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PBS Defends ‘Palinese’ Segment Mocking Sarah Palin

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» 46 comments

Who’d have guessed. Apparently some PBS watchers are also Sarah Palin supporters. Or at least Sarah Palin sympathizers. Comedian Andy Borowitz, in his short, funny segment that appears at the end of Jon Meacham‘s ‘Need to Know’ PBS news show, this week made fun of Sarah Palin. Specifically he mocked her ‘Palinese’ and speculated what the country would look like when she became president in 2012, per the ‘Mayan Prophecy Weekly’.

Her first official act will be to cancel the agreement between nouns and verbs. Next, she’s replace the English language with Palinese….Word number one: “mitteracy.” “Mitteracy” means the ability to read off one’s hand. Word number two: “rignorance.” “Rignorance” means advocating deep-water drilling in the aftermath of an ecological disaster that killed thousands of pelicans. And finally, “mooseacre.” “Mooseacre” means a really fun day in the great outdoors. That’s our lesson in Palinese for today. Now, you may be wondering: Where does Sarah Palin find all these new words of hers? In a little book called the fictionary.

Turns out that even though Alison Stewart and Meacham can be heard laughing in the background some viewers didn’t find it so funny. The segment received over 600 comments — meaning if nothing else, PBS has discovered that Palin is a reliable traffic generator — and a number of people were not pleased. Said PBS ombudsman Michael Getler: “Palin’s new word was all over the media and fair game.” Watch the segment below.

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  • AngelPeters

    The man is a comedian. Don’t Palin supporters realize that?? Comedian, people. Comedian. Get your panties out of a twist. Sarah “Mama Grizzly” Palin can handle being on the receiving end of a COMEDIAN’S shtick.

  • http://TheDividedStatesBlog.com Publius219

    Can we stop treating this moron as a serious political figure? She has no chance of ever winning a national general election. None. Maybe if the media was more focused on disseminating information and educating the public and less about clicks and page views, morons like her would be strictly relegated to far right websites where they belong.

    Cue maleducated far-right outrage…now.

  • timzank

    Maybe she should sue like Sherrod? After all, she was defamed….

  • http://TheDividedStatesBlog.com Publius219

    timzank said:
    Maybe she should sue like Sherrod? After all, she was defamed….

    There’s that whole “public figure” thingamajigger

  • Big_F-ing_Deal

    timzank said:
    Maybe she should sue like Sherrod? After all, she was defamed….

    Are you saying Breitbart is a comedian? I concur.

    Anyway, Palin is a public figure. We are free to mock her. lol

  • Big_F-ing_Deal

    Publius219 said:
    There’s that whole “public figure” thingamajigger

    Beat me to it. :-)

  • Moderate

    Michael Richards called two black hecklers the “n-word” and enthusiastically referenced a time when blacks were often victims of civil rights abuses. Words do hurt and being a comedian is no excuse.

  • notsofast

    The Public Barack Station (PBS)had someone watching them?

  • Moderate

    “The Public Barack Station (PBS)had someone watching them?”

    Now that was funny.

  • writer

    So we are free to mock any public figure? Even the ones on the left?

  • timzank

    writer said:
    So we are free to mock any public figure? Even the ones on the left?

    no no no…not on the left. That is not fair. Just ax ‘em.

  • amy

    I’m sorry, I’m confused. I thought the right wind stopped watching PBS once they decided Burt and Ernie were gay.

  • alamo2

    timzank said:
    no no no…not on the left. That is not fair. Just ax ‘em.

    And now the beegots will jest laff and laff at your cute use of the English language!!

  • AngelPeters

    As if public figures on the left (ahem, Obama) haven’t been mocked over and over and over by comedians all over the place, including Letterman, Stewart, Maher, Colbert, and Leno, to name a few.

    We all know when it comes to comedians, neither the left or right are spared. Perhaps the right is more sensitive to the mocking, I don’t know, and the left have thicker skins? Comedians are the least discriminatory professionals in this country.

  • Azarkhan

    One of the first steps President Palin will take is to request Congress cut funding for the Public Broadcasting Service.

  • AngelPeters

    amy said:
    I’m sorry, I’m confused. I thought the right wind stopped watching PBS once they decided Burt and Ernie were gay.

    LOL!

  • http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

    Isn’t Barack Obama a public figure? Yet if we dare mock him we get buried under an avalanche of racial charges. Different set of rules?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Lars-Svensen/100001028197161 Lars Svensen

    Credit PBS for classical music programming, but all their talking heads are wimpy, Birkenstock-wearing, politically-correct Journolister creeps.

  • juan

    Lars Svensen said:
    Credit PBS for classical music programming, but all their talking heads are wimpy, Birkenstock-wearing, politically-correct Journolister creeps.

    How about this:

    Kuttner and Obama have something else in common – a close relationship to America’s largest Marxist based organization Democratic Socialists of America.

    To quote D.S.A. connected “JournoLista” Joel Bleifuss;

    In particular, Obama can be linked to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the Democratic Party-oriented organization that is a member of the Socialist International

    Obama has been close to D.S.A., possibly back to the early 1980s.

    http://gulagbound.com/1661/loudon-obama-file-108-pro-obama-journolista-outed-new-can-of-worms-opened

    Verrrry SCARY STUFF!

  • Sean68

    Hello, Professor Falken. Talk about phoning it in. One would think this segment would have been his top priority.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Smith/100000683167097 Tom Smith

    Oh God Lord, Juan – if you read that crap you are a soul that is lost.
    Go crawl back under your tin foil hat where Glen Beck whispers sweet nothings into your ear. Hurry, before the black helicopters find you and take you away.

  • http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

    “GULAG BOUND” is RIGHT!!!1 They offer the only REAL journalism we can TRUST (besides what MichelleF gives us all the time in this comments section!!1)!!1 Because after all, we are ALL GULAG BOUND!!!1 NObama and his commie union Chicago-style Kenyan muslin socialist community organizing THUGS are THIS CLOSE (I am holding up my fingers VERY CLOSE!!!1) to rounding up all the Right-Thinking Americans and SHIPPING THEM OFF to FORCED LABOR CAMPS!!!1 GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER, people!!!1 WAKE UP and take back our Once Proud Republic!!!1 And someday we will live in a world where GulagBound.com is nominated for a PULITZER!!!!11

  • Iris

    hey juanda the journolista daily tucker story you’ freepers are trin to spread the word about fell flat on its face, HA,HA
    Journo story and freepers = EPIC FAIL!

  • Peaches0419

    This really is funny. I don’t remember anyone making fun of President Obama on PBS when he couldn’t read what it said on his TelePrompTer. Well, he could read it, but couldn’t pronounce it correctly when he read CORPSMAN and pronounced it CORPSEMAN. And that is a funnier word than Palins. Also the President didn’t even make up his word, he just abused it. Obama was characterized today on ABC National radio news as “playing dumb” when he said he didn’t know who Snooki was when asked by Maude Behar on The View, because ABC played the audio of Obamas punchline to a joke he told off of his TelePrompTer just 2 months ago, which mentioned “Snooki.” ABC was giving him the benefit of the doubt because the great, brilliant Obama, smartest president in the history of the Universe couldn’t actually be dumb, now could he? If he is dumb then the entire media will have to eat everything they have said about him and they aren’t about to do that…ever.

  • Iris

    Peaches 0forgod’ssake are you done ramblin’ yet, BTW the Right Wing teleprompter “jokes” fell flat on its face too. HA, HA

  • notsofast

    Moderate said:
    Words do hurt and being a comedian is no excuse.

    True and the “comedian” excuse is just another lib dodge promoted by the likes of Joy Behar, et al.

    Except of course, unless the jokes are about Barry and then the comic is a racist.

  • ChiliPeppersFan

    peaches…
    no wonder your side can’t get anything done…does the pres know who snookie is? c’mon

  • Averreauxii

    That was great! Palinese…..hahahaha! I mean, the dumb cunt did actually compare herself to Shakespeare after her lingua faux pax. She deserves to be mocked for her sheer stupidity!

  • Peaches0419

    Iris and ChiliPeppersFan try to read for comprehension this time. For wackjob, hack deflectors this may be an “outreach too far ” but really try to read OK? This particular comment patch is about words and supposedly being smart, those who mock Palin, like the Dumbo POTUS Barry who is on video, Youtube saying that he has so far only been to 56 states and all of the rest of the media including PBS. ABC network National Radio News said BO was “playing” dumb, when of course, he is dumb. You know what you write when you have nothing to say? Iris and ChiliPeppers? Nothing. But neither of you could help yourselves and both proved that you are either “playing dumb” as ABC news says the President was doing, or you really are dumb, I take a flyer and go with the latter.

  • Azarkhan

    “It’s an unconventional media strategy, to be sure, and not without its drawbacks— namely, bitter party operatives. (“This means that you can’t plan anything!” says the strategist.) Yet it’s hard to deny that Palin’s p.r. approach has not only succeeded but succeeded brilliantly. How? The most obvious element at work here is that Palin operates not as a politician but as a celebrity. “Most politicians can’t get on the cover of People,” sighs another GOP campaign veteran. “She’s on the cover almost every week.” The rules are different for celebrities: Palin’s megawattage enables her to command attention for every word and gesture, even as she largely stiff-arms The New York Times and “Meet the Press.” Similarly, candidates desperate for her endorsement are unlikely to (publicly) whine about whatever attention she dribbles their way, no matter how arbitrary or last-minute.”

    Michelle Cottle, TNR

    http://hotair.com/archives/2010/07/13/sarah-palin-is-a-pr-genius-says/

  • Azarkhan

    Cottle takes a refreshingly honest approach to Palin’s success, crediting it to Palin rather than luck, or worse, racism and paranoia, which is usually where her ideological opponents look for answers. Her conclusion makes this very clear:

    At some point, even Palin haters may have to face the possibility that the p.r. genius is Sarah herself.

    Make that a high probability. Even Chris Matthews acknowledged that implicitly when he said that the media would try to destroy her. If Palin wasn’t successful, they wouldn’t need to make it a project.

  • nm

    Doubtful that Palin fans were even paying attention to PBS. Whose ever job it was to monitor the left wing commies became aware of the segment, got angry and the cattle call went out on Team Sarah and Conservatives for Palin websites. Happens all the time on liberal websites.

  • nm

    OMG. It was an ANDY BOROWITZ segment.

    Yep, those Bots didn’t have a clue what the segment really was about. I’m convinced the cattle call went out.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Broadway/603685657 David Broadway

    New study shows that each Sarah Palin Tweet causes decrease in reader’s IQ.

    Read this article, it is HYSTERICAL.

    http://www.dailygoat.com/?p=1821

  • Penguin60

    I’m OK with it when they parody our Nitwit in Chief with Public funds. Good Luck seeing that.

  • lanquihue

    GM: “Apparently some PBS watchers are also Sarah Palin supporters. Or at least Sarah Palin sympathizers.”

    Wow. Do you have any idea what a snobby bitch that makes you seem?

    Here’s one for you:

    “Did you know that there are actually some liberals who are patriotic Americans?”

    - me

  • possumdearie

    Three years of planning this garbage show really paid off. Nearly three years, according to Stephen Segaller, VP of content for WNET.org. Three years! The show has been in the planing phase for three years! Three year to decide on how to do a once a week half hour with some web content. Three years of meetings? Three years of paying salaries to executives and producers who were working on how, exactly, to put together something so incredibly complicated as a weekly half hour studio show with some web stuff? Three years of lunches? Three years of research trips? PBS should refudiate the incredible wasted resources squandered to put out a weekly campaign message that is informative and entertaining as a robocall.

  • Founders_were_Liberal

    It has to be said: “That womani si an idiot.”

    She’s Bush in a dress, only LESS literate.

  • Stratdude

    Come on now guys, we know sarah and the hillbillies who support her is learning.

  • avoidswork

    What a bunch of cheez and whine coming from a group that I didn’t believe knew what channel(s) in their line-up PBS is.

    And once Sacred Sarah stops making up words, then this segment would no longer be applicable. But until then: Suck It. If she’s such force, such Grizzly Mama, then why can’t she and her supporters develop some thicker skin instead of the whine and moan they default to.

    Finally, RedEye is insanely stupid with teh stoopid segments all the time (NYTimes paper, anyone?) and you don’t see “lefties” whambulancing all over town over it. We just affirm how Not Funny the show is.

  • Nachi

    It is quiote impossible to mock Sarah Palin. She totally lacks a “theme.”

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rick-Sunderland/502185511 Rick Sunderland

    This Borowitz fellow has an interesting press release on the Wikipedia. Very interesting that the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was developed by a guy from Shaker Heights. And I yelled to the cabbie, “Yo, homes, smell you later”

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rick-Sunderland/502185511 Rick Sunderland

    Iris said:
    hey juanda the journolista daily tucker story you’ freepers are trin to spread the word about fell flat on its face, HA,HA
    Journo story and freepers = EPIC FAIL!

    “Epic fail?” Are you out of junior high yet?

  • xoffender

    timzank said:
    no no no…not on the left. That is not fair. Just ax ‘em.

    And who said the right was racist

  • xoffender

    MartiniShark said:
    Isn’t Barack Obama a public figure? Yet if we dare mock him we get buried under an avalanche of racial charges. Different set of rules?

    Not at all…just make sure your mocking is not racial. See how simple that is.

  • Penguin60

    xoffender said:
    Not at all…just make sure your mocking is not racial. See how simple that is.

    Increase spending, raise taxes, increase government. Mock these barry jems and that equals racism to the loons on the left.

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