CBS “The Early Show” attacked sexual abstinence while Bristol Palin appeared on “Good Morning America” and “Today” to voice her support for it. Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol's child who has told numerous stories to hurt the family, went on CBS in what can only have been an attempt to counter or distract from Palin's message.
The daughter of former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Bristol gave birth to son Tripp on Dec 27 2008. Since then, Bristol has become a Teen Ambassador for the Candies Foundation, which promotes teen abstinence.
On the eighth annual national day to prevent teen pregnancy, CBS continued its derision of abstinence with the help of Johnston. Anchor Maggie Rodriguez said before beginning the interview that Bristol was on TV talking about teen pregnancy and asked Johnston if he agreed with her encouraging abstinence. He responded that he did, but “you need to enforce, ya know, condoms and ya know birth control and things like that to have safe sex. I don't think just, uh telling young kids uh you can't have sex is just not gonna work – it's not realistic.”
Rodriguez then implied that Bristol is a hypocrite, rather than someone who learned the hard way and is offering herself as an example to others. “And coming from her, someone that has not practiced what she is now preaching…”
The segment followed a two-part interview with Johnston April 8-9, and Rodriguez asked Johnston if the Palins were still not giving him enough access to his son, a question clearly meant to paint Bristol in a negative light.
But over on “Good Morning America,” Palin said, “I'd love Levi to be a part of his life. And I know that he will be.”
In addition to their unfair portrayal of her, CBS also ignored her message of abstinence:
“I just want to go out there and just promote abstinence. And say this is the safest choice. This is the choice that's going to prevent teen pregnancy and present, prevent a lot of heartache.”
Unlike “The Early Show”, ABC and MSNBC did not ignore both sides of the issue even though they felt the need to dig up stories from Sarah Palin's campaign and Johnston's media blitz to discredit the Palin family.
