Thursday, February 19, 2009

Oh, How Times Change

During the presidential race, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that 17-year-old daughter Bristol and her boyfriend Levi Johnston were expecting a baby and asked for everyone to "respect our daughter and Levi's privacy". It didn't take long for many individuals on the right (Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, etc.) to claim that the "liberal media" was not adhering to that request. For example, Nancy Pfotenhauer, an advisor to John McCain's presidential campaign, uttered this during an episode of "America's Election HQ" on FOX News: "Shame on them for trying to make a political issue out of a private family matter. And I think in the end that ultimately they just hurt their own credibility when they do this. The American people are kind and understanding and this is real life and they know that. And I'm sure their hearts go out to the family. Their hearts go out to the young woman who is having this played out on national television."

Privacy for a young mother and father? I can certainly agree with that. However, if privacy is so important to this teenage couple, then why did Gov. Palin and her daughter conduct a two-part interview earlier this week with Greta Van Susteren on FOX News's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren"? I'm just speculating here but maybe it's because the presidential race was decided in November. With that being said, we all know that, if one of President Obama's daughters had reached trailer trash age and announced that she was pregnant during the presidential campaign, the McCain/Palin camp and the media (both liberal and conservative) would be talking about that story non-stop. By the way, did you happen to see Bristol's response to a question from Van Susteren regarding contraception? "I think abstinence is, like -- like, the -- I don't know how to put it -- like, the main -- everyone should be abstinent or whatever but it's not realistic at all." Priceless.

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