How Sarah Palin’s Facebook page works
More than one Nathan Deal fan, over the last few weeks, has mentioned that they’ve registered their disappointment with Sarah Palin on her Facebook page – for her endorsement of Karen Handel in the Georgia race for governor.
It is a logical venue for complaints, given that Facebook is the vehicle that Palin used to announce her support of Handel shortly before the July 20 primary.
But a one-day trip through comments on Palin’s Facebook page shows only one disagreeing post, made more than 24 hours ago:
Louise Stewart Shackelford: I am a big fan but I wish you had done more research before making your endorsement of Handel for Gov. of GA. She is not a good candidate just because she is female.
John Dickerson at Slate may have found the reason for the absence of pushback from Georgia in a short piece on Palin’s use of this social media forum:
Palin’s Facebook page is a key tool in her public brand management. She has used it effectively to project her message, appear connected with voters, and bypass the traditional media (while simultaneously using it to rebroadcast her message).
In a recent Facebook post, she celebrated her 2 millionth fan on the site and the size of her reach. “Two million! Wow! That’s more than some cable news shows. Thank you all and let’s keep the momentum!”
How much work does it take to keep everything so sanitized? To help me find out, my colleague Jeremy Singer-Vine wrote a program to capture comments to Palin’s page before the clean-up crew could arrive. …. All these posts were initially public, if only for a few minutes.
We looked at the comments to 10 Palin posts over 12 days, capturing the deletions in the 24 hours after the posts were live. In that period, a rough average of 10 percent of total posts were deleted.
Dickerson has a link explaining how his program works. Among those comments jettisoned, he says, were “complaints about [Palin's] endorsements of so many female candidates.”
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
68 comments Add your comment
icanseerussia
August 4th, 2010
8:31 am
@jimmie the racist, thanks for re-affirming what we all know about Caribou Barbie’s followers and the tea party mob. Bigoted half-wits, just like you.
Billy Joe Poteet
August 4th, 2010
8:52 am
@Alabama Communist
“Governor Sara Palin Facebook page. It will lower your IQ by 10 points”
This? Coming from somebody from Alabama?
The Snark
August 4th, 2010
8:58 am
Who gives a damn who Sarah Palin endorses? The woman doesn’t know anything about government, much less about which local candidates would do a good job at government.
The endorsement game is purely about trading endorsements for support in future elections.
Jessica
August 4th, 2010
8:58 am
Sarah needs to sit down, shut up and go back to Alaska and take care of her children. Her daughter, Bristol, is obviously hurting and where is mom? Somewhere running her mouth about stuff she knows nothing about. She has young children yet she is jetting all over the country. Maybe she needs to be a mom FIRST so her other daughters won’t end up with “baby daddies”.
The Real Politico
August 4th, 2010
9:16 am
Dawgfan
August 3rd, 2010
8:37 pm
@Billy Joe Poteet, Mr. Deal changed his position on Race to the Top because he actually spoke to the public and those affected by it to further understand it. That’s what a true representative of the public does…listens to those they represent.
Shouldn’t someone running for Governor know the facts BEFORE he speaks?
MoreChoices
August 4th, 2010
9:42 am
Why do you think you have to vote for a Republican? If you are conservative and want candidates who won’t spend all your money, vote Libertarian in the general election.
Billy Joe Poteet
August 4th, 2010
9:44 am
In the reading of some of these posts, I see that some of us have begun using coarse language and racial epithets. We have differing opinions and are free to express them. The use of coarse language and racial epithets indicates a writer’s inability to express an opinion adequately and poses a question of whether they should even be posting here. In other words, if your education and intelligence is not adequate to the task, you might consider some other venue. But that is just my opinion . . .
MidGaRetiree
August 4th, 2010
9:45 am
Does anyone seriously think that Sarah Palin is the only politician with a FaceBook page that sanitizes comments to her posts??????????????????????????
Palin the Demague
August 4th, 2010
9:46 am
Sarah Palin likes to whine that she is a victim, especially of the press. She just proves repeated that she can dish it out, but she can’t take it, not even mild criticism. She’s the typical conservative hypocrite.
deegee
August 4th, 2010
10:16 am
Well, shut my mouth! Should we be surprised that Palin endorses candidates that she doesn’t know after McCain selected a VP candidate that he didn’t know? Palin is to politics as Ronald McDonald is to the fast food industry. BTW, I know of at least one toddler that is scared to death of Ronald McDonald.
Karen Walker
August 4th, 2010
10:55 am
Here is a pro-Deal post that survived Rebecca’s editing process:
On the note entitled, “Another Victory for the Second Amendment”
“Speaking of supporting the Second Amendment, the NRA and GeorgiaCarry.org have endorsed the true conservative, Nathan Deal, over Karen Handel in the Georgia governor campaign.
Palin deletes roughly 10% of all her Facebook Comments :: Georgia Liberal
August 4th, 2010
11:02 am
[...] an AJC article, it was found that approximately 10% of all her comments are deleted: How much work does it take to [...]
How Sarah Palin’s Facebook page works – to remain sanitized | Georgia Elections News
August 4th, 2010
1:02 pm
[...] A one-day trip through comments on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page, where she heralded her support for GOP runoff gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel, shows only one disagreeing post. Some might wonder how that is possible. Read more. [...]
Just Peachy
August 4th, 2010
1:22 pm
actually if you look in the notes where Sarah actually endorsed Karen (still on her fb page in a note July 13th) the negative feedback is still there. There were thousands of comments of which included positive and negative. She may have the stuff on the wall deleted but if you posted to her actual endorsement it’s still there. And yes that includes all of you that said, “I hope you’re reading this and take it back.” Sarah still endorses Karen! Headed here this Monday to rally with her.
Belinda
August 4th, 2010
1:22 pm
Very interesting. But don’t you think ALL political candidates do this on Facebook. Probably all “public people” do. Celebrities of all types.
Deal. Real.
August 4th, 2010
2:27 pm
Governor Palin don’t write her facebook notes. Rebecca does.
Diehard
August 4th, 2010
3:53 pm
So who has written a thank you note to John McCain for creating this disaster for our party?
Mildred Rolan
August 4th, 2010
10:56 pm
I would take delight in having a female governor but it must be one who is educated and qualified without an impulsive temperament. We don’t need an emotional menopausal woman for governor.