"Babies, Lies & Scandal" Author is a Conservative

Mara Reinstein, US Weekly reporter Photo credit: Glamour Health & Fitness

US Weekly reporter Mara Reinstein says she is the "Elizabeth Hasselbeck of US Weekly;" her parents are the only Conservative Jews in Detroit, and she supports John McCain and Sara Palin. Nevertheless, she wrote the cover story with the egregious cover headline: Babies, Lies & Scandal. When the news came of Palin's daughter's pregnancy, Reinstein, excited that Palin was a "mother of five and she hunts!, knew there was trouble ahead. Reinstein opines:

Rule No. 1 when running for the second-most important position in the free world: Never allow yourself to draw comparisons to the Spears [Brittany and Jamie Lynn] family. The day only grew more frustrating as the revelations trickled into my inbox: The vetting process was rushed... Palin got her passport last year... wait, she called her former opponent what?! Oy.

I'll believe Reinstein if she says she is Conservative, but just one comment: Rule No. 1 when writing a cover story for a national magazine: Never assume the "revelations" trickling into your "inbox" are "facts. "The facts were out there," you say, "and there was no way to sugar-coat them." Palin was not a member of the Independence Party - "Alaskan state officials have said...that's a lie," and you needn't bother with sugar-coating facts that are not facts. The vetting process was NOT rushed. I don't know about you, but the "drama" of short vetting is a real irritant to me. It's a feckless accusation that Liberals and Republicans have repeated and the media has droned on about. McCain is not exactly an amateur. I remember back months ago when her name was mentioned (here's one example) and we heard the name as Pal-in, not Pay-lin, as we now know to be correct. Without a credible source, how would anyone in the media know that the vetting process was rushed? It's a good question, Mara, and here's another: Did you come up with the cover title or does your editor take the credit?