Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Columnist Michael Graham, Now Out of Both Sides of His Mouth

Last month, I wrote up a little news analysis piece for Brain, Child about the media coverage of the seventeen expecting teenagers in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They’re the ones who supposedly had a “pact” to get pregnant and raise their babies together, except that, whoops! There wasn’t any evidence a pact existed.

Anyhoo, I watched a youtube clip of conservative columnist and talk radio host Michael Graham skewering the school system that supports teenage mothers by providing services like day care. He also called the mothers-to-be “stupid” and got his undies all in a bundle on his blog:

“What [Dr. Brian Orr, who advocates for birth control without parental consent] and the Gloucester schools have done is to encourage the idiotic notions in their girls' heads that they are mature and responsible enough to be making these decisions. They are "choosing" (pause for a moment of sacred chanting from feminists) to go get pregnant and become moms at the age of 16. That is their "right" (pause again for cheers from opponents of abstinence-based education). Parents? They don't need no stinkin' parents. … And as a result, these girls will soon have a taxpayer-subsidized bundle of joy.”

Well. That was so two months ago. Now teenage pregnancy isn’t idiotic. It’s … “normal.”

Graham in the Boston Herald today:

“[VP hopeful Sarah Palin’s] daughter’s pregnancy highlights another part of Palin’s appeal. Her normalcy. Here’s a woman who has run a business, raised a family, who is sending a son off to Iraq, who has another son with a disability, and now has to help her teenage daughter face motherhood. These are experiences that millions of American moms have shared, can relate to and understand.”

Dude. Let’s now pause for the enormous whooshing noise your backpedalling makes.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh. This makes me so angry. I'm so angry, angry, angry. In fact, I'm so angry, I've lost my grip on the English language. All I can see is the angry red of my anger anger. Moreover, once this whole conversation turns into the typical "Pro-choice is actually anti-life" bullpuckey, I may go completely insane.

Perhaps this is their plan?

ChrEliz said...

Hey, wait a minute, though. There's a HUGE difference between the Gloucester girls and Bristol Palin. None of the Gloucester girls' parents are politically connected, wealthy donors, or otherwise inside the bubble of protection of the Grand Old Party. Bristol Palin, on the other hand, is the daughter of someone who can help the religious right completely undo Roe v. Wade. Ta-da! Now it makes perfect logical sense! Oh, wait a minute, but it means that Graham and other Republicans like him really are awful, shallow, opportunistic, hypocrites? Damn. Rats. Oh well. Petty details. As long as we can, as Sarah Palin said she would under questioning once, force our minor children to carry pregnancies to term even in the case of rape or incest, then we're doing a great job as a country. Excuse me while I go barf now. And then go get a chiropractic adjustment. All this dumbfounded head shaking I've been doing for the past several days has really gotten my neck out of whack.

Jody said...

But in one case you're talking about teenaged girls who get pregnant and keep their babies. In the other case you're talking, oh yeah, a teenaged girl who gets pregnant and keeps her baby. You can see the difference now, can't you?

Bette said...

I cannot even go read either piece because what is left of my head will explode. Honest to gaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!