HBO defends Palin portrayal in "Game Change"
(CBS News) HBO is defending the accuracy of its new film "Game Change" in the wake of preemptive claims from Sarah Palin's aides as well as Republican Sen. John McCain that the film is an inaccurate attack.
The film "is a balanced portrayal of the McCain-Palin campaign," according to letter from an HBO representative that was sent to Hotsheet along with an early copy of the film. Quentin Schaffer, HBO's Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications, went on to say that the filmmakers were careful to make sure they got the facts right.
According to Schaffer, the two authors of the book that served as the source material for the film - also called "Game Change," and written by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann - checked "every draft of the script to ensure its historical accuracy and thoroughness." He adds that "when their book came out in 2010, it went unchallenged and unrefuted by the Palin camp."
During an appearance on "CBS This Morning" on Monday, Sen. John McCain - who is portrayed by Ed Harris in the film - said the source material was precisely the problem.
"If it's based on that book, which I was briefed on, then of course it can't be accurate," said McCain, who described the book "Game Change" as "full of unattributed quotes, things that absolutely never happened."
Schaffer says the scriptwriter, Danny Strong, spoke to 25 people involved in the campaign, including senior aides, and reached out to both McCain and Palin in an effort to get them to consult and watch the finished film. (Both declined.) Schaffer also says filmmakers used Palin's memoir "Going Rogue" as a secondary source and brought on Palin's 2008 deputy chief of staff, Chris Edwards, to help ensure the film's accuracy.
Last month, Palin aides held a conference call with reporters in which they attacked the film, though they acknowledged they have not seen it.
Palin's former spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said the film's trailers along get "my blood boiling," while former Palin aide Jason Recher deemed it a "false narrative cobbled together by a group of people who simply weren't there." Stapleton said "Game Change" reflects an acceptance of "the false narrative of a couple of people who sought revenge," a reference to former McCain adviser Steve Schmidt and others. Schmidt, who is played by Woody Harrelson in the film, describes "Game Change" as accurate and fair.
Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in "Game Change."
/ HBO FilmsPalin said in May that she would "just grit my teeth and bear whatever comes what may with that movie."
"Well, I am all about job creation, and I guess I could provide some of these gals who pretend like they're me some job security," she added in an appearance on Fox News. "I would ask, though, that if they're of the mind of spreading the wealth around that perhaps they want to spring for one of my kid's braces or something as they capitalize on pretending to be me."
SarahPAC, Palin's political action committee, labeled the film "fact change" in a video posted on March 1, saying it "presents a history that never happened." Some Republicans are calling the film election-year propaganda that reflects the fact that "Hollywood wants to do whatever they can to discredit the right and the Republicans," in the words of former Hollywood Republicans president Mark Vafiades.
"Game Change" director Jay Roach told "CBS This Morning" on Monday that the film is a "true story grounded in interviews with the key figures involved in the campaign.
"I think it's a dramatization, but it's really compelling and it raises all the questions, I think, need to be raised about our political system," he said.
Roach also said the film was meant in part to "humanize" Palin, adding: "She was, at the beginning of it, she was under incredible attack. She had a kid going off to Iraq. She had a 5-month-old baby with Down Syndrome. Two daughters, one pregnant and she's thrown on to the national stage with very little time to prepare for that."
Movie critic Roger Ebert wrote in his positive review that "Game Change" does indeed humanize Palin, though he describes her as someone who "lacked the preparation or temperament to be one heartbeat away from the presidency."
"There is a moment in 'Game Change' when she's alone, and we see the hurt and sadness in her eyes when she realizes that people are finding her lacking," he writes. "She's like a student who studied hard for the exam and failed anyway. The people love her. Alaska still loves her; that's why she's so urgent about the results of an Alaska poll on her popularity. Why are these media creatures being so cruel? Why is everyone picking on her expensive wardrobe? She didn't want the damn fancy clothes in the first place."
Popular in Politics
- Poll: Most think IRS targeting was deliberate 120 Comments
- IRS scandal highlights leadership vacancies
- Obama: "Full focus" is on recovery from Oklahoma tornado
- Former IRS chief: "I can't say" what led to IRS targeting
- Va. GOP candidate: Planned Parenthood "more lethal" for blacks than KKK 834 Comments
- Officials on Benghazi: "We made mistakes, but without malice"
- Top Obama officials knew about IRS probe, says WH
- Letter to a young scandalmonger
Since bailing out on her oath as governor of Alaska, "for the good of the people" (cue the shmaltzy patriotic music) and getting her butt kicked in her 2008 VP bid, Palin had four years to learn how to at least LOOK like a viable, qualified candidate for national office.
What improvements did she make? Well...she got herself an ok boob job...but she still seems to feel that minor details should be looked after by underlings (North Korea, South Korea...who cares? I'm a CELEBRITY)
I don't know if she's really that stupid...It seems more like willful ignorance brought on by an incredibly lazy streak probably developed during her six-year college tour, shopping for schools that would give her academic credit for her substantial collection of incompletes. Otherwise, she'd still be a sophomore!
Sarah Palin resigned because she recognized the cost that the frivolous ethics complaints were having on her state , and she saw how much of her staff's time and her own time were forced to deal with those issues.
**********************
Are you a relative of Palin's?
You seem to be completely full of what she has proven herself time and time again to be completely full of...
academic credit for her substantial collection of incompletes. Otherwise, she'd still be a sophomore!
She is most certainly sly...possessing a low animal cunning that has prompted her to betray and turn on every political mentor from Wassila Mayor John Stein (a former Palin family friend...and a Lutheran) orchestrating a whispering campaign, saying that a vote for Palin was a vote for "Wasilla's first Christian mayor" and that Stein and his wife, who had retained her maiden name, were not legally married...
To her Republican colleagues on the Oil & Gas Commission whom she denounced as corrupt when she made her move for the governor's chair...many of her charges the very same ones that she labeled "petty and frivolous" when they were leveled at her along with other ethics charges of misuse of power...
All the way to John McCain who cynically (and stupidly) chose this unqualified, unstable, vindictive bimbo as his candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States of America. She quit the McCain/Palin 2008 campaign very early on to work full time on what she probably THOUGHT would be the Palin 2012 campaign.
All this would be bad enough if not coupled with a pathologically vindictive streak that is shockingly evident from even a cursory look at her tenure as mayor and governor. Anyone who disagreed with her was labeled a "hater" (along with "hate", the most oft-used word in the semi-literate Palin's lexicon) and that person is to be bullied, vilified and preferably fired. She still has charges pending for that.
When and how did we know that the upcoming HBO film "Game Change" would be a total and complete hit job produced only with destroying Sarah Palin in mind? Well, we knew that the moment the film was announced back in March of 2011. For starters, the material upon which the film is based, the book "Game Change," written by left-wing political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, is itself a hit-job, and a poorly sourced one at that.
HBO claims that "Game Change, the book, was applauded by audiences and pundits on both ends of the political spectrum." Really? If this is true, just like the writers of the book, HBO doesn't name any of their sources to back it up. There are plenty of people on the record however, who did not applaud John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's work.
Howard Kurtz wrote that the authors not identifying their sources was a "recurring weakness" in the book, and later added: The most cooperative sources may have gotten to spin the narrative their way, and no one - such as Steve Schmidt, the former McCain aide who has publicly criticized Palin - was pressed to be on the record."
Don Campbell from USA Today called it: "A gossipy, behind-the-scenes presidential campaign book once again illustrates how the public is poorly served by some in the political press corps."
There were people who were close to Palin during the 2008 campaign who took issue with Heilemann and Halperin's work, however. During a conference call with reporters, Jason Recher, who worked for Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign, said that the book did not reflect reality.
From the Associated Press: "Palin wasn't the primary focus of the book, and he said he told screenwriter and co-executive producer Danny Strong that the book "absolutely, unequivocally" did not accurately reflect his time with the McCain campaign.
During the same conference call, Randy Scheunemann, who also worked as an adviser to Palin during the presidential campaign said: "If the book was very misleading, the movie's going to be far worse." Other current and former aides to Palin who attended the conference call, criticized Heilemann and Halperin "for writing about Palin when they weren't physically there covering the things that were reported in the book."
"Game Change," which is to air March 10, depicts Scheunemann explaining to Palin that Germany was the antagonist in both World Wars. (In the scene, a note-taking Palin, played by Julianne Moore, does not indicate whether she knew this or not.)
"The idea that there was at any point that Gov. Palin expressed any uncertainty as to who were the various sides in World War I or World War II ... or any other war is absolutely untrue," Scheunemann said. "She was incredibly intelligent. She asked very informed questions. She was very interested and she wanted to understand John McCain's view of foreign policy because she wanted to be the best possible vice presidential nominee."
"We all know Palin sells and the dramatization of Palin sells even more," said Stapleton, who, like Crawford and other Palin spokespeople, rarely if ever returned reporters' phone calls. "This is sick. The media has gone too far. You accepted the false narrative of a couple of people who sought revenge and fabricated a story more than three years ago," she said, referring to Schmidt and Wallace.
Recher and McMarlin traveled with Palin during the 2008 campaign and have been at Palin's side during nearly every public appearance she has made in the last year or so. Recher said he reviewed daily schedules and plane manifests from the campaign and concluded that neither author of "Game Change" was ever present, and that Schmidt was present on only five of 200 bus or plane trips taken by Palin during her two months of campaigning.
Sarah Palin carried the campaign. She would have led the Republicans to victory had it not been for the September financial collapse and McCain's disastrous decision to suspend his campaign so that he could vote for the TARP bailout in Washington.
After the election Sarah Palin rallied the conservative base yet again. She helped lead Republicans to the greatest congressional victory in several generation.
Game Change isn't journalism; it is gossip-mongering at its worst. Why do I say that? Well, essentially the whole book was written on "deep background" — meaning that none of the sources would agree to be directly quoted and the authors would preserve the anonymity of the sources. No one is accountable for what they said. The sources could say or make up whatever they wanted. Campaign staffers who were miffed or bruised over their treatment could vent about anyone with abandon and not suffer any backlash.
The book is twenty three chapters in length, and only two of the chapters (40 pages) include Sarah Palin's time in the campaign, yet this was sufficient for HBO to shape a whole movie around. Why? The movie will air on March 10th, shortly after "Super Tuesday" when a number of GOP presidential primaries will be held. Sarah Palin was long anticipated to be one of the GOP 2012 presidential contenders, but opted not to run this election, and those involved in the film—from the director to the supporting actors—have donated generously to Democratic candidates
HAR HAR HAR!!!
Bill Maher, is a commedian and is on a PAY per VIEW venue. That means you must take money out of your wallet and give it to HBO to watch Bill Maher. Limpy, on the other hand, can be tuned into by ANYONE, including backwood idiots, but hides behind being an ENTERTAINER, but continually portrays himself as the leader of the new conservative movement. If you do not want to see Maher, stop paying HBO.
This is not a free speech issue. Limpy has every right to say what he wants. This is a free market issue. If I do not like how Limpy treats women (blacks, Jews, Catholics or any other ethnic group that is not a rich, fat, cigar smoking white guy), I have the RIGHT boycott is advertisers.
I thought you baggers were all about free market? Why do you hate America....?
On the other hand, Limbaugh is on the Armed Forces Network, which is paid for by TAXPAYERS.
Now THAT is outrageous.
When and how did we know that the upcoming HBO film "Game Change" would be a total and complete hit job produced only with destroying Sarah Palin in mind? Well, we knew that the moment the film was announced back in March of 2011. For starters, the material upon which the film is based, the book "Game Change," written by left-wing political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, is itself a hit-job, and a poorly sourced one at that.
HBO claims that "Game Change, the book, was applauded by audiences and pundits on both ends of the political spectrum." Really? If this is true, just like the writers of the book, HBO doesn't name any of their sources to back it up. There are plenty of people on the record however, who did not applaud John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's work.
Howard Kurtz wrote that the authors not identifying their sources was a "recurring weakness" in the book, and later added: The most cooperative sources may have gotten to spin the narrative their way, and no one - such as Steve Schmidt, the former McCain aide who has publicly criticized Palin - was pressed to be on the record."
Don Campbell from USA Today called it: "A gossipy, behind-the-scenes presidential campaign book once again illustrates how the public is poorly served by some in the political press corps."
There were people who were close to Palin during the 2008 campaign who took issue with Heilemann and Halperin's work, however. During a conference call with reporters, Jason Recher, who worked for Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign, said that the book did not reflect reality.
From the Associated Press: "Palin wasn't the primary focus of the book, and he said he told screenwriter and co-executive producer Danny Strong that the book "absolutely, unequivocally" did not accurately reflect his time with the McCain campaign.
During the same conference call, Randy Scheunemann, who also worked as an adviser to Palin during the presidential campaign said: "If the book was very misleading, the movie's going to be far worse." Other current and former aides to Palin who attended the conference call, criticized Heilemann and Halperin "for writing about Palin when they weren't physically there covering the things that were reported in the book."
"Game Change," which is to air March 10, depicts Scheunemann explaining to Palin that Germany was the antagonist in both World Wars. (In the scene, a note-taking Palin, played by Julianne Moore, does not indicate whether she knew this or not.)
"The idea that there was at any point that Gov. Palin expressed any uncertainty as to who were the various sides in World War I or World War II ... or any other war is absolutely untrue," Scheunemann said. "She was incredibly intelligent. She asked very informed questions. She was very interested and she wanted to understand John McCain's view of foreign policy because she wanted to be the best possible vice presidential nominee."
"We all know Palin sells and the dramatization of Palin sells even more," said Stapleton, who, like Crawford and other Palin spokespeople, rarely if ever returned reporters' phone calls. "This is sick. The media has gone too far. You accepted the false narrative of a couple of people who sought revenge and fabricated a story more than three years ago," she said, referring to Schmidt and Wallace.
Recher and McMarlin traveled with Palin during the 2008 campaign and have been at Palin's side during nearly every public appearance she has made in the last year or so. Recher said he reviewed daily schedules and plane manifests from the campaign and concluded that neither author of "Game Change" was ever present, and that Schmidt was present on only five of 200 bus or plane trips taken by Palin during her two months of campaigning.