“Kids are off limits!” screams Jon Stewart about the attacks on Willow Palin, just because she took to Facebook to call some kid a “faggot.” Stewart sort of sounds like the kiddies at GOProud, a sentence I never thought I’d read, let alone be the one to write. And while I completely agree that the children of politicians shouldn’t be subjected to additional scrutiny because they are in the public eye, I have a general rule: Calling people hateful slurs is unacceptable for human beings of any age. We’ve identified other online and offline trolls regardless of age, because behavior that is dismissed as “kids just being kids” far too often becomes “teens just tormenting other teens” and then “adults just assaulting other adults.” Should Willow be dragged through the mud for the next two years over a stupid Facebook comment? No. Should we use the opportunity to pressure her mother to recognize that anti-gay bullies hit close to home? Absolutely. Since when did we offer one iota of tolerance to cyber bullies?
lay off
Jon Stewart Wants Everyone To Cut Some Slack For Cyber Bully Willow Palin
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Chad
The only reason she’s targeted at all is because of her mother. Kids say dumb things that they regret —and yes, the label of idiot does apply to Willow, but it’s nothing she can’t grow out of.
Take your animosity and focus on Sarah for being a bad mom. Not warning her children that her lust for the spotlight would result in everyone around her also being under the microscope of the media is negligence.
Possibly she could claim to be ignorant of this fact, but that would just be RETARDED, wouldn’t it, Mrs. Palin?
peteNsfo
Nope… you don’t get to have it both ways. Jon is correct, she’s a kid, but she’s also part of what is now, a media-family. All of them have made it into the headlines one way or another- scripted or otherwise.
At the very least, it is an opportunity for them to have a frank discussion with their daughter, and for the mutha to express that she and her kid now understand the detrimental affects of such poor choice of words.
And on the cynical side… could Jon be posturing for “get” interview w/ media-shy Palin??? Media-shy when she’s not in complete control, that is.
gregger
She’s on the television show Sarah Palin’s Alaska. She is NOT a private citizen. Every other child in the media is subject to scrutiny, why is Jon Stewart trying to protect this H’phobe?
Henry
You can bet your last dollar that if she had called the kid a hateful term for jew or black, he’d be all over this like white on rice.
Chad
@Henry
Yes, the uproar would be even more riotous from the public had she used a racial slur. But let’s get real. Racial slurs are out of fashion, and it’s near guaranteed that the Palins would have instructed their children to not use racial slurs, online or otherwise. But it still comes back to bad parenting, lack of guidance, and lapse of common sense.
And yes, she may be on television, but she wouldn’t be a public figure in that respect without the wishes of her parents.
It absolutely goes back to parenting.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
As other post, When Letterman made a joke directed at Bristol for being a slut who got preggers unwed at 18, Pallin and her rightwing lunatic backers hijacked the issue and deliberatley misled the issue to say Letterman was directing the joke at Willow who was 14 at the time. The lunatics were screaming about how “fragile” Willow was and that she is “just a kid” and shouldn’t be dragged into the public arena.
So please don’t give us the bullshit that Willow is not 100% familiar with how public her and her family are and that anything she puts out there in a public fourm can and will be picked up. She knew exactaly what she was saying and for Stewart, normally a staunch ally of the Gays to defend her is 100% wrong. As correctly pointed out above if Willow called a Black kid a nigger, you can bet the farm there would be universal condemnation and Scarah would apologizing all over the tube……..
Mike
This is a combination of her being a 16 year old girl and being ignorant. Even tho the family is no stranger to the spotlight, anyone with a brain would know that like Bristol on DWTS, this stems back to Sarah Palin.
This is not by anyway making us as a community look good by hopping all over a 16 year old girl (regardless on how you justify in your heads why it gives a community of youth and adults alike a reason to completely shit all over a teen girl and then call wave the homophobe card.) Kinda makes us sounds like a community of bullies, exactly what the opponents of LGBT want to construe.
We have to pick and choose our battles. I’d rather protest some real issues regarding the community then twatting and facebooking away about some 16 year old girl.
Jesus people.
scott ny'er
also, why is it that most other kids of famous people (much less regular people) don’t get into situations like this. Maybe, because their parents/pr peeps pound it into their heads to behave and don’t be a nitwit.
let’s face it. Call a spade a spade. If she reforms like the Bush daughter did, then we can forget about it but until then she’s a douche.
Cam
Sorry, Sara Palin went out and attacked Dave Letterman, she lied and claimed he was talking about her younger daughter Willow even though it was obvious he was talking about Bristol.
So she doesn’t get to get upset about her kids being bullied when her kids our out there calling people faggot and mocking them because of their weight. If it isn’t right for others to bully them, then they don’t get a free pass either.
Mike
@scott ny’er: Is it really her fault if she’s indoctrinated to be like Sarah Palin? It’s no excuse for her actions, if anything it’s really sad.
David Ehrenstein
http://fablog.ehrensteinland.com/2010/11/17/fair-diver-willow-weep-for-thee/
Matthiew
This is the same Palin child who was in the news a while back when tape of Sarah Palin’s confrontation with an angry Alaskan voter was making the rounds. In the video Willow called a guy an asshole and rolled her eyes when the disgruntled voter said she was a teacher. She did this in front of both her parents. You can fault the parents for not teaching their children manners, but 16 is still old enough to know better than to act like this. Unless she was raised in a cave and denied human contact her whole life, she shouldn’t be cut any slack at all. Willow Palin is a hateful spoiled rotten brat, and if people don’t start calling her out for this kind of bullshit now, she’s going to be a hateful, spoiled rotten adult — just like her mother.
scott ny'er
@Mike: Interesting question. What about those 2 twins who were like the Olsen girls, cute, white, blond, but part of the KKK and I think they did a video about it. Are they at fault? What about Hitler? Maybe he was raised that way, is he at fault? Are his soldiers who followed his command at fault? I see your point but whatever her motivation, it’s still wrong what she said. She needs to be scolded so she won’t do it again. Or even do something worse. And if her parent can’t do it, then the media and public opinion will. She’s actually lucky in a way because other kids who are not in the limelight won’t get these 2nd chances. They’ll turn into dirtbags and get arrested, etc, worse case scenarios.
King August
I wonder if the pundits would provide the same pass if Malia or Sasha used the slur, or any slur for that matter.
KATHYRYAN
@King August: It would have been a different ball game if the Obama girls did that. The media would have run away with it. I can’t believe the media is apologising for this behavior. Bristal is an adult with her own baby. What’s her excuse for being part of that hate speech?
Ronbo
The turd doesn’t fall far from the cow.
Stewart is getting more and more corporatized – accepting of what is wrong, so that he can make more money. It’s is a disease best represented by his overwhelming guest lineup including: right-wing politicians, right-wing media/celebrities and right-wing authors. You’d think that he’d stop sucking up to this crowd; but no, Stewart invited FOX Mews, Mews commen-tator Chris Wallice on to prais his “even-handed” approach to the news.
Stewart is a sell-out – but not on the scale of Obama. Either way, his bigotry (and support of it AKA Willow)stinks.
Pip
John Stewart is becoming more and more of a blow hard. He’s much less a satirist now than like a Keith Olberman wannabe.
Jose
I’m surprised Queerty isn’t outraged by the “what up homo” “what up dyke” joke later in the video.
Sometimes you guys are just trying too hard. This is just an issue of Willow being related to Sarah Palin. There are countless cases of stupid teens being stupid and saying offensive things. Saying “Well… it should have been a teaching moment!!” is meaningless when it shouldn’t have been a moment in the first place. There’s plenty of anti gay-bullying messages spread throughout the media at the moment considering the cascade of It Get’s Better coverage.
This is just the media harassing Palin’s family.
aon
I agree with JS – kids are off limits. Letterman’s sleazy joke about Bristol was also stepping over the line. And I actually think JS would think Willow off limits had she used a Jewish slur.
Anyway, all advice about proper language should be directed at Willow’s parents.
Indus
When she went on DWTS, she stopped being Sarah Palin’s daughter. She called herself a star, ergo she is now a public figure in her own right. That comes with its responsibilities as well as its perks.