Vanity Fair Writer Admits Mistake in Palin Story

A Vanity Fair writer admitted on Friday to a case of mistaken identity in his article about Sarah Palin in the magazine’s October issue. In the story, Michael Joseph Gross describes Palin’s youngest son, Trig, who has Down syndrome, being pushed in a stroller by his older sister, Piper, before a Kansas City rally. The error, which was originally reported by Politico, is that the boy was another child with Down syndrome, not Palin's. What’s more, the mother of the child, conservative activist Gina Loudon, said she made it clear to Gross during the rally that the child was hers. “I told him that. And he ignored it,” Loudon told the Associated Press. “It's not even like he didn't fact check—he just ignored facts.” Palin, in response, referred to the article as “yellow journalism” in a tweet.