I’m certainly no Lynne Spears apologist, but when she’s right, she’s right.
From a new interview with Newsweek:
You and Jamie Lynn got some negative press when she got pregnant so young. But more recently, 17-year-old Bristol Palin, and her mother, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, found themselves in a similar situation. And the public reaction has been different.
It’s a totally different reaction. It’s as if [Sarah Palin] became celebrated. I mean, the mother, Palin, was celebrated for this. Every woman in the world has applauded her strength and her convictions and poor little old Jamie Lynn—you saw how she was crucified. Everybody did, firsthand … I just feel like it’s been a very hypocritical situation.
Woman has a point. But I’m willing to wager that without a Jamie Lynn Spears gobbling up the headlines and tabloid covers last winter, the knocking up of Bristol Palin wouldn’t have gone over nearly so well. (Not that it went over perfectly smoothly, but the general reaction I witnessed seemed to be more along the lines of “oh, another pregnant teen in the spotlight,” instead of the collective disgust and horror that JLS endured.)
I disagree with all the media critics who said JLS glamorized teen pregnancy by talking about all the fun, cool parts of being a mommy, but she may well have legitimized it.
And of course, the Palins had the added benefit of some very media-savvy PR gurus masterminding the whole press rollout. Something that even Britney Spears bucks couldn’t buy.
Related posts:
- Sleazy Michael Lohan Wishes He Was Cool Like Jamie Spears Michael Lohan’s official job seems to be to make me...
- Sarah and Bristol: You Betcha We Chose Life! (And This Lucrative Cover Deal) Well, I for one sure am relieved that the Palins...
- Greta Van Susteren Will Be The Only One Discussing Bristol Palin Fox News commentator and Sarah Palin confidante Greta Van Susteren...
- People for the Execrable Treatment of the Actual Just a quick follow-up on the group you guys sent...
Lynne, perhaps the difference is that you have been pimping your daughters out since they were in diapers (okay, maybe not in diapers), so therefore, your credibility is shot. Need I remind you of that million dollar payday for JLS with OK mag? Spare us your righteous indignation.
Here’s a new scandal for you PJ.
Economists worldwide have indicted the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Speigel act as one of the key reasons that the mortgage market has failed.
At the time Citigroup proudly proclaimed the achievement in an October 22, 1999 press release:
Sarah and Lynne look the same and act the same , they are both using their kids , Lynne for money and Sarah for publicity and public aproval
I think people were more horrified because we all saw the train wreck Britnney has become, so you would think Lynne would be extra cautious and strict with JLS.
What ever happened to birth control?
Have to agree with PJ. If Lynne Spears weren’t such a reprehensible pimp-mama with her daughters, I’d give her whining a bit more credence.
I think it’s a bloody shame that JLS isn’t allowed to publically enjoy being a mother without being accused of promoting teen pregnancy. Is she supposed to tell everyone how awful it is and give the baby up for adoption in order to be respected? She did a stupid thing, but she damn well has the right to be a good mother and be proud of her child. The very fact that she’s breastfeeding shows how much she and her baby have bonded and how much she’s investing into being a mother. (Not that formula feeding means less love, it’s just the BFing is more challenging at times because of having less personal time.)
I am behind PJ on this. The situation in the Palin family looks like a typical teen mom situation while the Spears’s situation looked like a mess waiting to happen.
Credibility is the key here and the Spears family got none.
jj – don’t you know? birth control is the work of Satan. G-d wants immature teenagers to have lots of incredibly screwed up children. it’s in the Bible. (To be fair there is a scriptural citation to back this up – the sin of onan – but it can also be construed as failing to obey the will of G-d in helping your family reproduce as a whole in order to better propagate the Chosen People. Onan refused to impregnate his dead brother’s wife and spilled his seed upon the ground.)
Specifics, please.
Fortunate Son – this is what I have pointing out to people for several weeks. The regulations that were past after the Great Depression to seperate traditional banks from investment banks.
I don’t know if this turned out to be true, but I remember hearing that Jamie Lynn was living on her own in Los Angeles when she became impregnated. Yeah, I guess Mama Spears had stuff going on Louisiana but I can’t imagine allowing my child to live on their own at 16 because, well, that would be a poor parenting decision. I don’t care if my daughter can already support herself via her television series, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t need a parent in her life to provide appropriate boundaries and guidance.
As much as Sarah Palin isn’t my favorite person, evidence suggests, she is highly involved and plays an active part in their day to day lives despite her busy, high profile job (something I don’t think Lynne Spears has.) At the very least, she shares a house with her kids and checks in with them daily. Yes, Bristol is pregnant. Most of us had sex in high school. The majority of us got lucky and didn’t get pregnant. My friend got pregnant at 19 not because she had bad parents but because her birth control failed. Just as with my friend, the Palin family will support Bristol and help her raise the child.
This is just another example of how Lynne Spears has zero insight into herself or her role into what has happened with both of her children. From the excerpts I have read from her book, she seems to abdicate all responsibility for anything that has happened with Britney or Jamie Lynn. Oh, the business managers let her have sex and do drugs. Lynne’s primary job as a mom and a person who is supposed to love and protect her children, she needed to fire those people who are corrupting her daughter instead of just letting them do what they want. But if she brought down the hammer, she might lose her swanky standard of living so best not rock the boat.
Simon Scowl ,
Lynne and her daughter sold her baby Picture to OK magazine for money , Sarah Palin did a Photo op whit her special needs baby in People magazine saying how it was such a hard decision to keep her child , I dont know if she got a monetary reward for that but she did get a lot of publicity and sympathy for that.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York may be the Deceiver of the year, as he was instrumental in repealing the regulations that allowed the Mortgage collapse.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=5874284
To ME: Gov. Palin is NOT “using” her daughter’s pregnancy for publicity, genius. If her family attempted to hide the fact that Bristol had gotten pregnant, and it was then uncovered by the media, you’d be posting right now about what a lying sleaze bag they were.
Bristol’s pregnancy is not what the parents wanted. But, it happened. Would you prefer the Palins had shunned their daughter? Man… Spite for spite’s sake…
My, my, my. If anyone knows about being hyprocrital, it is hypocrite-mama extraordinaire: Lynne Spears, pimpess of her daughters.
The Hypocrisy in all this is the Media who tout stars as above the norm in terms of ethics and morals and then come down hard on politicians and especially right wing politicians when they cross the line. Double standards and double talk are the fare of the media and as long as they agree to it then it is ok, but it goes against their personal opinion then it is Bad.
Coorection, my top post should read “Glass-Steagall act”, not “Glass-Stiegel” act
Have to concur with Queen Bee’s post. Sometimes you do your best as a parent and a kid will make a mistake anyway. But Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy seemed to be the other shoe dropping in a family that let The Industry raise their daughters. I don’t know what was going on with Jamie Lynn. Maybe she was lonely. Maybe seeing all of these starlets going around with their own souvenirs made her baby hungry. Maybe it was all one big oopsie. But whatever the case, I have yet to see Gov. Palin sell her daughter’s story to a celeb magazine with exclusive photos.
procrasterbation: my life is complete know that I know that
*now
Link, please. If you’re referencing what I think you’re referencing, not only do you have the magazine wrong, but the entire tone of the story.
Besides which: What’s she supposed to say?
Actually, re Palin, shouldn’t Willow and Piper be in school rather than the campaign trail?
OK, let’s just get it out there. Bristol and Jamie Lynn are sluts. Dirty, filthy sluts. Those wanton little minxes trapped those poor, but oh-so-hot, redneck boyfriends with unfortunate hair. Those boys, who outweighed those girls by what? Like, 60-70 pounds each … they were just helpless.
It’s the oldest scam going … girls from successful families, both who probably could have skated through life if only they weren’t just giving it away to the cutest dumb dumb in a Hollister tee.
I’m sure I’ll worry about them. I hope Bristol and JL have enough $20 bills to wipe away their tears and their babies’ bottoms.
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/national_enquirer_world_exclusive_sarah_palins_secret_lover_revealed/celebrity/65481
I knew this was coming.
Everybody did. It was a DailyKos story back on the morning of September 5,
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/5/153241/8545/750/588111
and it was shot down by 5pm.
http://deceiver.com/2008/09/05/john-edwards-publicly-admits-hes-a-political-liability/
The problem is Jamie came first (some might say literally) so its obvious Jamie’s behavior influenced Bristol. I hear it all the time on the bus these days, kids talking about “Jamie-Lynnin’ it”. If it wasn’t for Jamie-Lynn, Bristol would be as chaste as ANWR. Nothing hypocritical about it. Just facts.
What’s wrong JLS talking about the joys of motherhood? As a mother the first year is full of fun and laughter. Its the second year that’s the bi*tch and don’t mention the POTTY TRAINIG!!
I think the difference was that Mama Lynn exploited her kids. Palin (i think) really hasn’t had much to say about her daughter being pregnant.. Maybe she’s got better spin doctors than the Spears family..
@ Aleric
The Hypocrisy in all this is the Media who tout stars as above the norm in terms of ethics and morals and then come down hard on politicians and especially right wing politicians when they cross the line. Double standards and double talk are the fare of the media and as long as they agree to it then it is ok, but it goes against their personal opinion then it is Bad.
Actually, it’s just funnier when politicians who run on platforms of lofty idea can’t help but live under them. Right wing politicians often court the evangelical base to get elected. And a lot of them talk about how we have a need for a moral, meaning evangelical/protestant, focus in the country to keep it in line. This makes it funny when they are caught trolling for gay sex in bathrooms, or they lack the ability to pass on the morals they grew up with on to their children. It would be just as funny to me if a democrat courting the african american vote was caught throwing around the N word.
I have no problem that a teenager who lives a separate life from her mother got knocked up by having premarital sex. It’s just really funny when she’s the Republican VP’s daughter.
i know jamie lynn spears was on the front of OK! when she announced she was pregnant and sarah palin was on people magazine. but jamie lynn got paid and i have no idea if sarah did or not
I hate to say this, but I agree that Spears has it right on this one. It’s not because I think she’s a good parent, because her kids would have been better off raised by wolverines, or even that I thought it was somehow appropriate to have JLS splashed all over the magazine covers when she did have the next generation of Spears trash.
It’s because it all boils down to two teenage moms that should not have gotten pregnant at all, and whatever lack of parenting skills that got them there don’t matter when you’re pushing a kid out of your cooter at the age of 16.
JLS should have known better than to have unprotected sex, Lynne’s guidance or not. Bristol was a victim of abstinence only education that encourages ignorance and for many kids, unrealistic behaviors. Kids will experiment and have sex if they want to, and when someone gets pregnant part of the problem usually is the parent either being too permissive or utterly repressive, but the brunt of that responsibility rests with the teenager.
That said, JLS was reamed by every conservative talking head out there when the news broke, yet Bristol is a hero for not having an abortion. Either way, it is hypocritical treatment.
As for the glamorizing of teen pregnancy, I don’t think either of these girls have glamorized it. Any teenager that WANTS to get pregnant because JLS or Bristol are cool enough to do it has self esteem issues that years of therapy might never erase, and THAT issue does rest with the parents and a positive upbringing.
Anyone who thinks JLS is the role model encouraging young girls to get pregnant is a 15 year old twit who has yet to crack a history book. Teen/unwanted pregnancy has been going on since the Bible and no one person should be expected to take the blame.
Maybe some of you are too young to know, so just ask your parents or grandparents if they ever knew any girls who spontaneously visited an out-of-town aunt for 6-9 months. My own grandmother was a basket-on-a-doorstep baby.
JLS is just another statistic, not a trend setter.
Fortunate, but now the NE has a relative who’s gone on record and passed a polygraph.
RogerCfromSD
I did not say she used Bristol for publicity ,I din’t even mention her in my post, I was talking about her youngest kid who has down symdrome ( Im not sure is that the disease) the one she dragged around when she was talking to thousand of screaming people in the republican convention. That was my opinnion , maybe is the wrong one, but when you put yourself on the spotlight people are going to overanalyze everything you do.
Simon Scowl
I dont have the specific link but here is the cover and some quotes
http://www.popcrunch.com/sarah-palin-people-magazine-october-2008-cover-photo-interview/
Why would you go to a magazine and pose for them , if not for publicity???
“…shouldn’t Willow and Piper be in school rather than the campaign trail?”
That’s right, PJ, but they’re not aren’t they? But you know why, so stop being so coy.
For the rest of you ignorant morons: It’s because Lynne Spears & Sarah Palin are running a secret high-profile whore house featuring their OWN daughters as top dollar whores servicing the media elite, including Bob Shieffer, Mike Wallace and Katie Couric. Can you believe it?!?
THEY’RE SELLING THEIR OWN DAUGHTERS TO FILTHY WHITE MEN SO THEY CAN BUY $35,000 TANNING BEDS TO COOK THEIR OWN CHILDREN AND SELL THEM AS BEEF-FRIGGIN’-JERKY!!!!!
Chronic, why should JLS have known better? You forgive BP because you know for a fact she was raised by “abstinance only” parents, but do you have any idea what JLS was taught? For all we know, her mother may have refused to discuss *whispered* S.E.X. with her at all.
It’s still as busted as the false rumors that the affair was detailed in Brad Hansen’s top secret sealed divorce paperwork (that turned out to not even mention Sarah Palin).
The non-secrets of that divorce paperwork was another Deceiver exclusive, beating even the SmokingGun to the punch by 2 hours.
http://deceiver.com/2008/09/05/john-edwards-publicly-admits-hes-a-political-liability/
The ‘relative’ you mentipn is the “former brother-in-law of Todd Palin’s former business partner’s estranged wife Carolyn’s brother”?
Five times removed from Palin? I’m surprised you didn’t see Kevin Bacon’s name in there somewhere, because you need a flowchart to even figure out who that guy is.
And its awfully convenient that he says didn’t even know who the other half of the affair was with until after Palin was nominated.
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/national_enquirer_world_exclusive_sarah_palins_secret_lover_revealed/celebrity/65481
To be clear, PJ, the ‘relative’ Jim Burdett is not even five times removed from Palin, he’s seven times removed from Palin.
Here’s the relative’s relationship to Sarah Palin:
1 Sarah Palin married Todd Palin
2 Todd Palin had a business with Brad Hanson
3 Brad Hanson is divorced from Carolyn Hanson
4 Carolyn Hanson has a brother
5 Carolyn Hanson’s brother is married to a woman we’ll call Mrs. Brother Hanson
6 Mrs. Brother Hanson has a sister we’ll call Mrs Brother Hanson’s sister.
7 Mrs. Brother Hanson’s sister is divorced from Jim Burdett.
Pretty compelling, all right.
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/national_enquirer_world_exclusive_sarah_palins_secret_lover_revealed/celebrity/65481
Sure, PJ. Naturally, you’re referring to the ex-brother-in-law of the now divorced cousin of the guy who sold TODD PALIN a snowmobile 17 years ago? Or is it the half-sister of the ex-con who cheated on the former wife of Tadd Palin’s second cousin’s high school sweetheart who gave up pot smoking for Lent? Coincidence? Don’t be so naive.
I KNOW this “woman” Sarah Palin. She’s the WORST kind of human being on the planet, and you’re right to despise her. She’s got Adolph Hitler’s ambition dressed up in DKNY threads. Do NOT trust her.
thatgengirl… no, I don’t know exactly what JLS’s mom said to her about sex, but given the world she’s grown up in, and given her sister’s antics starting at the age of 14, sex could not have been a huge mystery to her. So whether it came from her mother or not, she should have known better.
And I don’t “forgive” Bristol Palin. She was certainly not informed, and that is her mother’s fault.
Quite frankly, I think that both girls are stupid, and their mothers no less stupid.
There is a hudge difference between the 17 year old Palin girl and the Spears girl.
Spears was a roll modle in childern tv shows. Nobody had ever heard of the Palin girl until her mom hit the national stage. To say the treatment was hypocritical
is plain stupid. Just another way to get people to buy a book that was written only because Lynn needed the money. Why else would anyone put thier family life out ther for review.
Sarah Palin, I did hard time in cell block delta with Jim Burdett. I’ve mopped floors with him and I’ve folded laundry with him.
And you, madam, are no “Jim Burdett”.
PJ, you have a blog.
Apparently I have to say it again: This is not a clearinghouse for Palin rumors. It’s not like you can’t find them anywhere else on the Internet.
Chronic Malanga – You make a lot of assumptions about how someone was raised and exposed to.
I have 3 daughters and we do not go to church but we talk alot about God, sex, birth control and abstinence. I prefer abstinence and tell my girls the only 100% effective birth control is abstinence. Everything is a gamble.
D– It is logical deduction that JLS was exposed to much more than the average girl her age, and that Bristol’s upbringing preached abstinence only, and minimized the importance of birth control as a result. I am not claiming it’s exactly the case, but it is the likelihood. Just because you do things more responsibly doesn’t mean Palin did. After all, her kid is knocked up.
Either way, both mothers went horribly wrong, as did their kids.
I don’t think either McCain or Palin should be booking space in the White House next year, not after the past two weeks. They’re doing a fine job of imploding all on their own.
Ha! Sarah Palin gives the Prime Minister of India a boner!
Thu, Sep 25 02:05 PM
New York, Sept.25 (ANI): An unusual guest who came to meet Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in New York, left him blushing.
PJ, I’ll humor you again, as I believe a candidate’s religious experiences from cradle to grave are relevant.
How do you know that guy is a witchdoctor? Just because he’s black?
Everything he says in that context is about Jesus Christ and from a non-Wicca, layman’s point of view, everything he says seems very anti-witch, not pro-witch.
Does the left think the right will abandon Sarah Palin because she attended a church with a black minister? Or is it the edited statement of him saying “Jesus Christ” four times in a row that is scary?
I don’t get how this is some sort of smoking gun. I’m not saying its not, I just don’t see what the “big black witchdoctor scare of 2008″ is all about.
And to be fair PJ, this is at least the tenth rumor on Palin you have furthered. The first nine evaporated fairly quickly.
Sorry, but Palin has been crucified in the media worse than the Speers’ “pimp mamma”. The big difference is that Mrs. Speers whored her kids out to the media for a buck, Palin hasn’t had her kids out for show except at the G.O.P. convention where she was required to have her family in attendance, never befor and not since.
I’m calling B.S. on Holly and Deciever for this subject.
I know this is a hard concept to understand but here it goes:
People who are conservatives believe in holding a high moral standard and calling things as they are, whether something is right or wrong.
Just because someone holds a high moral standard doesn’t mean they are perfect only that they think people should strive to be better than they are and when they don’t live up to it, admit they were wrong and move on.
That’s were Jesus and forgiveness come in.
Being a liberal means not having a standard and laughing at every screw up a conservative makes, that’s what our media does best. It doesn’t make someone a hypocrite to have a standard and fall short of it. A hypocrite is someone who expects someone else to hold a higher standard than they are willing to hold.
A hypocrite is the one who has no problem with a Democrat who is running a brothel out of his apartment at tax payer expense (Barney Frank), is homosexual or a lying cheatitng scumbag but has no standards. Then on the otherhand wants guys like Mark Foley run out of town on a rail for being a homsexual and a Republican.
Conservatives are naturally hated by the media because they hold up a standard and declare it and remind others whet we all know inside is right and wrong.
Just because you laugh at someone like Bristol Palin and accuse Sarah of being a bad parent because they made a mistake doesn’t make the moral right not exist. But people will go on trying.
FINSUP – Thank you for saying that, I was seriously wondering why NONE of the comments here were mentioning that JLS had a starring role in a Nickelodeon show, and was thus in the position of being a role model for young girls. Bristol Palin = just Sarah Palin’s daughter. That is a HUGE, MASSIVE difference. My 10-year-old stepdaughter has little to no clue who any of the Palins are, but certainly was VERY aware of Zoey 101 getting knocked up. I think it’s actually GOOD that Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy was criticized, because all the kids who look up to her need to know that her behavior is not something to aspire to.
It pains me to have to agree with Britney’s mom; as I still see her as a pimp. Any other time,conservatives would’ve had a fit; but because of Sarah’s running for vice-president, they had to respond in the way that they did. All of a sudden it was okay and all of America sympathized with Palin. The young couple were prepped and shown together holding hands, and looking unhappy all the while everyone knew that he did not want a child. (As well-stated in his now well-known My Space page!)
It was all for Sarah’s and McCain’s sake; but I’ll tell you one thing: It would NEVER be accepted had it been O’Bama’s daughter. It would’ve been worse then both Palin and Spear’s stories put together. Conservatives would NEVER accept her situation, showing no mercy, with Republicans short on compassion, and long on Black stereotypes. So cheer up Spears, it could’ve been even worse!
Don’t forget how they demonize those who disagree with them.
“…but I’ll tell you one thing: It would NEVER be accepted had it been O’Bama’s daughter.”
Ummm, Sue? That’s because if it were one of Obama’s daughters, they would have had an abortion as soon as they found out. Don’t you remember him saying so?
Oh, and it’s not “O’Bama”. Pretty sure he’s not Irish.
I’m really not so sure the two instances can be compared, for one major reason – Jamie Lynn was the one in the public eye, whereas Bristol Palin was the daughter of someone in the public eye. Children of politicians have always been considered off-limits; just look at Chelsea Clinton, or any other presidential/candidate kids from our nation’s past. They’re always considered off-limits for the safety and well-being of the children.
Whereas with Jamie Lynn, I felt that a great deal of the disgust had to do with the fact that she’s in the public eye and she’s specifically marketed as a role model for young girls, therefore kind of making it a bad message to have your young girl’s role model end up pregnant. Now I do agree completely that Jamie Lynn was treated horribly, but to say every bit of the reaction was unjustified isn’t fair. Because parents do have a right to be concerned when the role models their girls look up to end up getting pregnant. Should that girl be lynched for it? No, she’s a kid herself who made a mistake, so yes, she was treated unfairly.
But Bristol Palin was *not* in the public eye, she’s *not* setting herself up as a role model for children, and her mother isn’t a Hollywood Mom who has – as another commenter put it – “pimped out” two daughters in a row, only to see the disastrous consequences wreak havoc on the girls’ lives.
According to the history of how politician’s children are treated, I don’t think Palin had reason to expect the ridiculous and crude rumors that came out about her daughter. I mean, come on, that whole rumor about Trig being Bristol’s baby? That US Weekly cover “Babies, Lies, and Scandal”? Liberal comedians offering a $50,000 bounty for Bristol to abort her baby? Bill Mahar attracting attention for setting up a website urging Levi to just abandon the girl he impregnated because “he won’t be a good father” and therefore “he shouldn’t even bother trying?” For goodness sake, no other politician’s child has EVER been treated that way. So yes, I do think that with regard to the treatment specifically of Bristol Palin, people went overboard.
They also went overboard with Jamie Lynn, but the situations were different. Jamie Lynn was in the public eye, Bristol was the unsuspecting child of someone in the public eye who didn’t deserve the treatment she got. Comparing the two is comparing apples to oranges and just isn’t fair.
Or did common sense get thrown out the window with this election too?