AP recently published an article the cites a leaked preliminary report (improperly leaked) alleging that Sarah Palin violated ethics rules by accepting donations to help with her legal defense. A legal defense fund was established by her supporters to help with all the legal bills she is incurred in her defense of numerous frivolous charges. I'm not aware that Palin has actually accepted any of the funds, and even if she did, I'm not convinced it violated any ethics rules.

Regardless, when reporting a story such as this, one would think the AP would want to conduct a little fact checking and also check out is source, the investigator Thomas Daniel. Also, they teach you in journalism school (or they did when I studied journalism) that you should always try to corroborate information you receive from a source from 2 other independent sources. Since many sources have an ax to grind or other hidden motive, it helps to weed out such biases that might color the facts you are given.

The investigator, Thomas Daniel, happens to be an attorney. . . a very active Democrat attorney that is a partner in the very Democratic firm of Perkins Coie.

A simple Internet search will result in the discovery that the firm serves as counsel of record for the Democratic Party and its candidates; it represented John Kerry's presidential campaign and recently represented the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama. The firm also represented Christine Gregoire in the litigation surrounding her 2004 Washington State gubernatorial election, and Al Franken in his legal battle over the 2008 Senatorial election in Minnesota. Perkins Coie also represents the Democratic Leadership Council, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Just how independent and impartial does anyone think this Thomas Daniel is?

For more information, check out:

"Will someone please teach AP how to Google!" by Clarice Feldman on AmericanThinker.com
"Rules for Being Sarah Palin" by James Taranto on wsj.com
"AP: Palin implicated in ethics probe" on www.msnbc.com