAR

[Cheryl AAR]

Here's a link to a Slate.com article called "Sarah Palin FAQ" (which seems pretty balanced, plenty of good and bad): http://www.slate.com/id/2199362/

The paragraph on the banned books reads:

[Jillian]

Here is the "go to" site for all the Palin rumors.

http://explorations.chasrmartin.com/2008/09/06/palin-rumors/

They have a direct link to all their sources including the original local newspaper article about her asking the local Librarian
about how she would handle someone requesting a book be banned.

There are currently 71 rumors that have been fact-checked,

I had to laugh out loud at a few of these (ie: # 56 - no, it's not a "beehive").
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"Absolute certainty is the greatest of all illusions." Harry Trevelyan - Absolutely Positively by J.A.K.

[Tee]

According to CNN this evening, this report on banned books is completely false. One of those things that spread in an email that has no truth to it.

[maggie b.]

I heard that some of the books on the list of so called banned books hadn't even been published at the time in question. I think this is fake -- I trust CNN over Time (then again, I trusted them over the Enquirer and look where that got me. . . )

maggie b.

[Cora]

I find Ms. Palin and her political positions completely unlikeable (not that it's my problem, since I'm not American), but some of the rumours on that list are simply distasteful, e.g. the various rumours about Ms. Palin's youngest child. Besides, one would think that people nowadays should be well enough informed about Down syndrome to know that it's not caused by flying in an airplane while pregnant or other idiocies of that sort.

Besides, there are enough genuinely problematic points about that woman that it's really not necessary to invent false ones. If anything, all those false rumours will only discredit the true ones.

[Yulie]

As I understand it, this rumor is for the most part false. Ms. Palin, while mayor, brought up the matter of censorship as a hypothetical question with the town librarian (interesting hypothetical, and I can certainly see why the librarian would consider it cause for concern). Ultimately, nothing was actually censored or banned. The list is just a standard-issue list of books that were banned or challenged at some point in the US. It has nothing to do with her. The conversation took place shortly after her election in 1996, and the list has the first four Harry Potter books on it, all of which were published after that time (Goblet of Fire was not published until 2000).

[Cora]