Palin Rips Reality TV Contestants in New Book

(Newser) – Sarah Palin's new book comes out next week, and leaked excerpts from America By Heart have made their way from anti-Palin blog Palingates to the "lamestream media." The book is part memoir, part manifesto, and while some of Palin's targets—including Levi Johnston, whose rise to fame was "disgusting to watch"—are unsurprising, one in particular is getting attention: reality TV. She slams the "talent-deprived" contestants of American Idol, comparing the contestants to Americans who expect the government to provide for them.

Idol contestants suffer from "the cult of self-esteem," she writes. "No one they have encountered in their lives—from their parents to their teachers to their president—wanted them to feel bad by hearing the truth," she writes. "So they grew up convinced that they could become big pop stars like Michael Jackson." She hails daughter Bristol's work to promote abstinence, calling her a better role model than Murphy Brown, but the book appears to have gone to the presses too late for Bristol's Dancing With the Stars success to get a mention.