Governor Sarah Palin made a book deal with Harper Collins, and AP book writer Hillel Italie began like he was describing a shark attack: "You knew it was coming." Italie concluded his story with Palin's snarky critics insisting she doesn't have the brains to write a book:

Palin has never written a book and her critics, noting her disjointed CBS interviews with Katie Couric, have questioned whether she could. Two years ago, Palin told PBS' Charlie Rose that her favorite writers were C.S. Lewis ("very, very deep") and a Runner's World columnist, Dr. George Sheehan.

Even as he questions Palin's gravitas, Italie needs to issue a correction here: the interview in question is found on the Charlie Rose website -- dated Saturday, September 6, 2008. In this brief "Green Room" interview, which are online exclusives, Rose is absent from the interview, as is any interviewer. The actual question asked by the Rose staff is edited out. It only says on screen "favorite authors."

Taking a dig at outgoing President George W. Bush while lauding President-elect Obama as a man of letters, Associated Press writer Hillel Italie suggested that well-respected writers are welcoming the arrival of a "literary president-elect." Italie suggested that it was admiration of Obama's writing style and intelligence, not his liberal ideology, that pushed authors Toni Morrison, Ayelet Waldman, and novelist Michael Chabon into the Illinois Democrat's cheering section.

Yet Italie left out of his November 6 story how Morrison, Waldman and Chabon are reliable donors to the Democratic Party and left-wing groups and candidates like MoveOn.org and former Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.):