Sarah Palin and the ‘myth’ she is Trig’s mother

A professor explains why he thinks it 'unlikely' that Sarah Palin is the mother of her 'son' Trig

Forget the 'birther' myth of whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Here's a conspiracy theory that might actually be true... Sarah Palin is the grandmother of her 'son' Trig.

If you feel like you've heard this one before, that's because you probably have. The rumour that Sarah Palin pretended to be Trig's mother to protect a family member (presumed to be her daughter Bristol) came out during the 2008 election campaign and was quickly discarded as mad by the vast majority of the US media.

But Brad Scharlott, a professor of journalism at North Kentucky University, has been doing some digging and has explained why he believes it is "unlikely" Palin is Trig's mother, in an academic article that is highly critical of the media for its complicity in what he calls a "spiral of silence".

First of all, the official story, which, incidentally, has never been truly confirmed by Palin.

She gave birth to Trig on April 18 2008, four months before it was announced that she would be John McCain's running mate for that year's presidential election. The story goes that, eight months pregnant with her son, whom she knew to have Down syndrome, she gave a speech in Texas. While there, her waters broke. Rather than go straight to hospital, she caught a flight back to Alaska (total journey time 10 hours), where she gave birth at her local hospital, the Mat-Su.

Professor Scharlott has a number of problems with this version of events, particularly:

• The Mat-Su "lacks a prenatal intensive-care unit, which would make it a less-than-ideal choice for the delivery of a premature baby with complications". On her way back home from Texas she passed several better-equipped hospitals.

• After Palin gave birth, her husband Todd emailed three of her aides to say her speech in Texas "kicked ass" but failed to mention the pregnancy.

• Airline personnel on the Palins' flight home did not notice Palin was pregnant.

• Palin has never directly confirmed the story of her waters breaking in Texas.

He also takes Palin's doctor to task for using a "tortuous circumlocution" to avoid directly confirming where and when Trig was born or who delivered him in a statement released the day before the November 4 election.

An extract from the statement reads: "[Palin] followed the normal and recommended schedule for prenatal care, including follow-up perinatology evaluations to ensure there was no significant congenital heart disease or other condition of the baby that would preclude delivery at her home community hospital. This child, Trig, was born at 35 weeks in good health."

Scharlott also mocks the McCain campaign for offering as 'proof' that Trig must be Sarah's son the fact that Bristol was five months gone at the September Republican convention, when her pregnancy was announced. Well, yes, but only if you believe that a) Bristol was five months pregnant and b) Trig was born in April. Besides, would producing Trig's birth certificate really have been that difficult?

But Scharlott's real target in his article is the mainstream media – a target Sarah Palin has frequently excoriated herself under the tag 'MSM'.

He contrasts the ubiquity of stories about the myth that Obama was not born in the US with the dearth of articles regarding the Palin pregnancy hoax.

His explanation? A "spiral of silence" in which "individuals who sense that their views are outside of what the mainstream of society considers acceptable will censor themselves, so as not to be subject to scorn or rejection by those in the mainstream. The more individuals who hold a minority view censor themselves, the more outside of the mainstream the minority view will seem".

One of the reasons, he believes, that Obama birthers are more vocal than Palin pregnancy fakers is because of the belief that "it is in the best interest of the Palin family to leave the alleged hoax alone".  

In other words, US liberals are nicer than conservatives.   ·