New Lows for an Old Bottom-Dweller
It seems that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Why WRTV, a respected Indianapolis television station, would want to dignify a blog (and a “commentator”) that utilizes phrases like “MILF” and “GILF” is beyond me; maybe they expected it when they hired her. It wasn’t like she didn’t have a record of going low (placing the social security numbers and bank account routing numbers of political opponents up on the internet, as just one example).
They probably didn’t expect the whole vulgar slang acronym thing to come along with it.
The internet is ripe with rumors of all kinds, about all sorts of people. Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama, and now Sarah Palin have all been the target of a variety of vicious internet rumors that have yet to be substantiated by facts.
First came the smears about Trig Palin not being Sarah Palin’s son, but instead the son of Palin’s daughter Bristol. The origin of these rumors appears to be a photo in which Bristol Palin looked somehow pregant (because of a quirk of her posture) and her mother (with her family standing in front of her) didn’t.
I still can’t see it, though.
This photo, in turn, sort of dispelled all of that (though some on lefty blogs opined that Governor Palin must have been wearing a fat suit, and still others speculated that the whole thing was a plot by Karl Rove to make them look stupid).
See the photo after the leap.
But the irrational smear-frenzy hasn’t stopped.
From the people that brought you the “Grandson Trig Palin” non-story and the “it’s all a plot by Karl Rove” theory comes speculation that Bristol Palin’s boyfriend and the real unborn Palin grandson is ten years older than her.
Aiding in the spreading of this latest nuttery? Jen Wagner and WRTV in Indianapolis, with a healthy dash of vulgar slang acronyms added in on an ostensibly family-friendly site for good measure. The title of the post appears on the front page of the network’s website, and I’d normally assume that WRTV likes to have as family-friendly a website as possible.
What uncomfortable questions such acronyms must raise, and uncomfortable shifting in chairs it must cause from a lot of people that aren’t used to seeing that sort of stuff at all, let alone on a news website (regardless of how ingrained it might be in more net-centric and youth-centric culture). Typically, a basic level of decorum and civil discourse is expected on the official websites of local ABC affiliates.
I mean, hey, in this photo Jen Wagner looks about as pregnant as Bristol Palin did in the one above (that’s Jim Schellinger with her in the photo; he still hasn’t endorsed Jill Long Thompson):
Maybe she’s got some questions to answer!
And when she’s answered those, I bet there are more to be asked!
By tomorrow, the feeding-frenzy media will know who Bristol Palin’s boyfriend is. They’ll know his age, his height and weight, his hair and eye color, and they’ll know that he farted in church real loud that one time ten years ago.
And by then, the bottom-dwellers on the internet will have yet more questions, and they will complain that the McCain campaign hasn’t vetted Sarah Palin properly because it didn’t ask them. Is this Levi really the father? Maybe incest was involved? Maybe she’s a surrogate mother? Maybe it’s another Levi? There have to be a lot of Levis in Wasilla; maybe they mean Old Man Levi, the dirty crusty hermit that lives in a cabin out on a hilltop north of the city, looking down on Whoville with a sour grinchy frown, hating the Whos.
Anyway, heck, in the time it took me to write this, all of the questions about Bristol Palin’s boyfriend, one 18-year-old hockey-playing Levi Johnston in her same high school class, were answered. He’s been with Bristol “more than a year,” and apparently they’re “already engaged.” He’s also got a criminal record, having been caught salmon fishing out of season. The horror!
My money is still on more internet rumors, and more stupid questions derived from those rumors, though. Tomorrow will bring new invented absurdities about Sarah Palin, and more invented absurdities about Barack Obama and every other candidate. Only the ones about Sarah Palin will be the subject of media feeding frenzies, though.
This post is also available at Hoosierpundit.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:36 am
Nobody seems to remember that Alaska is still a frontier society. And nobody seems to remember what Heinlein wrote about frontier societies, young women and young men who grow up in them, and the high rate of young frontier women standing up at the altar to be married with cheerfully-ignored baby bumps.
Yeah, sure, it’s the 21st century, not the 19th, and birth control works a lot better these days. But who really cares? I’m a lot more impressed that she’s keeping the baby and marrying the father than I am upset that she’s pregnant.
Let’s see what happens if one of The One’s daughters ever gets pregnant out of wedlock. Why do I doubt the outcome would be similar to Bristol’s?
And Sarah Palin’s husband was arrested for DUI twenty years ago? Hell, that just qualifies him for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.
These radical lefties are sad, sad people.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:34 am
The One has a lot of room to talk. In his very own adopted home city, 20-somethings that are grandparents are not uncommon. Friend that was a CTA bus driver had a woman on one of his routes that served a southside housing project. This woman was a 25 year old grandmother.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:44 am
Love the pictures, especially the one of Jen! I’m LMAO!
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:52 am
I made the mistake of making a couple of comments on Jenn’s post. It was a mistake by dignifying her sewage with traffic. But I also wrote the news director of WRTV asking that they edit this as they would any other opinion piece they would put on the air. They certainly wouldn’t let porn codes to be used for the simple purpose of driving traffic.
I understand the left/Democrats wanting to do the research and digging on Palin. They should have already done it, but they are inept that way. I can even understand trying to use Bristol’s pregnancy as a knock on abstinence programs.
I don’t understand labeling a sitting governor and future VP nominee with porn codes. Jenn should not only be removed from the WRTV blog, but she should be unable to get a job with any reputable organization. Of course she will continue on simply because she is provocative. Of course, she is not anywhere close to the worst offender on the left. But the general electorate will eventually see who lives in the gutter.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:50 am
Nathan points out: Yeah, sure, it’s the 21st century, not the 19th, and birth control works a lot better these days.
…but Sarah Palin doesn’t want that birth control talked about in public schools.
Regarding politicians picking on the children of candidates… how soon we forget John McCain, from 1998…
“”Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”
Fortunately, Obama has made it clear that anyone on his staff who picks on Bristol will be fired. Some people have more values.
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Do you honestly think that kids have children out of wedlock because they don’t know about birth control? It is interesting to hear people who have had children while in High School. Usually when asked about why they didn’t use some for of birth control and the result is essentially “it won’t happen to me.” (The same thinking applies to their driving habits, too).
It is a non sequitur to connect the efficacy of birth control and whether or not it is taught in public schools.
I don’t think we have a situation of politicians picking on the children of candidates. We have surrogates. BTW, the McCain comment seems to be an unsourced, unsubstantiated quote. From the Salon article: “Though no tape of McCain’s quip has yet emerged, this is what he reportedly said:”
As far as the values of Obama are concerned, even if he turns out to be above board on his threats (which are unconvincing to me), we do still have his abortion and living children positions; his treatment of fellow Democrats in Chicago; his treatment of his friends and mentors; and his duplicity regarding his friends and mentors that he has not thrown under the bus yet. Forgive me if I don’t buy that he has “more values” than McCain or Palin.