I feel for the kids because they do not get to choose, really. But the campaign decided to make them part of the campaign and as such, it becomes fair game for parody. Not insults, but parody. The fake “ads” and such on Rush’s show are protected by the same legal rights, so be careful what you wish for.

You might note that you almost never see Obama’s kids. (One might guess that they are in school.) Biden’s are grown, but even McCain doesn’t drag his out and show them off constantly.

There are always people who can try to argue things like that, but there precedent is against them. Plus while there are a number of comedy programs where people sometimes get their news, SNL is not one of them. They do not present real news along side their skits, the weekend update they do is pure parody.

As for young people getting news from comedy programs, it all depends which ones you are talking about. Somebody watching the Daily Show is going to be far better informed then somebody watching Leno.

I do not have the exact numbers handy, I could look them up if you need me to, but recently a survey was done to find out where the teens and 20’s got there news. Most of them did not watch news (local or national) but got there news from Leno, Comedy Centrals fake newscasts and skits like were seen on Saturday Night Live. Yes they understand some is humor but not where the line is. In that respect, it could be argued (though I am not, just saying it could) that this becomes slander as we know Mr. Palin did not have an incestuous affair with his daughter that produced the child in question.

What is scary to me is that most young people get there news from comedy shows.

Newt said “Should Katie Couric have apologized for misquoting Henry Kissinger? I mean, how often — you know, should “Saturday Night Live” apologize for the viciously dishonest and mean-spirited skits they did, particularly about Todd Palin and his daughters, things that I think were slanderous and worthy of a lawsuit?”

The skit shows escalating absurdities that the media are coming up with; the whole point was to skewer the media for their exaggerations, postulations, and lies. SNL was doing exactly what Newt was doing, protesting left wing media fantasies, and doing it in a way much clearer than the New Yorker (New York?) cover from the summer.

(The reporters in the skit did unfortunately come up the Todd being the father of the daughter’s baby theory; the idea of the SNL writers was, I’m sure, to come up with something obviously outrageous, but when an idea short circuit’s people’s brains, it may not be perfectly effective. That sole survivor in the front car of the recent L.A. area train collision has no memory of the impact; likewise may the actual details of the skit have been lost as minds tried to reject the image. It’s a different kind of bad judgment.)

So it’s fine for him to think that it’s wrong to make fun of their children, but it’s clueless for him to call for a lawsuit that would be laughed out of court.

Gingrich isn’t talking about parody. He knows what he’s talking about, and he’s right.

Incidentally, the SNL thing is just an aside in this context. The actual issue he’s talking about is CNN reporter Drew Griffin’s gross misrepresentation of a National Review article he was supposedly quoting during an interview with Sarah Palin. His point is that the media goes to great lengths to make Sarah Palin look bad, by distorting facts and taking things out of context.

… which, ironically, is exactly what this little video clip does for Newt Gingrich. He dares to point out this unfair treatment, and as a reward he’s subjected to it himself.

Here’s a link to the full article for those who prefer to be more fully informed:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,443712,00.html