Why is the media making a big deal out of Bristol Palin's pregnancy?

Question

lots of teens get pregnant.

what makes being the daughter of a vp nominee any different? if anything it shows just how real the palin family is compared to most political familes that shove problems under a rug and pretend to be squeaky clean.

they should be focusing on the election and not the family. and besides her mom is a republican therefore she couldnt get an abortion...so why are people going on about it?

is this what the election is coming to? preying on the teenage children of nominees?

Answer 1

Because to Liberals, family values apparently means trowing your 17 year old, pregnant daughter under the bus.  As an actual parent I can tell you whether it is Al Gore's son driving drunk and running from the Police, George Bush's daughters' underage drinking, Ted Kennedy's nephew convicted of murder or whatever, you do your best to help them make the right decisions.  But if they fail, you help them make the best of it.  You love your children.  

As far as religious values go, the Palin's do not just talk the talk they also walk the walk.  Religious belief systems are not about never sinning but trying to avoid sin.  If you commit a sin, you own up to it.

Do not mistake a lack of morality on the Left as superiority.  That is like saying "don't do nothing you don't do nothing wrong".  

*

Answer 2

I feel so sorry for Bristol Palin.

She is caught in this storm of controversy because her mom is such a hypocrite. Her mother says she is against abortion , then misuses her power to increase the probability of abortions. Her mother cut over a million dollars a year to help pregnant teenage girls in Alaska. Since the number one reason that young mothers give for choosing abortion is insufficient fiances to raise a baby Sarah Palin voted for measures that directly increase the probability of abortion. Sarah Palin also is against s*x education classes in school. These programs work to inform kids about contraception. She again promotes unwanted pregnancy that leads to the increase of abortion.

She cut programs to pay for these kids born into poverty.

She is such a hypocrite she does not deserve top hold office, let alone run the country after the aged McCain dies.

Sarah Palin is pretty on the outside but really ugly on the inside. A despicable creature that takes tax money from the poor and middle class to fund tax breaks for millionaires extravagances.  

She is a poor excuse for a human being.

I feel so sorry for Bristol Palin.

And oh yeah, once Sarah Palin actually forgot to wear a Flag Lapel Pin!

Now THAT is something we should all jump jump on and criticize!

Maybe she has a "funny" middle name we can criticize her for....

You ultra-religious neocon complainers make me sick.

Answer 3

Because they love wearing down someone else's confidence SO much for thier own good...the world lacks compassion and moral.

Answer 4

"is this what the election is coming to? preying on the teenage children of nominees?"

Only if they are Republicans.  Remember how Edwards and his mistress and lovechild were ignored?

Intelligent people see through this.  Obama's supporters either don't, or pretend this is okay-fine.  

Answer 5

It' s not about Palins. It's about McCain's idiotic choice. He made a farce of elections because even he knows that he can not win... So why not to play a  republican jerk and clown. Just to be like one in a white house...

Answer 6

Because the media is out to make any and all of Obama's opponents to look bad.

Answer 7

B/C she wasn't vetted properly and b/c sarah Palin has a radical stance on women's reproductive choices, s*x ed, and birth control.....she wants them all completely and utterly banned.

Answer 8

I sure wish you conservatives would leave this poor girl alone. Isn't it bad enough that she is trapped into marrying Levi "the redneck" and sentenced to a life of spousal abuse because her mom wants to be VP?

You conservatives have to parade her in front of the whole world, pointing at her big tummy and saying "See good people get pregnant". It is just so sad blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

Answer 9

Got me, usually it's only fundies that have a problem with this sort of thing. Politics turns normal people into pricks

Answer 10

Well I find it funny that Jamie Lynn spears got her praises sang while Bristol Palin is under much scrutiny.

They should be focusing on the election, but the media hates republicans so they will find anything wrong with any of the candidates.

Answer 11

I would say that the Republican party always makes an issue out of 'traditional family values' and one of those values that they continually bellow about is abstinence

Answer 12

Mom is militantly against s*x education and for abstinence.

Sure worked out well.  This "family values" BS is always a huge deal for republicans.  Guess they don't like it shoved back in their faces.

Hypocrites.

Answer 13

The liberal media have launched an offensive against McCain's vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin.  The New York Times suggested Palin wasn't properly vetted.  ABC News' Matt Dowd is saying that Republican delegates are turning on Palin.  I doubt that very much--it appears that just the opposite is happening--Republicans are rallying around Palin the face of this controversy contrived by the liberal media.

Let's take a look at the left's bill of particulars against Sarah Palin, gleaned from The New York Times:

1)  Her seventeen year-old daughter is pregnant.  

That this is being dwelled on by the media is shameful.  It is a nonstory, as http://www.notwrightforamerica.com/  covered earlier and even Obama says.  

2)  Palin's husband was arrested for DUI 22 years ago.  

That this is brought up is la joke--how many members of Congress have gotten DUIs?  And this happened when Mr. Palin was in his early twenties.

3)  Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party for two years in the mid-90's, and they support a vote on whether Alaska should secede from the Union.  

Alaska ain't New York City, and the politics there are much different than they are in the lower 48.  I can only imagine how those who are truly living on the Last Frontier feel about being bossed around by people like Nancy Pelosi.  But regardless, a two year membership in a party with a goofy secessionist plank is going to generate a collective yawn from the American public. Ironically, her voters registration card was released and this was proven to be another rumor.

4)  Palin has hired a private lawyer to defend her "in an Alaska legislative ethics investigation into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner."  (That quote from the New York Times.)

It's funny, I don't remember the media making a big deal of it the countless times the Clintons hired private counsel to defend them in various scandals.  And this also appears to be erroneous--the state hired the lawyer, not Palin.

Regardless, on the surface this last one is the most serious charge against Palin, but it falls apart even under mild scrutiny.

The essence of this matter is that Palin's staff is alleged to have pressured Alaska's Department of Public Safety Commissioner to fire a state trooper, and ultimately fired the Public Safety Commissioner when he did not do so.  This state trooper was involved in a nasty custody fight with the Governor's sister.

In the first instance this "ethics" investigation is being led by Senator Hollis French, a Democrat and a Massachusetts born, Cornell educated lawyer who advocates socialized medicine.  In other words, a liberal.  

The other thing you won't get from the liberal media is that this Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was appointed by Palin and according to the Anchorage Daily News, "she had a right to fire him for any reason."  This will shock you, but that important detail was left out of the Times story.  But if this is an investigation into whether Palin abused her power by firing Monegan, as the Times says, the investigation should be over already--she had the legal right to do what she did.  Hollis French, as a liberal lawyer, should know this.  That the investigation continues shows that it is nothing but a partisan witch hunt.

This sounds just like the selective outrage at Bush's dismissal of a handful of US Attorneys when the media barely made a peep when Bill Clinton fired every sitting US Attorney.

And here's another little tidbit that The New York Times does not want you to know about, and in fact left out of their story--the trooper who Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan refused to fire threatened to kill Governor Palin's father if he got a lawyer for his daughter in the custody fight.  And then the trooper lied about this in an internal investigation.

This "ethics" witch hunt reflects poorly on the liberal lawyer who is leading it, and the liberal, cheerleading media, not Palin.

It's time for McCain to stand up and denounce this anti-Palin garbage dump.  All he needs to say is that it has been clear from the start that the media are in love with Obama, and their anti-Palin feeding frenzy is just a part of their efforts to elect him.  And Palin's 17 year-old daughter Bristol is nothing but collateral damage to the liberal media, who have pulled out all the stops for Obama.

And it's time for conservatives to rally around Palin.  McCain could have picked Mother Theresa and the liberal media still would have found a way to savage her.

Answer 14

Because they are bored and they need to sell more oreo cookies to the obese couch  potatoes.

Answer 15

Funny how the media didn't report that Al Gore's son, also named Al, was arrested and released with a DUI (drugs) until AFTER the election even though he was caught DURING the election. He did something ILLEGAL and it was brushed under the rug. Palin's daughter made a choice that will make her grow up fast and loose a part of her younger years, but she and her fiance didn't do anything illegal.

Whether it's Clinton or Palin, the media....even female media members, just can't help themselves.

You have to ask yourself...why don't more people think like us and stop trying to make a SOAP OPERA out of all of this.

Good for you for questioning this nonsense. Who ever you vote for...I'm sure you're making an informed decision.

Answer 16

The left controls most of the media and the newspapers and they don't like palin.

They think Palin is a threat to their ideology and they are trying to smear her out of the race.

Answer 17

Simple.  A woman is attempting to break the glass ceiling without the help of liberalism or feminism.    

Answer 18

This a good example of how biased the left wing media has become. They are trying to bring her down so there Candidate will win. Even though Barrack has had the best comment on the whole thing, children candidates should be left out of the campaign. It also shows he has no control over the far left of his party.

Answer 19

yep--they always bring up stupid chrap that has nothing to do with the election--throwing stones helps some feel good I guess...don't know--I like the facts~~

Answer 20

Because the press is left wing media. Otherwise why wouldn't they mention Obama's cocaine/crack use in his 20's? Instead they focus on a teenager that has NOTHING to do with either canidates

Answer 21

HOW CAN IT NOT BE IGNORED?? THE MOTHER IS UTTERLY AGAINST s*x EDUCATION, ETC.. NO WONDER POOR GIRL GOT LAID.. MOST LIKELY SHE DID NOT KNOW WHAT A p***s LOOK LIKE?? PURE REPUBLICAN HYPOCRITES.

Answer 22

I think we have several forces working in concert here:

1.  After McCain's swift-boating in 2000, lot's of folks were pissed, but they just went home.  

2.  After Kerry's swiftboating in 2004, lots of additional folks were pissed, but a pattern was starting to emerge.

3.  After we have pretty much fig'd out the Bush/Cheney committed treason, getting into the Iraq war based on falsified intelligence, many more people were pissed, many of them in the military, or with loved ones there.   The 2006 election was proof.

Paybacks can be h**l, and they are often are aimed at a target that conveniently presents itself.  

But maybe this will start a useful conversation.  Alaska leads the country in percentage of women raped, 79 / 100,000, as compared with the overall US average of less than 40 / 100,000.  In Anchorage, the numbers are worse, by about 30% more.  Also, since many of the women being raped are young, and unprepared, the % of unwanted pregnancies resulting from these crimes is approaching 25%.   See:  http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/forum/20/4... for more info.

I think in Alaska we appear to have an epidemic of rape.  Much of it appears to be date rape amongst teens.

So, instead of focusing on the pile-on upon Bristol and her "not the brightest bulb on the string" jock beau, maybe we can extend this conversation to something more useful:  Teaching young men to respect women.   s*x education would help girls becoming women to protect themselves, but all teens should be taught that intimacy also must be accompanied by resonsibility.   Will they make mistakes, sure we all have, but more dialog 'tween parents and teens in Alaska appears to be wanting.  

Perhaps this young couple have ended up being the poster-children (having children) that illustrates this point.

Answer 23

BECAUSE THE PALINS ARE SUPPOSELY CHRISTIANS AND

BELIEVE IN FAMILY VALUES !!    

Answer 24

It's really really simple, liberals are duplicitous hate mongers.  Actually working the policy differences, naw, they take to the clintonian politics of personal destruction.  And as you can see, liberals drink it in.  I would love to have seen them attacking Chelsea about her father being a lying w***e.  But once again, the old double standard is considered a badge of honor to the liberal press.

Answer 25

They are grasping at straws...McCain.2008...bd

Answer 26

People are just curious about Palin's life.  McCain picked her and in the process made it clear that she has a compelling life story.  And now, when the life story becomes politically uncomfortable for his party, they complain about media bias?  I personally think that minors should be off limits for media coverage but hey, everyone knows the rules going in.  McCain supposedly knew about the pregnancy before the selection and now he has to deal with it.

Answer 27

The republican party allowed the religious right to hijack their party decades ago and become the party of "Family Values", which is against pre-maritial s*x and having children out of wedlock. If they cannot live up to their morals, then it is a poor reflection on them.  

It shows that abstinent only programs are not working, so why only advocate them and not be open to teaching our youth about the responsibilities and consequences of sexual activity.

They rather push their moral agenda than rather coping with reality.

Answer 28

I'll tell you why it is a big deal.  The republican party under the leadership of Bush has spent millions of tax-payers dollars funding abstinence groups.  They even pulled funding from groups that give out condoms.  The republicans therefore brought this issue up, not the democrats.  If they are going to insist on bringing religion and abstinence into world politics then they shouldn't be so hypocritical about us pointing out that Palin's daughter did not practice what her mommy preaches.

Answer 29

The BIG DEAL~~~

When someone is a proponent for abstinence as the only from of s*x education, which out the information of how to prevent other then just say NO there ends up being a very high rate of teenage pregnancy.  Higher then when the kids were taught about condoms and the Pill. When the VP candidates teenage daughter turned up pregnant it's just another point on Bush's Failed Policies.

A policy which both McCain and Palin support.