by Kristie Janeway Jernigan BS MHA

Created on: June 18, 2009   Last Updated: June 30, 2009

Talk show hosts and comedians are all too often hiding behind the free speech verse when saying something that has gone too far. David Letterman took it a bit too far earlier this week when he went after one of the teenage daughters of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. During a recent trip to New York, Lettermen verbally bashed the young girl that had accompanied Governor Palin on the trip. By the way, the daughter with her was fourteen and had not become pregnant or had a child. However, Letterman insists that he was making the rude remarks toward the eighteen year old Bristol Palin, who recently had a baby out of wedlock.

Since becoming the Republican Vice Presidential Candidate in 2008, Palin has endured countless attacks on her husband and her family. No matter what a person's child does, they should be off limit for remarks like the one Letterman made. Let's give Letterman the benefit of the doubt and assume for a moment that he was referring to Bristol Palin. Every child makes mistakes and Palin's older daughter happened to make a very big one, by becoming sexually active as a teenager that resulted in a pregnancy. It happened and the teenage parents have stepped up and are trying to be responsible. Instead of throwing the mistake back in this young ladies face, she and her ex-boyfriend should be commended for doing the right thing. They are all trying to move on, so why can't the press?

One has to consider the double standard that is being thrown around. If the present first lady was referred to as a "slutty flight attendant" or the Presidents daughters were degraded for becoming pregnant, it would be outrageous and heads would roll. I dare say that if Letterman did this to the Presidents family instead of Governor Palin's, he would not have had a job the next day.

However, he still has his job and probably is doing better in his television ratings. It is going way too far when a talk show host or anyone in the media attacks a child or a teenager. People like David Letterman and the press should be acting in a more professional manner. No one in their right mind wants to hear trash talk like that.

What is really wrong with this whole mess is that there are no feminists coming out in the defense of Governor Palin or her daughters. Women should be outraged that this type of thing happens. Women and men should be outraged that children are attacked in this manner. The silence has been deafening! In the end, Governor Palin said it best in her response to David Letterman, by basically referring to him as a dirty old man. It certainly does appear that he is just that!

Learn more about this author, Kristie Janeway Jernigan BS MHA.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.