December 24, 2008

PETA at war with Palin's office

PETA v. Palin: Drop the video game or we'll sue!

PETA received a call from governor Sarah Palin's office this week and Palin's spokeman Bill McAllister wasn't in the mood for laughs.

Yesterday morning, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk took a call from someone in Sarah Palin’s office, demanding that we pull down a new online game that involves pelting the Governor with snowballs. When she asked for his name, he yelled into the phone, “Just take the game down or you’ll read my name on the lawsuit.”

http://www.peta.org/feat/HolidaySnowballFight/index.aspx (Gov. Palin’s stage is actually the culmination of the game—you also get to pelt Anna Wintour, Madonna, the Ollsen twins, and Col. Sanders).

Here’s our Blog about the call:

http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/12/palin_to_peta_d.php

Within a few hours of our posting information about the call on our Web site, the Governor’s communication director, Bill McAllister, emailed (he must have been monitoring to see if the call would have the desired effect), and our President had an interesting follow-up exchange with him.

I think the threat, exchange, and game would make an interesting item (note just how rude Mr. McAllister becomes). The full exchange is posted below—read from the top (rather than bottom up).

Comment from me, if you’d like it:

Sarah Palin is a bully who never saw an animal she didn’t want to kill, so it’s not surprising that her staff would try to intimidate us anonymously and then backtrack when called out. Our game represents a fun way to focus attention on a very serious subject—cruelty to animals supported by Sarah Palin and the other targets of the game—and we have no intention of taking it down in response to these pathetic attempts at intimidation.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I am on vacation today, so if you don’t hear back quickly from me via email, feel free to call my cell phone.

Happy Holidays,

Bruce

Bruce Friedrich

VP, Policy & Communications

PETA

cell: 202.306.2020

BruceF@peta.org

Full exchange:

From: McAllister , William D (GOV)
Sent: Tuesday , December 23 , 2008 11:26 AM
To: christined@peta.org
Subject: The PETA Files

Your website claims we have threatened to sue you. What do you base this on? Be specific.

Bill McAllister

Director of Communications/Press Secretary

Office of Governor Sarah Palin

907-269-7446 ( Anchorage )

907-306-5201 (cell)

From: Ingrid Newkirk [mailto:ingridn@peta.org]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 11:52 AM
To: McAllister, William D (GOV)
Subject: To answer your enquiry:
Importance: High

Dear Mr. McAllister,

We base this on a phone call. Why don’t you ask in your office and be specific as to on what grounds you can sue us? We know that we can use the game as it’s pure parody. I thought people in Alaska had a sense of humor? Ingrid Newkirk

From: McAllister, William D (GOV) [mailto:bill.mcallister@alaska.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 3:54 PM
To: Ingrid Newkirk
Subject: RE: To answer your enquiry:

That’s not very specific. Who called? Name and title given? Did you even attempt to verify it was genuine? Or are facts just cumbersome?

From: Ingrid Newkirk [mailto:ingridn@peta.org]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 11:56 AM
To: McAllister, William D (GOV)
Subject: RE: To answer your enquiry:

Do they train you to be rude?

From: McAllister, William D (GOV) [mailto:bill.mcallister@alaska.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 3:58 PM
To: Ingrid Newkirk
Subject: RE: To answer your enquiry:

OK, so the bottom line is, you have attitude, but no facts. Sounds about right.

From: Ingrid Newkirk [mailto:ingridn@peta.org]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 12:21 PM
To: McAllister, William D (GOV)
Subject: So, are you backing down up there?

No, YOU have attitude, and it’s a bad one, and so did your legal emissary who must have gone to the same charm school.

From: McAllister, William D (GOV) [mailto:bill.mcallister@alaska.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 5:03 PM
To: Ingrid Newkirk
Subject: RE: So, are you backing down up there?

Our still unnamed legal emissary, huh? Whether or not I’m charming in your eyes, at least I’m accountable.

From: Ingrid Newkirk [mailto:ingridn@peta.org]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 1:59 PM
To: McAllister, William D (GOV)
Subject: sorry?

You will be when you die, don’t you think? Did someone put Red Bull in your water cooler? Are you now saying that no one called from your office, that’s my question, or did the person who called overplay his hand, or what, not that I really care any more?

From: McAllister, William D (GOV) [mailto:bill.mcallister@alaska.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 6:09 PM
To: Ingrid Newkirk
Subject: RE: sorry?

To answer the question in your subject line, yes, you are sorry.

I wouldn’t know if the person who (allegedly) called overplayed his (a man, then? – still waiting for more details) hand. No one here knows what you’re talking about.

Oh, you used to care? Which decade was that?

From a PETA press release