Sunday, October 5, 2008

Our Friends at Fox News

I have learned some information today that is quite an eye-opener. I hope you all have your fortifying glasses of chianti gripped firmly in hand when you read this - as I have while writing this.

In early 2008 an Israeli filmmaker named Frank Elan set out to make a documentary on exceptional women in the world. He asked Sarah Palin if he could include her and she said yes.

He followed her around for four days (one source says three) in early April, 2008. I do not know exactly which four days but we do know that April 8th was one of the days, so we are talking within ten days of the time she gave birth. After the announcement of her selection by John McCain, word spread quickly in the media of the existence of this footage. Ultimately, Frank Elan sold the footage to Fox News, who also signed him on as a commentator.

I have not been able to determine if the footage acquired by Fox is everything that Elan shot in three/four days of following her (which could easily be many hours of raw footage) or if what they purchased the rights to was an edited version, something he had already put together for potential inclusion in his documentary, which would then be much less, but still probably 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

Greta Van Susteren used some small pieces of it in a bio she did of Palin. Here is a link to it on the Fox News site. For some reason I can't find it on YouTube. Watch for some of Elan's footage right at the one minute point and again at the three minute point. There is also more from Frank Elan of her talking in a black jacket and multi-colored scarf - look for the polar bear pin - but it is all from the neck up.

Beyond this very limited use of the footage, I cannot see that Fox has used any of it. According to Elan, the footage includes: "I have her with her family, making sandwiches for her daughter after school, watching television. I spoke to her husband and asked him about how it feels to be married to such a dominant woman. I have the two of them talking about private matters. I was able to catch very intimate moments on film. She even played the flute for me." In short, stuff that Fox would love.

So why hasn't Fox showed any of this touching footage? We have one other clip of this footage, from an English language Israeli website. It contains a sequence in which Palin meets her daughter Piper at the schoolbus stop, and we get one brief - but pretty clear - full front shot of her.

I have taken screen shots of this and will post them in my follow up post. But I encourage you all to watch the video which is here. And here is a link to the article about the shoot.

And then I would suggest to you that just maybe the reason that Fox appears to have trash-canned the rest of this footage is that this is not video of someone who gave birth to a six pound baby ten days later.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

The plot sickens.

I do recall some of the Sustren special, and it showed Palin with all her children except Bristol. It did, however, show her having a phone conversation with Bristol, which I found rather peculiar at the time.

It would be very much like Fox, would it not, to hoard the footage and hire the filmmaker to keep him quiet?

At some point, this is all going to come out. Right now, Palin is such a liability to McCain that perhaps the truth - this truth - won't be needed to end the GOP's chances. But even if McCain loses the election I do hope this story doesn't die, and that Palin is revealed for lying if she faked a pregnancy.

Michael Waskom said...

They should all burn for this, if and when the truth comes out. I as a male have been around a lot of pregnancy and home births so I have a special place in my heart for women bearing children and this woman seems suspect to me.

Something isn't siting right, and it's that she's hiding something. The skeletons in her closet will open the door, and start talking.

Anonymous said...

The link to the Jewish Journal video doesn't work. You have to then search at the site with video and Palin as terms to find the link. Here it is:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/video/article/video_israeli_documentary_director_elan_frank_shoots_sarah_palin_20080923/

Anonymous said...

That link didn't work for me but I found the video on that site and made a tiny URL:

http://tinyurl.com/4d3wlw

Anonymous said...

In the Greta VS video, did anyone else notice that picture of Sarah pregnant with Track (the one in the red top where she is big as a house)? It showed up for just a second, right BEFORE the part about the elopement!?! What's up with that?

So i assume there is more to the Fox video that isn't here? Or could they be saving some stuff for release in the next few weeks.

In what we've seen, I certainly agree that she looks as unpregnant as ever.

Anonymous said...

Fox signed the Israeli filmmaker as a commentator. This is odd, odd, odd? I'm Jewish myself and love Israel, but for goodness sake (or doggone it, as Palin would say) how many obscure Israeli filmmakers are commentators on national networks? Let me put it this way, it's not kosher.

Audrine said...

A few updates: First, Morgan, in the Susteren special, I think there were several shots of Palin with her kids, but much of the footage used in that special did not come from Frank Elan. The only child shown in any of the Elan footage that I have seen is Piper... just a very short shot of her in a kitchen in the Susteren special and the longer clip of her getting off the school bus.

The Fox video is complete. It's about nine minutes long and this is what was shown on the the network. But the point is that Fox has available to it a large amount of footage from that first week in April from Frank Elan that the network apparently has never showed.

Also - this is pure speculation - but I also think it's odd that they signed him as commentator. Signed him as exclusive? Signed him as now he can't talk to anyone else? I have no idea if this is true, but while I don't watch Fox, I did search YouTube to see if I could see any more of him ON Fox. Other than one appearance on the morning show, I can't find any more. So they don't seem to be using him much.

Audrine said...

Also I just tested the link and it works for me... Maybe the site was down for a while last night.

Anonymous said...

Does it seem that she wears the same clothes over and over again? Didn't Vogue magazine call her a "Fashion Plate"? And yet, we see the same clothes.... hmm.....

As always, Audrey, thanks for the sleuthing!

~~Emma

Anonymous said...

the link in your blog post seems to only go to the article, but from there, there is no link to the video itself. I found it searching the site, too, at the same URL as Anon.

Anonymous said...

To Audrey's last comment that it is odd that the obscure Israeli filmmaker has been signed as an exclusive Fox commentator, but has apparently only been seen once on Fox, I repeat, IT IS NOT KOSHER. In fact, it smells like pork.

Audrine said...

I want to be clear. I could only find a reference to one appearance on Fox, and that was on the morning show. The statement that he had been "signed as a commentator" came from the video that was on the JerusalemJournal website. It's possible that that is not accurate either. It's also possible he has appeared more than once, and I was just not able to locate it.

However, it does not change that it "appears" as if Fox may have tied his hands, both on talking to anyone else and on the use of the footage.

Audrine said...

Sorry... correction... JewishJournal not JerusalemJournal

Anonymous said...

Some of the footage is here (between 2:33 and 3:33):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umkQvms9PjM

Check out the discussion with Piper -- it really is too much to bear.

And where's Bristol?

Anonymous said...

Are there any pictures at all anywhere of "pregnant" Sarah (post-pregnancy-announcement and before Trig's birth) without a jacket on? None whatsoever? Why's that?

In the Frank footage, how long after she gets home from work does an eight-months-pregnant woman leave her work suit jacket on?