Another example of liberal dishonesty: even when the rumor of Palin banning books and firing a librarian was proven false, mischief makers are still spinning it.
The books Palin was potentially interested in removing from the library had to do with the topic of being gay.
But the Frontiersman reporter who wrote that article in 1996 now says Emmons told him Palin did mention three books that she wanted removed from the shelves.
Paul Stuart is semiretired, though he still occasionally contributes articles to a weekly paper, the Mountain Ear, in Conway, N.H., where he lives.
Stuart told PolitiFact that in a conversation with Emmons after his article ran, she listed three titles. He said he could recall only two, and initially said they were I Told My Parents I'm Gay and I Asked My Sister. We looked for these titles; they don't appear to exist.
"Mary Ellen told me that Palin asked her directly to remove these books from the shelves," Stuart said. "She refused."
Asked later if the first book could have been Pastor, I am Gay, a controversial book written by a pastor who lives just outside Wasilla, Stuart said that was it.
Howard Bess, author of Pastor, I am Gay and former pastor of Church of the Covenant in nearby Palmer, recalls that his book challenging Christians to re-examine their ideas about and prejudices against gays and lesbians was not well received in Wasilla when it was published in 1995 the year before Palin was elected mayor.
Virtually every book store in Wasilla refused to sell it.
Bess said he gave two copies to the Wasilla Library, but they quickly disappeared. So he donated more copies.
The controversy over the book was part of the context of that time period, he said. "Knowing Sarah's religious connections and the people involved, I would be surprised if my book was not one of those at issue," Bess said. "But I don't know that for a fact."
"I don't think anyone has the facts except Mary Ellen, and she ain't talking," Bess said.
www.politifact.com
