Strange Bedfellows

Family Guy Forces Salon Writer, Palins to Agree

Heather Horn Feb 17, 2010
In our Morning Vid, we already brought you Sarah Palin's response to a Family Guy episode mocking a special-needs child. Her daughter, Bristol, also attacked the show, from her mother's Facebook page:
If the writers of a particularly pathetic cartoon show thought they were being clever in mocking my brother and my family yesterday, they failed. All they proved is that they’re heartless jerks.
The two Palins have gained some unlikely support. Mary Elizabeth Williams, a writer for left-leaning Web magazine Salon, is not Sarah Palin's biggest fan. Yesterday she admitted:
I've got to hand it to them--when the Palin women are right, they're right. The 'Family Guy' episode wasn't just a bomb because of the low blow at Palin (seriously, doesn't the woman give us enough to legitimately criticize her for?), but for the overall insensitivity--and, just as egregiously, the witlessness--of the whole plotline.
Though she insists that "there's no topic in the world off-limits" to comedy, she prefers the way Glee--another show--dealt with the matter of Down syndrome. Family Guy may specialize in edginess and breaking taboos, but she suggests the show "stick to picking on targets their own size ... I don't want to have to find myself agreeing with Sarah Palin again for a long time."

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