Anne Kilkenny

Anne Kilkenny has garnered a lot of attention for this email about Sarah Palin she sent to 40 of her friends. Now she is the feature of an article in the LA Times, was interviewed for an article in the NY Times, was able to post her letter on Huffington Post's site, and the list goes on. This is a really good example of how far and how fast information can travel these days. It also defies the top-down hierarchy we talked about in class. Her email was passed on and forwarded to thousands which eventually got the attention of the mainstream press. I may be careful what I say in mass emails from now on. But it was a story circulating through emails, making it to facebook and other blogs first. I know I received it shortly after the convention.

What also interested me about this story is the concept of credibility. Kilkenny is not a member of the press and does not have connections with either campaign. She is an average Alaskan who happens to have direct experience with Palin as a politician. She claims she doesn't necessarily have an agenda, but she thinks voters have a right, even an obligation, to be informed about the candidates. She was willing to be that informant. Of course she has her supposrters and her critics , but the press seems to be taking her seriously. My question is what makes her credible? The fact that she dealt with Palin's politics in Wasilla? The fact that her story has made it into major new sources? When I received the email, i read through some of it but mostly disregarded it as some disgruntled person ranting and exaggerating a "version" of the truth. Having seen her story in the papers and having the context I think I would take it differently now.