Dear Neal Conan and NPR, Is This Really Normal?
July 7, 2009
by Judy Silver
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From the bloggers (clockwise) Wonkette, B Gal R State, and Linda Kellan at Blue Oasis
I’ve been both a regular NPR listener and contributor — even, until recently, had NPR in the family will. That’s why your interview of Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdam was so painful for me to hear. I’m not singling out your interview because it was the worst coverage of Gov. Palin’s resignation — far from it. Rather, I’m singling out your work because as an NPR fan, I found your coverage to be the most personally disappointing.
Let’s skip over the part where you repeated Purdam’s use of derogatory armchair psychology in his “reporting” and then didn’t challenge him when he said his intention was to produce a “rounded portrait”. Let’s skip over the part where you failed to object or redirect when callers used blatantly sexist language. Instead, I want to get to the part where you said (at least I think it was your words and not those of the e-mail you’d previously been reading) of Palin:
That thin skin — it appeared in her statement on Friday and then again on Saturday.
Purdham responded:
I think that’s quite true. There is a way in which she doesn’t repond to the normal provocations in the way that a normal politician would.
And you let that go unchallenged. I’d like to understand why. I hope it’s not because you believe it actually is in fact a “normal provocation” for a politician’s children to be fodder for the dirty jokes, mocking and cruelty that Sarah Palin’s children have endured. And I hope it’s not because you believe it should be normal.
I hope that you, as a father, would never have such a thick skin that you would ignore and continue to subject your own children — especially a differently abled child — to the level of ridicule shown here. I hope that you would do everything in your power, even switching careers, to protect your children.
So then what’s different? Do you believe that Gov. Palin should develop a thicker skin because she’s in politics? If so, then did you publicly opine that Michelle Obama needed a thicker skin when she objected to the Sasha and Malia dolls, which were far less egregious than the attacks on the Palin children? 
Or is the real truth that your own biases incline you to believe all attacks are fair game for this particular politician, this particular mother, this particular powerful female?
Does Gov. Palin really need to develop a thicker skin, or does America need to develop some human decency?
I am in awe of your ability to research and lay out this piece in such a calm, methodical and rational way. I can barely read it without becoming enraged. I am sickened by all of this and cannot fathom what has happened to our society that this type of cruel, vulgar, inhumane dialogue would be streaming all across the internet, read by thousands of people every day. Thank you for shining a light on this, hopefully more people will stand up against this and say enough.
You tell it sister. Our children are OFF limits!
Thank you Judy! This nails it. We’re going to make a difference in 2009, more of a difference than you’ve seen in years and it’s going to be because of solid media criticism like this. Thank you!!!
The Democrats are dead to me. I think it might just be a matter of time before they start warming up the ovens in preparation for all those dead wait hicks retards and oh lets not forget, women.
What on earth has happened to liberalism and the democrats.
Chris Dodd, John Murpha, Barney Frank, God if the hate doesn’t make you sick the corruption must.
The way my soon to be former party makes me feel right now can be best expressed with a reference to the Character Maria in the Italian movie “Life is Beautiful”. The scene in which Maria sits at the dinner table at an event she would rather had avoided, forced to listen to the elegant and oh so educated facists disgusing education, particularly mathematics and how children should be taught how expensive it is for the state to take care of people with disabilities. At that exact point Maria has had enough. She crawls under the table like a child to meet her soon to be husband and tells him- Porta mi via. = take me away.
There isn’t a day nor hour that goes by in which I am not utterly stunned by what Obama and the DNC have done to my party.
The democrats make me sick, and I am soooo over being one.
A mother shouldn’t be ridiculed for protecting her children.
Linda kellen is she not the Celtic Diva of Blue Oasis? If that is her she was a blogger for the DNC during the elections. After the elections she had some ethics charges against Sarah. Her little group didn’t seem to be getting far with that so they started going after Trig. Thats not the worst on Huff Po someone posted the picture of Sarah holding Trig and it had a coat hanger on is saying better luck next time. I don’t care what the media thinks no other person in politics has ever had their children treated this bad. Most people have no idea what Sarah was up against in her state. She had some crazy Libs with pure hate after her and her children.
I have been sorely disappointed in the NPR coverage of BOTH Obama and Palin. It’s as if they laft their thinking caps at home in 2008/2009. These reporters that I had come to trust… dumb as rocks.
I feel the only way we can counter this is for us, as women, to rise up and fight. In the way that we see Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson fight for black men….
Women as a group are not quite ready to mount that kind of a battle. But I feel the seeds are sown, after 2008. And Palin wants to lead the charge. (Thus her resignation, and immediate legal warning to the media.)
We have a champion now. Let’s get on with it!!
Judy, the next time you write such a letter… please share it AND go one step further. Provide us with the e-mail addys so that WE TOO MAY FIGHT. Power in numbers!
Thanks Judy
Sadly, I stopped listening to NPR about the same time I stopped watching the so-called Main Stream Media. The place I had trusted for what I had perceived to be intelligent and fair coverage of all-things-worldly-and-political had turned, along with the rest of Big Media to be nothing more than a rah-rah machine for the preordained “Democratic” Candidate. The objectivity I thought had been there was an illusion. Whether it had always been that way and I simply nodded my head when I was horrified by the Bush Administration’s catastrophic behavior, I cannot now say. But what became clear to me was the same as with the others: That NPR was no more objective than all the other left-side cheerleaders. I am no fan of FOXNews either, but at least it is a place to go for ANOTHER point of view. I don’t count “talk shows” either on Radio or Television. Right or Left, they are ALL stage shows in the three-ring-circuses of political opinion and I take that for what it is. But as we have seen over the past 18 months, the inability of “News” organizations to lay out world events and demand critical thinking of their audience is, for the most part, a bad joke.
Just who in this world gets to define “normal”? Is it men, the ones who commit almost all of the rape, murder, robbery, wars, concentration camps, torture, serial killing, and your every day drive-by shootings, school attacks, and general mayhem? Men get to define “normal” behavior? Who does Todd Purdam really admire as a politician: Idi Amin, Adolf Hitler, the Shah of Iran? Oh if we women could only be tough like you guys, drop a few smart bombs, have a genocide now and then. If someone made fun of Idi Amin’s kids, he tortured them to death…slowly. A lot to be learned here from men and their manly thick skin.
It makes me want to puke! Where in the hell is the outrage from all the disability groups!?? Do these ********* really think this kind of **** is going to turn people against Sarah Palin??
Absolutely no donations to Democrats and no donations to NPR or any public broadcasting in light of this.
And Our Dear Woman-Basher-In-Chief, Maureen Dowd is back at it again today in the NYT, and I am sure the only ones laughing at her this morning are the children who still live in mommie’s basement and Hyena’s from the movie “Who Killed Roger Rabbit”
Enough already, Maureen. Your fangs are yellowing from too much Cheetoh dust.
Grow up
Did I misunderstand the identification of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan as “normal” politicians? And a “normal” politician is one who can brush off criticism and continue what they have been doing? Applying those implications, would G.W. Bush be normal?
If this entire interview wasn’t satire, what was it? Throwing the word “normal” around with such abandon used to be considered narrow minded, lacking the personal growth and the understanding neccesary to keep up with, interpret, and analyze social change. If Reagan and Nixon are examples of “normal” politicians, why would Sarah Palin want any part of normality?
The NPR interview was helpful in that it clarified who thinks what is “normal” and how women can differentiate themselves from that kind of normal to create very positive change helpful to children and generations to come.
From USA today, interesting Gallup Poll on Sarah Palin:
19% said they would vote for her should she run (POTUS)
24% somewhat likely to vote for her
41% not likely to vote for her
70% said their opinion of her did not change because of her resignation !
oh, Gallup did not of course bother to ask anyone what they thought about using her disabled child as vicious political fodder against her…………..
I was an avid NPR listener and supporter until September 2008. When they refered to Palin as former-small-town-mayor Palin instead of Gov. Palin I worte e-mails asking for them to stay objective and above the fray. Then they mentioned that her convention speech was good, “whoever wrote it for her,” never mentioning the speech writers that write Obamas “brilliant” speeches.
I have turned them off for good. I haven’t even be tempted to listen again. At least with fox, msnbc, talk radio… you know what bias you are getting and you can take everything with a grain of salt. I hate that NPR and CNN claim to be objective while obviously having an agenda. Too many people belive what they say as truth.
Judy- great job- I saw a picture today of Malia Obama at a nuclear armament rally wearing a 60′s piece sign t shirt. Is she now fair game too…how would Michelle act if someone now said she was and make some sexist comment about her- what if RED EYE on FNC made fun of her( just joking). The fact is Malia isnt fair game, neither was Bristol,Piper, Willow or Trig Palin. WE shouldt have double standards, one for Palin and one for everyone else.
See how they talk of her resignation, but it was ok for Govs Hunstman,Chu,Sebillius,Napalitano and Sens Obama, Biden, Clinton double standards
[...] But even worse are the attacks on Palin’s baby Trig (check out Judy’s collection here). The repeated use of the words “retard,” “retardation” to attack [...]
Judy, An interesting perspective. As you know, I am the mother of 2 children with significant special needs and loathe the way Palin’s son has been exploited. Yes, children should be off-limits, and poking fun using the word “retarded”, which many kids with Down Syndrome are not, is not ok. Yet, I have little respect for Sarah Palin. As a former Board member of the Mass Women’s Political Caucus, whose purpose is to elect qualified, pro-choice women to office, I find Palin boring and not well-informed, or at least not well-spoken. I was surprised by her resignation, but not saddened. I feel for her as a mom, though, and hope she chooses o spend more time with her kids now. It looks like they need some healing as a family.
As someone who respects Sarah Palin’s accomplishments as a mother, a young woman of 44, and a politician, I hate to see a thread end with a comment from someone who does not appreciate her positives.
Okay, and since I’m at it, I find the meme of Sarah as stupid really tiresome.
I remember the interview Sarah Palin gave Greta from her kitchen in Alaska. Palin was taking care of her kids and preparing dinner for her family and the film crew while she was answering thoughtful questions from Greta. Even if the questions had been given to her ahead of time, she was answering them without notes and without a teleprompter. I am consistently amazed that people describe her as stupid and incoherent, and anyone who finds her boring isn’t listening. Disagree with her views if you must, but when you marginalize her, you marginalize us all.
[...] pointed out previously on blogs written for The New Agenda (Our Children are Off Limits!!! and Dear Neal Conan and NPR, Is This Really Normal? ) the attack on Palin’s son Trig have been more than a bit insulting. To my knowledge Gov. [...]
Just stumbled across this old post — you seem to misunderstand the way a lot of people hear Palin.
She blatantly uses her children as props to demonstrated that she is morally superior and wiser than the rest of us. (Why people who have children think this makes them instant experts in things outside of raising their own children has always confused me but I digress.) Some of the other comments seem to imply that Letterman took shots at her grandchild with Down’s syndrome. He did not. He made a rather harsh joke about her eldest daughter mistakenly thinking it was her at a Yankee’s game, not her younger sister. The point of the joke was that Palin is another hypocritic whose own family is imperfect (like everyone’s) but likes to make broad and rather nasty “jokes” about other people’s patriotism, morals, citizenship, etc. She’s vicious.
The fact that she does what she does with a smile doesn’t change the content. It’s hard for me to understand why it’s not also clear to others that Palin jumped at the chance to again paint herself as a victim when a late-night talk show host made a stupid joke. What many, many people have pointed out is that others have been subjected to similar treatment (Chelsea Clinton comes to mind — I’m looking at you, Rush Limbaugh). But look, Letterman made a dumb joke and apologized.
My point is it’s a two minute story — the real problem here, and I hope even if you disagree with everything else I’ve said so far we can at least agree on this — is that spending a bunch of time debating a joke made by a late-night comedian simply doesn’t deserve the attention it’s received. There are other more important issues and a million great things that happen everyday that undermine the horrible degradation that is supposedly at work in our culture.
The problem Palin’s critics have with her, among many, is that she lacks substance — there’s really nothing there once you get beyond these types of stories. If getting upset when someone makes a joke about your child makes one an instantly credible candidate for higher office then that’s a pretty low standard. With six billion people on this planet and growing, the ability to reproduce doesn’t seem to be a rare talent. She distracts from discussing an issue in detail, or offering any substantive idea, with a combination of moral outrage and veiled accusations of not loving America enough. She is the embodiment of the very things you dislike about our media culture and when Letterman tossed out that joke he was tossing her a great big steak she knew exactly how to tenderize into another way to feed her holier than thou image.
On that point, Palin would not be where she is without the so-called and vaguely defined “mainstream media” she so dearly loves to denigrate. They can’t get enough of her and that keeps her profile high, keeps those spots on Fox coming (part of the “mainstream media” last time I checked along with the Weekly Standard etc.) not to mention the money. They work together in a rather dysfunctional relationship where one party says she hates the other, and the other loves reporting how much she hates them.
The real stupidity of joking about her kids is not recognizing that it only helps to extend her media life.
Steve, cram it.
Hi Janis. As they say, if you can’t fight with facts…tell someone to cram it.
Honestly, I’d like to understand how it is that anyone can assert that Palin has been marginalized. She went from mayor to governor, was promoted by William Kristol at The Weekly Standard after the magazine’s annual cruise in Alaska, was picked as a VP candidate by a major party and, unlike virtually every losing VP candidate in history, she’s managed to become her own industry; her *tweets* are considered news. If that’s marginalization then she makes it look pretty good.
P.S. What’s the “it” I should cram? Don’t want to pick the wrong one. And where? Clarity please.
Horseshit, pal. There are zillions of things written all over this blog that you haven’t even bothered to read. Why waste facts on someone plainly allergic to them?
Go to hell. If you aren’t even willing to stoop to reading the opinions and quite well-reasoned conclusions of a bunch of mere females, you are not going to suddenly sprout brains and listen to one now.
Janis, thanks for immediately making about a dozen assumptions — the main one being that the reason for my response is sexism.
I wasn’t responding to the “zillions of things,” I was responding to this one post. Which is legal, I think. My (larger) point is I see Sarah Palin as actually working directly counter to the stated goals of this organization — unless the goal is any woman in any form of leadership, even if that leadership is counterproductive to other women.
And to clarify, my point was *not* that said jokes weren’t in poor taste, etc. I was trying to extend the discussion into one where I point out they’re stupid for many reasons, one being that they are huge distractions from larger issues (like what Palin might actually do in a leadership role).
But then again, I must be nuts for trying to reason with someone whose idea of a discussion is to tell someone to cram it, call a reasoned argument “horseshit” and to “go to hell.” I’m pretty sure if I applied similar language to your comments you’d be duly impressed. Off to live life…
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