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Sarah Palin is lashing out at the portrayal of a character with Down syndrome on the Fox animated comedy “Family Guy.” In a Facebook posting headlined “Fox Hollywood – What a Disappointment,” the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and current Fox News contributor said Sunday night’s episode felt like “another kick in the gut.” Palin’s youngest son, Trig, has Down syndrome.
The episode features the character Chris falling for a girl with Down syndrome. On a date, he asks what her parents do.
She replies: “My dad’s an accountant, and my mom is the former governor of Alaska.”
Palin resigned as Alaska governor last summer.
Palin’s oldest daughter, Bristol, also was quoted on her mother’s Facebook page, calling the show’s writers “heartless jerks.”
“When you’re the son or daughter of a public figure, you have to develop thick skin. My siblings and I all have that, but insults directed at our youngest brother hurt too much for us to remain silent,” she is quoted as saying.
“If the writers of a particularly pathetic cartoon show thought they were being clever in mocking my brother and my family yesterday, they failed,” Bristol Palin added in the Monday posting. “All they proved is that they’re heartless jerks.”
Palin wrote that she’d asked her daughter what she thought of the show and Bristol’s reply was “a much more restrained and gracious statement than I want to make about an issue that begs the question: When is enough enough?”
This isn’t the first time Palin has spoken out over an attack, real or perceived, on her family. Last year, she condemned a joke David Letterman made about her daughter, for which he later apologized.
A “Family Guy” publicist didn’t immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.
i find this story sad and a heartless mean thing to do the the Palin family. That little boy didn’t ask to be born with down syndrome and for the writers of Family Guy to do something that horrible to a small child makes my skin crawl. I know that I will never watch that show again, nor will my children. Its an outrage to say the least. SHAME on you to the writers of the show and for the tv staions to let it air.
I dont have any family members with down syndrome and my kids watch that show. I never had a problem with my kids watching that show. But after my son began to laugh only because he was able to connect the episode to the Plain family i realized that the show had gone to far. Comedy is Comedy and i am all for comedy but a little boy who has no idea about what is going on, well i think they just went to far. My kids wont be watching that show anymore i can assure you. Children who have down the palins son is not a public figure he is an innocent little boy!!
If someone is offended by a joke they saw or heard on television, there is a simple remedy: Change the channel! That is what I do whenever I hear Sarah Palin speak. She is a veryoffensive joke, herself. But that is what my remote control is for.