Grandma Palin Swings Back At The Media

(CBS)  Governor Sarah Palin has always had a love/hate relationship with the media, but what has her fired up now are reports that she calls inaccurate, and she has actually personally contacted People Magazine, the Associated Press, and the Anchorage Daily News to let them know they are wrong.

From the moment she burst onto the national stage as John McCain's running mate, Palin has battled the media. "This is all about 'gotcha journalism,'" she told Katie Couric in a Sept. 2008 interview.

As Michelle Gielan reports, Palin's most recent gripe with the media is "erroneous information" published about her daughter, Bristol, and her fiance, Levi Johnston, and their education - or lack thereof.

According to People.com, Palin left a personal phone message with the magazine denying they were high school dropouts, stating, "You need to know that both Levi and Bristol are working their butts off to parent and going to school and working at the same time. They are certainly not high school dropouts."

Media expert and author Michael Levine says it's profoundly unusual, and "in some ways, demeaning of the position she has. It's so clearly an effort to go on offense against a bad situation."

Bristol, 18, a high school senior, and Levi Johnston - now working as an electrical apprentice and finishing high school through a correspondence program - had their first child last Saturday.

In her first public statement since welcoming her new grandson, Palin sounds enthusiastic, but cautious. "We are over the moon with the arrival of this healthy, beautiful baby. The road ahead for this young couple will not be easy, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy," she said in a press release.

Palin goes on to say that she initially looked at the out-of-wedlock, teenage pregnancy with "some fear and a bit of despair," but now considers it an "amazing, joyous blessing."

Pictures of that "joyous blessing," Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, have yet to surface but you have to imagine it will be a footrace to get the first glimpse.

[httpwwwnews]

Also...she should let her attorney talk to magazines or other media, that misreport facts, like other celebrities do. It works tons better than trying to deal with them yourself.

[httpwwwnews]

Love her or hate her...but it''s not what Palin did, it is what her daughter did. And that daughter didn''t do anything different than what probably a million other teenagers have done previously.

If you want to use your morals to judge, feel free and direct them where they belong: towards the two teens for not reining their bio-urges or using birth control, not at Palin or his mom.

[titanbite]

Gov.Palin''s all too obvious and truly pathetic attempt at squashing what will undoughtably be the undoing of her Presidential hopes is only one journalists question away,I''m just curious why no one has the guts to ask it,here goes.Why has Gov.Palin allowed these two to go "unwed" until AFTER the birth of this child,rendering it illigitimate?Why,if what SHE claims is true,that they love each other and deserve a chance to raise this child without any outside interferance or media scrutiny,which I agree,why would she allow them to wait to marry?It raises so many more questions that just do not bode well for someone who maybe running for leader of the free world.Are there questions in regards to the paternity of this child and all parties involved are awaiting the birth to determine 100% who fathered Gov.Palin''s Grandchild.I feel that there is much more to this story than what were being told.Gov.Palin''s reaction to recent media coverage is the typical reaction of someone who has something they don''t want people to know.She is not hiding the fact that she would rather this story not become more of a story.If this is true she can forget about running for anything no one likes a politition who tries to whitewash their own scandal.

[geek143]

Sarah should say nothing. I am sorry this is no defense given the circumstances. Your unwed daughter giving birth whose father is a high school drop out and his mother a arrested drug dealer. The situation calls for no comment and not defending something that cannot be.

BTW looks like Bristol failed *** education.

[normaj8]

Bravo Governor Palin. None of the other puplic officials put up with attacks on their families. It''s admirable that Governor Palin has the guts to go after those who try so hard to destroy her family.

[gene_the_dog]

***Sarah Palin is publicly defending her daughter and son-in-law....***

Correction: I should have wrote FUTURE son-in-law.

[gene_the_dog]

Sarah Palin is publicly defending her daughter and son-in-law from erroneous media information. Good for her.

Of course, since the story involves Sarah Palin, her online liberal critics will go berserk about it. Palin Derangement Syndrome lives on.

[choiceshaveconsequences]

After the publication of this story we are still waiting for Sarah Palin to do something that will demonstrate her ability to occupy the White House. We are prepared to wait until Nome freezes over.

[tmittelstaed]

wendyful -
"...as an employer. A GED really is not the same to me. (It screams, I made a bad decision.)..."

Yes, it screams I made a bad decision. But it also screams that I''m trying to make up for it.

Generally people who have GEDs also are looking to get further education. Someone with just a HS diploma and no further schooling, as an employer you can''t really tell if they are satisfied with where they are or if they are not.

If both of them get their GED''s then continue on to college and get Bachelors degrees then in 8 years when Mommy will have a shot at the nomination again, they will have an 8 year old child and nobody will give a rip if they got a GED or a HS Diploma. Give them a chance to make up for their mistake. Anyway, we don''t even know if the daughter is a nutcase like the mother. Plenty of daughters out there wouldn''t give spit for what their mothers believe in.

[barbaraf4]

Has Sarah said anything about why they haven''t married yet? I have to believe it has to do with the welfare laws in Alaska.