Posted on 06/18/2013 12:41:52 PM PDT by Morgana
As NewsBusters reported last week, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin called out vulgarian comedian Bill Maher for referring to her Down Syndrome son Trig as “retarded.”
On ABC’s The View Monday, co-host Barbara Walters astonishingly defended Maher saying, “I don’t think he intended it to be mean-spirited” (video follows with transcript and commentary):
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: At a recent standup show in Las Vegas, comedian Bill Maher apparently called Sarah Palin’s five-year-old developmentally-challenged son Trig retarded. And Sarah blasted him on Twitter as a bully. Is that, is it, is he a bully? Is he a bad, what is he?
BARBARA WALTERS: Can I address that?
GOLDBERG: Absolutely.
WALTERS: Okay. [Takes deep breath.] I had an older sister named Jackie. I named my baby after her. You can see her, there am I with all the feathers, there’s my father. There’s my sister. She passed away. All our life my sister was called retarded. That was the term. It was a derogatory term. But that was the term. Then it was changed to mentally-challenged. I’m happy about that. I think it was very hard for my sister and very hard for me even to this day to say, as I often had to, I have a retarded sister. My sister is retarded, and mentally challenged. There are physically challenged, whatever. I’m very grateful that it has changed. But there are people who don’t know that, and they use the word retarded.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Do you think Bill Maher is one of those?
WALTERS: I don’t know, I don’t. I think that, you know, unless you’re a little more familiar, you don’t even know the term mentally challenged.
HASSELBECK: So you don’t think Bill Maher meant harm in calling Trig retarded?
SHERRI SHEPHERD: I also want to know what was he joking about that he had to even bring Trig up.
WALTERS: I don’t know. There are comedians, we have other things here. We have comedians who say, “Oh well, you know, I’m being funny.” Do I think it was unfortunate that he did it? Yes, I do. Do I, do I think he realized what it was? No, I don’t. I mean, I don’t think he intended it to be mean-spirited. He likes to take on Sarah Palin, a lot of people do. She can fight back. And she did. And I’m glad she did.
GOLDBERG: You know, I think that we, society took the word “retarded” and made it into something derogatory. I think we made it a bad word by utilizing, well because we turned it into, you know, something that you call somebody to make them feel bad, to feel different. And I think we, you know, and as we have changed it into developmentally-challenged, you know, we, society has that…
HASSELBECK: We’re in 2013, right?
WALTERS: Retarded means, retard means slow. What it meant was the person was slow.
HASSELBECK: I think there’s not a person on this earth right now who has a sense of mercy and love and understanding who wouldn’t go to a group of people or in front of an audience, perhaps, and not know that that would maybe make someone feel bad. So I think it’s odd that we would give any person, namely the person we mentioned before, the benefit of the doubt. I feel that that’s really generous.
WALTERS: I wish that everybody were as enlightened as you. Believe me they are not.
GOLDBERG: I wasn’t giving anybody the benefit of the doubt. I was saying to Barbara, because she said it was derogatory, and she didn’t realize it. But that she realized it early on. And I’m saying when I was a kid, it wasn’t derogatory. We turned it into something that is so sort of crappy, that you know, we have to keep an eye on this because t’s our responsibility to watch out for that you know.
WALTERS: When I was a kid, and this is what I’m talking about, when my sister was a kid for many, many years, it was a derogatory and painful remark. Okay?
As NewsBusters has been reporting the contortions liberal media members that eviscerated George W. Bush for warrantless wiretaps have been exhibiting in support of Barack Obama’s far more intrusive domestive surveillance, here too was such hypocrisy on display.
This seems particularly absurd of Walters to defend Maher given her sister’s impairment.
Surely Walters knows that Maher has been attacking the Palin family for years.
He’s called Sarah the C-word, a “dumb twat,” and said she would “f–k” Rick Perry if he was black. Maher’s also gone after Palin’s daughter Bristol on several occasions.
So why would anyone in their right mind – especially someone that had a mentally-challenged sister – believe Maher didn’t intend to be mean-spirited?
Honestly, this was not one of Walters’ finer moments. She could have made a nice statement – especially someone with her family background – by coming down on this innocent child being the butt of anyone’s jokes.
But no. She had to defend this disgusting man who’s gotten rich viciously attacking folks whose political views he disagrees with.
And what about all that talk about the kids of politicians being off limits?
Sadly, what we’ve learned is that such children are only protected if their parents are Democrats.
Republicans’ kids?
Be my guest. I’m sure it’s just a joke that wasn’t intended to be mean-spirited.
It offends Sarah Palin. It hurts her and her family.
In spite of what those witches at The View may think, Sarah is a human being who never hurt them in any way.
So they took it upon themselves to hurt another human being. And they did it intentionally.
Bad, bad karma.
They will get theirs a thousandfold.
I hope and pray I live to see it.
Heck, I’d walk over hot coals barefoot to kiss her hand. (with Todd’s permission of course)
Sarah is a mother first, she loves her children..if she can’t even defend her own child than whats the point..Those who say that Sarah should not have said anything are wrong, its not even the word “Retard” that disgusted Sarah Palin, it was whose mouth it was coming out from, Bill Maher has said disgusting, vile things about the Palin family and the Palin children..and whats even remotely funny about saying such a vile thing about a little boy who has done NOTHING to deserve it..Trig will never be able to google(or bing) his own name because if he does he will see those disgusting things said about him..that is what this child has had to deal with.
Karma is a well, ya know..and the ones who trash this beautiful child will get whats coming to them one day, may not be today or tomorrow, but eventually karma gets em
I would love for Todd Palin to just beat the crap out of Maher.
I would love to see Sarah Palin bit*h slap the loser!
[[Is she gonna use that logic to defend use of the N-word next???]]
Yep- when the left ‘comics’ attack black folks o nthe right- she will defend it-
It is as nuanced as the libs that called Sarah Palin a c**t during the 2008 election cycle. Some of those same Democrats called Hillary Clinton a b***h as she challenged the Golden Child for the Democrat presidential nomination.
Identity politics only matters when you serve The Party.
Liberalism is a Stalinist lie.
perhaps Sarah should call the ‘women’ on the view the C word like bill did to her- Say somethign liek “I could care less what those pathetic @#$%$#$ say” and see how those ‘ladies’ like it when they are attacked liek that- Bet they fall all to pieces
I wonder how conflicted Babs would be if Maher had made a cryptic comment about her daughter being adopted.
They will find any excuse to defend Maher, but we know had the shoe been on the other foot, and Palin had used "retarded" in regards to anyone's child, they would be skewering her big time.
I had a brother that had cerebral palsy, and we knew enough to dignify his life with anything demeaning. I get the term retarded can mean many things, but in front of others you have to show class when speaking about others.
Ms. Walters defends the use as a joke because she says Mr. Maher makes jokes at Sarah’s expense (”a lot of people do”).
No defense of why he brings up her son in his jokes.
Still no answer as to whether Ms. Fluke participated in the Georgetown “slut walk” protest (that occurred long before Mr. Limbaugh’s comment).
A lot of people think that the only reason why Barbara Walters is even in show business is because she slept her way to the top..I wonder if someone made a joke about that Walters would say “Hey a lot of people do” liberals always try to find ways to rationalize irrational thinking..imagine if a Conservative had said something disgusting about a child from someone on the left(Which is hard since leftists love aborting their kids) I wonder how the media would have reacted to that
Use retarded to make fun of a leftist or a leftist’s child and Walters would skewer you.
The pig Maher got exactly what he wanted,i.e., a lot of attention. We should just ignore him and the two morons mentioned here. Worst we could do to any of them.
Trig is a sweet child. In contrast, Babs Wewa is a dried up old skag, skulking beneath mounds of decaying wrinkles and foaming with filthy liberalism.
Barbara Walters is retarded!
You totally missed the point. It’s about beating the liberals at their own game. The PC game. They made those rules/standards and we need to make them live by them. It’s an Alinsky tactic and it’s high time we started Alinskying them. Sarah knows that.
They think she slept her way to the top because she confessed to having an affair with a Senator.
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