Joe McGinniss Defends 'The Rogue'

(Newser) – Looks like Joe McGinniss is in full spin mode after reviewers largely decimated his new biography of Sarah Palin. Although The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin depicts her as a racist, bulimic bully who indulges in religious nuttiness and extramarital affairs, 68-year-old McGinniss insists his book is no hatchet job. The Daily Beast serves up these McGinniss gems:

• On The Rogue engendering sympathy for Palin: “I don’t know anyone who’s not a card-carrying member of the Tea Party who would believe something as foolish as that."

• “I would say that 90 percent of what I learned is not in the book because I couldn’t check it out. I wrote only the things I was able to satisfy myself about as to their authenticity, as to their accuracy, as to their truthfulness.”

• McGinniss says he evaluated his sources "on the basis of 40-plus years in journalism. By this point in my career, if I can’t tell what’s true and what somebody’s making up for nefarious reasons, I’ve been in the wrong business all this time."

• On his vague chat with former Miami Heat star Glen Rice, from which McGinniss concluded Palin had slept with Rice: "I think it’s pretty clear. ... That’s certainly the impression I came away with."

• "I wrote the best book about her I was able to write. Now if that causes people to feel sorry for her, I would suggest they might be missing the point. Maybe I should have made it a little stronger."