Palin Attacks Blogger For "Malicious Desecration" Of Trig Photo

Sarah Palin has teed off against another mocking observer -- this time a local blogger who edited a photo of the governor and her youngest child to include a local conservative talk show host.

The photo:

In a statement sent to Politico, Palin's spokesperson said:

Recently we learned of a malicious desecration of a photo of the Governor and baby Trig that has become an iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child.

The mere idea of someone doctoring the photo of a special needs baby is appalling. To learn that two Alaskans did it is absolutely sickening. Linda Kellen Biegel, the official Democrat Party blogger for Alaska, should be ashamed of herself and the Democratic National Committee should be ashamed for promoting this website and encouraging this atrocious behavior.

Babies and children are off limits. It is past time to restore decency in politics and real tolerance for all Americans. The Obama Administration sets the moral compass for its party. We ask that special needs children be loved, respected and accepted and that this type of degeneracy be condemned.

The blogger, Linda Kellen Biegel of "Blue Oasis," responded:

To those folks at a certain Palinbot site who think the picture above is of Trig, let me use a phrase many of you are familiar with...

YOU FAIL AT LIFE!!!!!!

It's called "Baby Burke" because it's Eddie Burke...basically his probable second-biggest fantasy about the Governor.

The photo was used to promote a fundraiser to request Palin administration records of "potentially questionable conversations between with "preferred" members of the media."

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Comments

[James Redmond]

Well i honestly think it's easier to find an "iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child" than the one in question, wherein Trig was being used as a prop for votes. With great respect to Trig, families with children with learning disadvantages go through a significantly more difficult time as the child grows up than could be compared to the difficulty of the time when they're babies. To me, there's nothing iconic about it, it's you and your baby, he's not some heroic tale of a special needs child, again, with maximum respect, and you can't claim an equally heroic tale at so early a stage as your family finds itself. Preposterous.

And it's your job, Governor Palin, to represent freedom of speech, even when tasteless and even when it's about your own children. You have a right to speak up, but to sensationalize your opinion of someone's expression of said free speech, doesn't lead anywhere productive, in fact providing incentive for like-minded individuals to follow suit and goad you even further. However much you're offended, there are a lot more people with a lot more free time on their hands to undermine whatever progress you may be making as a politician, as an individual and as a mother of a beautiful family, by your unwisely reacting to them as such, it draws attention away from the fact of your attempts to right the wrongs of your record as Governor of Alaska.

[mitsie]

Palin cut the funding for special needs children in Alaska, where's the ire about that? IMO the picture is in poor taste because it can be construed as a handicap child. However I do want to say that I think Letterman went to far in extending an olive branch to Palin, even when she was cutting political hay with that incident.

If this woman ever ran for national office this is what we would be subjected to on a daily basis, because too many people do not want to see here any where near the White House.

[hoobit]

[C'mom HuffPost writers and moderators - do us all a favor and post links to *other* related/pe­rtinent/re­levent HuffPost articles, please! Doing so might keep us from going off on tirades born of lack of information; that's a knee-jerk reaction and trait soooooooo GOPish.]

Related HuffPost article: Palin Blasts Local Blogger (by AKMuckraker) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akmuckraker/palin-blasts-local-blogge_b_221113.html

[AsianAfricanAMERICAN]

"The Obama Administration sets the moral compass for its party. We ask that special needs children be loved, respected and accepted and that this type of degeneracy be condemned.­"



Figures...



"Blame Obama". Wah

[KayJay90]

Actually, he did, with all class and dignity, when he asked during the campaign WITH REGARDS TO PALIN'S CHILDREN..­..

“Let me be as clear as possible,” Obama said. “I think people’s families are off-limits, and people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president.­”

That should be enough.

Sarah Palin, since that time, has blabbered to People Magazine several times about her precious children, made sure they were thoroughly photographed by that magazine and by Esquire and other magazines, supervised an idiotically conceived interview of her daughter by Fox News, pushed that same daughter into a diametrically opposed stance on teen-age sex as a spokesperson, pushed her absent other teenage daughter into the milieu of a joke by a comedian and worked up a huge faux rage about it, and now has presumed to call herself "sacred" and the picture of her at the RNC with the baby "iconic".

Geez -- is that chutzpah or what?

[hoobit]

Wouldn't it be nice if, when a piece on HuffPost is related to *another* piece on HuffPost, readers were provided with links to the related article(s)?

Sure, it might mean more work to insert a link at the end of an article (or retroactively add one) but, sheesh, wouldn't it be nice for readers to have more than a smidgen of information to weigh before they begin getting all bent out of shape over what they've read (or think they've read)?

The above article is a prime example. Very few people outside of Alaska know who the heck Eddie Burke is. I doubt if most readers of the article had a clue as to who the photoshopped face belongs to. (It belongs to Eddie Burke, BTW) From the responses posted, many people seem to think the blogger has distorted Trig's face and is (therefore, obviously) 'making fun' of the 'special needs child.' (A Romper Room no-no.)

Lacking *context* for the photo, the article, and the (resulting) controversy, opinions are being formed *without* sufficient information. Not a good model for forming anything..­.let alone, opinions. And impossible, without insufficient information, to form an *informed* opinion.

Might I suggest readers of this article ALSO read the *other* HuffPost article on the subject so that they know the *context* of the photo? The related article is: "Palin Blasts Local Blogger" (by AKMuckraker): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akmuckraker/palin-blasts-local-blogge_b_221113.html

[Altruth]

If it is Palin's plan to answer and attack everyone that mentions her family she is going to be very busy! Who is governing her state? If she keeps this up she will not have enough time to plan for 2012, hey people give Palin something to talk about!

[EnjoyTheRide]

On the contrary, stop giving her something to talk about. It would be fun to watch her try to generate headlines all on her own. As for running for 2012, that is exactly what she is doing. She doesn't have anything except her celebrity, and she has to stay in the headlines to keep that.

[dearlizzie]

Is pitching a fit over an imagined slight to one of the brood she overexposed the only way the hardly working governor can get coverage?

[LeftistGuerrilla]

I agree. Bad choice of picture used to make a point. I would say that for any member of her family. If they replaced Michelle Obama standing next to Barack Obama with a picture of Adolph Hitler, I would also find that wrong. But to take a picture of Palin, with apparently Baby Trig in it, and replace him with a picture of some creepy looking right wing guy, is wrong.

[macohmz]

I thought that picture was hilarious. And very true.

[Anne1776]

When will Sarah Palin just GO AWAY?! GOOOOOOO AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!

[CFAmick]

If my governor was this busy not running the state, I'd be petitioning for an emergency election.

[DreamEmbraced]

Yes....and to maliciously attack a blogger (again) who she supposedly represents in Alaska is unconscion­able...as if to purposefully incite her rab!d followers.

[restoretheroar]

you liberals are so open minded except when it comes to a pro life conservative woman. sad

[KayJay90]

Not enough adjectives.

Insert "...pro-li­fe/anti-ch­oice, theocratic­/evangelis­tic conservative narcissistic paranoid passive-aggressive woman".

[nabrum]

Sighh. More noise from Sarah to keep her name in the media. That's all it really is. Period.

[Grada3784]

BORING!!!!

[Cosmic-Zantor]

Denying universal healthcare and holding us back from joining virtually every other industrialized country on Earth, that's fine.

Conducting absolutely hateful rallies and fueling right-wing extremism, no problem there.

Supporting imperialist wars, hey, so what?

Torturing suspects? Big deal.

Violating the constitution? Eh, so?

Photoshop a weird face onto a baby? Well now that's crossing the line!!!

[noaxe397]

Keep it up Democrats and by the time the 2012 primaries come around this woman will have enough political ammo stored up to run a half hour infomercial.

There is no need to bring the kids into this. Isn't that what Obama said during the campaign when it was revealed the 17 yo was pregnant?

Obama said:
Kids are off limits.
Anyone on his campaign staff who makes kids an issue will be fired
That he sympathizes with Palin family because he was the child of a teenage mother.

Attack/challenge Palin all you want. Make fun of HER appearence, odd syntax, verbal crutches, crazy theories and policy positions. But when you go after the kids you enable the base in the GOP and they will come after you.

[KayJay90]

The ORIGINAL cartoon/Photoshop done 6/19/09 on Blue Gal's blog, http://www.bgalrstate.blogspot.com -- was done EXPRESSLY to make fun of Sarah Palin's faux outrage at David Letterman.

There's a crazy theory and policy position for ya...

Sarah Palin and her pitbull Meghan Stapleton didn't get all riled up about the Photoshopped picture until Linda Kellen Biegel picked up on the same idea Blue Gal did, and substituted Eddie Burke's face for David Letterman's face.

The baby is unidentifiable as shown in the Photoshop -- but since Sarah Palin made a point of holding that 4 month old baby in front of her like raw meat for the RNC crowd at the start of her campaign last fall -- and continued to drag him around from venue to venue -- it's AWFULLY hard to keep from including her offspring in the discussions about her.