Ready for More Palin Derangement Syndrome?

Wait until the Palin haters see this. Now the woman who haunts the angry left can be found at newsstands and convenience stores nationwide.

One of the things Sarah Palin has sought to do since stepping down from the governor's office in Alaska is seize control of her image. So it is perhaps a sign of how difficult a task that remains for the GOP's former vice presidential nominee that a new single-issue magazine has hit newsstands and convenience stores around the country. It claims to present "Sarah Palin: The Untold Story...in her own words!" -- and it was produced, according to its publisher, without her knowledge or participation.

Retailing for $8.99, the 100-page glossy magazine, titled "Sarah Palin: Faith, Family, Freedom," hit newsstands in mid-January and was jointly published by a fashion-publishing subsidiary of international marketing firm IMG and Imagine That Publishing. It will remain on sale through April 30.

"The genesis of it was really simple," said Steve LeGrice, the publisher and editor of Imagine That. "We're up here in New York, and there was clearly this huge enthusiasm for Sarah Palin, and at the same time all the people in the media world were sitting around scratching their heads" about how people could support her.

"What we decided to do is put out a magazine all in her own words," he said -- a magazine "without any opinion or anything added in."

"This is an independent project," said LeGrice, who has never met Palin but says he "would very much like" to. "We are not endorsed by her at all."

LeGrice knows a market when he sees one -- in 2002, the publishing veteran was a founding editor of In Touch magazine, a supermarket celebrity-and-gossip competitor to US Weekly, and he has a long history in mass-market media. IMG and Imagine That Publishing have previously collaborated on single-issue magazines on topics as diverse as Michael Jackson, Michelle Obama's style and the stars of the Twilight saga's "New Moon," he said.

The Palin issue contains what LeGrice said are family pictures of Palin not previously published by a magazine -- including her as a child with her siblings and a dead bear bleeding over a stump; picking through shot white birds; holding a cardboard box of fish freshly caught at an ice hole; and with moose antlers still attached to a fragment of bloody skull.

It also shows her as cute and chubby little girl with glasses, the lone brunette among three blond and sandy-haired siblings.

"I want people to know what I stand for and judge me on that ... read in my own words who I am. Don't believe the things that are made up," the magazine quotes Palin as saying.

LeGrice said the childhood and family photos were obtained from private sources by a photo editor. A spokeswoman for Palin declined to comment.

The volume's print run is "in the hundreds of thousands" and "a substantial number," LeGrice said -- and it has been selling well.

The nuts are already filling up the comments at the WaPo.

$8.99 for a magazine all about Sarah Palin? Seriously?

I still think Sarah Palin wants to be a cult leader. Kind of Hitler-esque for her to think she's got all the answers to the world's problems. . . .She can't even solve the problems in her own family!!!


Posted by: momof20yo | February 2, 2010 7:37 AM | Report abuse

Palin = Hitler. OK...

Then this gem:

Does she swallow?

I wonder how long this post will last

Posted by: barferio | February 2, 2010 3:34 AM | Report abuse

Well, it's lasted nearly five hours despite this policy:

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