Hair-Gate II - Bristol Palin Adjusts Her Mother's Hair-Clip

The media really has really outdone themselves this weekend. Throwing anything and everything at Governor Palin during her humanitarian trip to Haiti, including their own stupidity.

This time, the press went nuts insinuating that Governor Palin brought her hairdresser along with her to the impoverished nation. But it wasn't the governor's hairdresser in the picture they note as evidence:
It was Bristol, simply adjusting her mother's hair-clip. Kristinn at Free Republic writes:

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin traveled to Haiti this weekend as a guest of the Rev. Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse to spotlight the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the earthquake and cholera-stricken Caribbean (half an) island nation. Instead she has found herself embroiled in a scandal, accused of bringing a hair stylist on the trip to make herself look good for the cameras and “photo-ops.”.

The Associated Press transmitted a photo from Haiti of Palin captioned, “Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, has her hair done during a visit to a cholera treatment center set up by the NGO Samaritan’s Purse in Cabaret, Haiti, Saturday Dec. 11, 2010. Palin arrived Saturday in Haiti as part of a brief humanitarian mission. Dieu Nalio Chery / AP”

That photo and caption set off rabid attacks on Palin from the Huffington Post, the U.K.’s Daily Mail and, of course, Palingates.

The photo does indeed show Sarah Palin standing with her husband Todd as a woman whose face is obscured uses two hands to fix the hair on the right side of Palin’s head.

However, one can observe that the woman is white, with her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing a white shirt with a bulky scarf and dark pants.

In other photos from Saturday, Todd and Sarah Palin’s white, brunette, eldest daughter Bristol, who accompanied her parents on the trip to Haiti, is wearing the exact same clothing and ponytail as the “hair stylist” in the AP photo.

That’s right, what the Palin-hating AP and others fail to report is that the “hair stylist” is Bristol Palin.

As you can see in this image posted by Greta Van Susteren, that is clearly Bristol in the scarf. The same scarf worn by the "hairdresser" in the above photo.

This is not the first time the media has been involved in a wrongheaded attempt to scandalize Governor Palin's hair. Back in 2009, Tim Lindell wrote about the ridiculous claim that some in the media made - that Governor Palin was losing her hair. The governor's hairdresser, Jessica Steele took that meme apart pretty swiftly.

Just as in the first instance, the very LAME-stream media shot themselves in the foot trying to create false perceptions about Governor Palin, while using her hair to do so. The first time they wanted to portray her as stressed out and weak. This time they recycled the old, "Diva" meme left by the backstabbing brigade of the McCain presidential campaign. With other photographic evidence available, the media's wishful thinking, is just that. Governor Palin is the opposite of what they want the public to believe.

The AP's Blatantly Biased Haiti Coverage

The Associated Press provided another example as to why the media cannot be trusted to cover anything Governor Palin does fairly. AP "reporter" Jonathan Katz, wrote an article about the governor's recent trip to Haiti with Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse. Katz opens his article by saying:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began a tightly stage-managed visit to Haiti on Saturday in which she visited cholera clinics while avoiding crowds and the press.

"Stage-managed" eh? As to imply that this is just some sort of staged political photo-op, no doubt. It wasn't, but regardless it is not Jonathan Katz' job as an AP reporter to make that assumption in the first place.

He then goes on to say (emphasis mine):

Palin, who traveled in part by helicopter, provided access on her tour solely to the U.S. cable network Fox News.

Graham's organization, Samaritan's Purse, refused to discuss Palin's itinerary with other media and asked Haitian and American reporters to leave its compounds, citing a "security lockdown."

It should be noted that Greta Van Susteren was asked by Franklin Graham (this is not the first time Greta has accompanied Graham on an overseas trip) to come to Haiti, it wasn't Governor Palin who set that up.

Rebecca Mansour weighed in on Twitter to say:

Jonathan Katz of the Associated Press is a liar. He knows very well that Samaritan's Purse was in charge of press in Haiti, not Gov. Palin.

Also

I told him myself repeatedly. He also knows very well that for security reasons, Samaritan's Purse did not want to release their itinerary.

Katz and others in the media seem to be saying two different things in their articles about Governor Palin's trip to Haiti. They imply it was a photo-op on one hand, then complain about a lack of access on the other. So which is it? I gather this is just more, 'throw the kitchen sink' at Governor Palin to see what sticks.

Jonathan Katz then writes:

Associated Press television journalists saw Palin talking with foreign aid workers. She wore cargo pants, a T-shirt and designer sunglasses on her first trip outside the United States since speaking to investors in Hong Kong last year. That speech was also closed to the media.

Why is JonathanKatz reporting on Governor's Palin's wardrobe? The last time I checked, Katz wasn't a fashion reporter. Who cares what Governor Palin wore on a humanitarian mission? Some might say that it was sexist of Katz to include that in his article. I'll leave that up to readers to decide for themselves.

By the way, as Ian noted earlier, Governor Palin and Franklin Graham held a press conference on Sunday in Haiti from the Samaritan's Purse camp. So, no this trip was not closed to the media. You can see a photo from that presser here.

Update: I was just reminded that the Hong Kong speech was not closed to the media. Katz was wrong about that as well. The Wall Street Journal covered the Hong Kong event here.