An e-mailer tells me he thinks The Star's print edition underplayed the "outrageous news item" about Sarah Palin's objections to a joke in a David Letterman monologue last week. The gag was about Palin's daughter getting "knocked up by Alex Rodriguez." Video:
The Prime Buzz blog was all over it:
http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/18856
http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/18859
http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/18838
There was a wire story about it in Sunday's paper, and today's Kathleen Parker column centers on it.
Myself? I'd say the column today is a fine way to touch on it, as Parker looks at the wider issue of public figures and their privacy, especially in relation to conservative women. I think it's a topic made for the Opinion section (and for the bloggers and other commentators who carried it aloft last week).
But I don't think the whole thing is much of a news story. I find Letterman's explanation that he was referring to Bristol Palin, not 14-year-old Willow, perfectly believable. Bristol, after all, is the one who was already impregnated out of wedlock. Not to mention it's not as if Letterman goes after Republicans alone. Longtime viewers remember joke after joke after joke about Bill Clinton's infidelities, eating habits, legal troubles and so on.
And let's be honest and look at this from a standpoint of political maneuvering: Part of Palin's strategy is to distance herself from the cultural mainstream, which many conservatives find great fault with. She's working it on purpose.
Disingenuous
Mr. Donovan,
You're being incredibly disingenuous when you say that Letterman's explanation that we has referring to Bristol Palin is believable. That's nonsense.
Saying that jokes about an 18-year-old daughter of a governor are equal to that of a sitting president is faulty logic.
We'll see if you have a similar reaction when someone makes a joke about Sasha or Malia Obama. Of course, there will be no jokes about them for the next four (hopefully) or eight years.
Jokes about the children of public officials should be off limits no matter what their party affiliation.
Letterman
"I find Letterman's explanation that he was referring to Bristol Palin, not 14-year-old Willow, perfectly believable."
It is believable that the joke about a between innings trist was not about the 14 year old attending the game with her mother? It was really about a sibling not traveling with them that day? I guess I missed more than I thought in the humor.
This is similar to the leap in logic it takes to equate a sitting president of the United States in the middle of legal proceedings to a 14 year old daughter of small state governor.
“Bristol, after all, is
“Bristol, after all, is the one who was already impregnated out of wedlock.” So, a teenager who gives birth out of wedlock is a fair target for comedians and political pundits? I know that horse left the barn decades ago, but one would hope that as a society we would have more sensitivity about a family problem such as a teenage pregnancy. After all, Bristol Palin never asked that her privacy be taken away; it was her mother that chose the public spotlight.
Hades will freeze over before it happens, but people in this country really should leave public figures’ children alone. And that standard should be applied to all public figures, whether they are liberal or conservative. It was disgusting the way some commentators made fun of Chelsea Clinton’s appearance during the 1990’s, and it was wrong for Kerry and Edwards to attempt to exploit the fact that Dick Cheney has a lesbian daughter. And the Star shouldn’t have allowed an unsubstantiated rumor to be posted about Palin’s oldest son in Midwest Voices; the Star and the author of the posting should have apologized for doing so.