Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan Governor who proved a spectacularly bad choice for potential Vice President in the last US election, and now a “commentator” on Fox News, made headlines again recently when she attacked cutting cartoon comedy “Family Guy” for its depiction of a character with Down’s Syndrome whose mother was “Governor of Alaska”.
The “Family Guy” incident isn’t the first time Palin has tried to generate publicity for herself by attacking others – late night talk show host David Letterman was her choice last year – but if she expected “Family Guy” to go groveling to her with an apology, it would seem she is in for a major disappointment. Andrea Fay Friedman, one of the voice actresses on the cult cartoon, was disgusted by Palin’s “outrage” at the scene, and responded in kind, according to Time magazine’s James Poniewozik. Friedman actually has Down’s Syndrome herself and cuttingly remarked “My parents raised me to have a sense of humour. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son around looking for sympathy and votes.”
Given that Friedman does have Downs herself, it will be very difficult for Palin to once more go on the attack without looking like even more of a hypocrite than usual, and Poniewozik makes clear his opinion, noting that “The “Family Guy” scene was a personal shot – but at Palin, not at Trig. Friedman’s character was assertive, intelligent and confident (and a young woman, not an infant boy). Palin seemed to be defending neither her son nor the disabled generally, but herself, a public figure who a cartoon had the temerity to poke fun at.”
