Ross on Palin: ABC 09/10/09

Brian Ross on Sarah Palin
"Good Morning America" 7:10am
Investigative Reporting

TOPIC: Sarah Palin, library book ban, controversy, right wing extremism, evangelical

TRANSCRIPT:
ROBIN ROBERTS: No doubt Sarah Palin has a huge following already, so many love her, but many want to know more about her resume. The details of her tenure as mayor, and then as governor are still coming into focus. And this morning we have new information on one battle she waged as mayor of Wasilla. A battle where she went toe to toe with a local librarian for which books were appropriate and which were not. Something her critics say crossed the line into censorship. [...]

BRIAN ROSS: As the mayor of the town of Wasilla, Sarah Palin raised questions about removing books in the public library and then tried to fire the town librarian. She says the two are not connected. Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the town of Wasilla in 1996, with the strong backing of her church, the Wasilla Assembly of God.

REV. HOWARD BESS: It wasn't just simply a matter of her using the religious right to get elected to office, she was one of them.

ROSS: Palin has since changed churches. But Assembly of God ministers are well known in Wasilla for taking strong positions on moral issues [...]. Around the time that Palin became mayor, the church and other conservative Christians began to focus on certain books available in local stores and in the town library, including one called Go Ask Alice, and another written by a local pastor, Howard Bess, called Pastor, I am Gay.

BESS: This whole thing of controlling information, censorship, yeah that's a part of this scene.

ROSS: Not long after taking office, Palin raised the issue at a city counsel meeting of how books might be banned, according to news accounts and the local residents, a democrat who was there.

ANNE KILKENNY: Mayor Palin asked the librarian what is your response if I ask you to remove some books from the collection in the Wasilla Public Library?

ROSS: The Wasilla librarian [...] responded with only a short hesitation.

KILKENNY: The librarian took a deep breath and said, "the books in the collection were purchased in accordance with national standards and professional guidelines, and I would absolutely not allow you to remove any books from the collection.

ROSS: A former town official and Palin ally, says Palin's questions were only rhetorical.

JUDY PATRICK: There were no specific books that were ever banned from the city, Mayor Palin did require of the librarian of the policy of removing books from the library.

ROSS: A few weeks after the counsel meeting, the mayor fired the librarian, although she was reinstated after a community uproar.

JUNE PINNEL-STEPHENS: You'd like to hope that elected officials understand the role of the library in a democracy, that is to provide access to information to everybody in the community.

ROSS: The Wasilla librarian [...] left two years later, and according to friends, because it was just too hard working for Sarah Palin. In a conversation with me yesterday, the librarian said she could not recall Palin ever asking for specific book titles to be removed from the shelves, but she acknowledged her treatment by Palin had been very rough. "I just don't care to revist that time in my life" she told me.

ROBERTS: You know, there's so much out there on the internet, and you know much of the information is wrong. In fact, in response to your story right there, the McCain campaign sent out this three pages to us, and they're trying to shoot down as much as they can. In fact, it was on the internet, a long list of books which just wasn't true.

ROSS: That's not true, that long list of books that some might have seen on the internet, that's simply made up. That was not part of this discussion. They mayor did raise the question of how to get books off the shelf, if people were picketing the library you'd take books off the shelf. The librarian was offended by that, as were members of the Alaska Library Association, who to this day remain very wary of Sarah Palin.

LABEL: BR SP ABC 09-10-09 7.10 (RAD#300) VBbEe

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Sarah
• Palin
• library
• book
• ban
• controversy
• right
• wing
• extremism
• evangelical

[AllMyTrials]

God save America from having this Britney for a president. We are fucked up.

[Madcitycobra]

Palin's husband Todd, was a member of the AIP (the party calls for a state vote that includes secession from the United States) from October 1995 through July 2002.

[OccamsRzzr]

Maybe the Ex-KGB was sending her smoke signals from Russia giving her these ideas.....

[tweakes]

As a Governor she shouldn't/wouldn't have any foreign policy experience (with a few, few exceptions), but this is HUGE. Why is this story not run more often but everyone talks about experience that 98% of governors in this country simply do not have (and basically Obama doesn't have)?  This is also an example of her firing two people questionably due to personal reasons. I don't understand ... banning books??? This is 2008!

[OutrageousSpirit]

Alaska belongs to Canada ;)

let us canadians have this babbling clumsy slut "sarah palin" and we'll definitely take care of her =)

the true position this dupe deserves would be cleaning Alaska from the moose-turds not being as a governor !!

she fuckin needs Mental Illness Treatments

[leondarrius]

Nice going Johnny boy! You picked a Dictator lol for Vp.!!

[merixcoatl20]

Britney for a president!! oh wait...shit

[desertbutt]

Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes

Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal

I walk tha corner to tha rubble that used to be a library

Line up to tha mind cemetary now

What we don't know keeps tha contracts alive an movin'

They don't gotta burn tha books they just remove 'em

While arms warehouses fill as quick as tha cells

Rally round tha family, pockets full of shells

They rally 'round tha family

With a pocket full of shells

[hiiamrick]

Palin sounds more and more like a NAZI to me.

[animalover6]

And today, in New York City, there is a gathering of Latinos for McCain! God help us!

[rhondadavis28]

She did not show well in this interview despite all her coaches trying to cram her head with information.

God helps us all!