Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair - writer admits wrong

The scathing profile of Sarah Palin in the latest issue of Vanity Fair now comes with a twist.

Reporter Michael Joseph Gross, whose article leads some readers to believe that Palin would go to any lengths to lie about anything, continues to find himself in a growing controversy.

This time, Gross admitted to the Associated Press in a written statement that he was wrong on at least one of the facts in the October article.

In that article, Gross writes: "When the girl, Piper Palin, turns around, she sees her parents thronged by admirers, and the crowd rolling toward her and the baby, her brother Trig, born with Down syndrome in 2008." He then went on to say that "Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, bend down and give a moment to the children; a woman, perhaps a nanny, whisks the boy away; and Todd hands Sarah her speech and walks her to the stage."

Gross would later go on to write that Piper would later join her mother on stage to "allow Palin to make a public display of maternal affection."

But there appears to be a big problem as Gross relays what he say, first reported by the website Politco.

The boy Gross described was not Trig, but another child who lives with Down syndrome.

That child's mother, Gina Loudon, had told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she told Gross during the rally that the child in the stroller was her son and not Palin's and that she tried to make that very clear since, she says, the two children look very much alike.

"I told him that. And he ignored it," Loudon said. "It's not even like he didn't fact check – he just ignored facts."

Gross has admitted that "Trig was with his mother the next day in Wichita (Kansas), but the child in Independence was someone else, and I regret the error."

Palin would be quick to jump on Gross's mistake and in a tweet called the article "yellow journalism."

A spokesman for Palin's political action committee calls the article a "collection of lies."

When reacting to Gross's article, Palin used several sexual metaphors to describe Gross.

"Those who are impotent and limp and gutless and they go on their anonymous -- sources that are anonymous -- and impotent, limp and gutless reporters take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references," Palin said on Sean Hannity's radio program. "It just slays me because it's so absolutely clear what the state of yellow journalism is today that they would take these anonymous sources as fact."

According to americasnewsonline.com, the article is essentially an all-out assault on Palin.

The website claims Palin "is depicted as a bad mother and wife, a tyrant to work for, and an all around mean person. The article berates her character and paints her as a she devil."

As a mom, the website says the article depicts Palin as "a horrible mother who uses her kids just to further her career....as a controlling mother who puts her own needs ahead of those of her children...."

As a wife, the website claims Palin is described as a woman who "seems to have her husband, Todd, on a very short leash and she seemingly controls his every move."

And finally as a boss, the website goes on to say "Palin is next to impossible to work for.....This woman seemingly is such a powerful woman that if you talk out of turn about her she will reduce your life to ruins."

On the website, thestir.cafemom.com, writer Sasha Brown-Worsham talked about Gross mistaking one child for another.

"It's a big mistake. A really big one, "she said.  "And it calls into question the validity of everything else Gross says in the piece, which is a real shame because it's likely that the truth is in there. Now it's hard to know what to believe."

Brown-Worsham went on to say, "In reading the piece, it's curious how an entire profile can be written without an interview with the subject.... There is just no excuse for a mistake of this caliber in such a visible publication."

Vanity Fair, so far at least, stands by its article.

Click here to read the previous article where Gross describes Palin as someone who essentially lies about everything.