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Bristol Palin: Media Maven with a Message

By Cristina Page, Moderator, OnCommonGround

February 17, 2009 - 5:24pm

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In a stroke of media mastery, Bristol Palin harnessed the Palin family-doting Fox News last night to announce a powerful (and decidedly non-Fox News) message for policy makers: abstinence only is "not realistic." The new teen mom also told Greta Van Susteren that she would "love to be an advocate to prevent teen pregnancy." Making this announcement on one of the most watched, and most conservative, news stations in the nation is already a pretty good display of her ability to reach a large swath of Americans (particularly the most difficult to reach on this issue.)

Highlights from Greta Van Susteren's interview with Bristol Palin in which Bristol talks candidly about teen pregnancy, abstinence and contraception.

As we all remember, Bristol and her unplanned pregnancy dominated the national news for a month during the Presidential campaign. Yet this is really the first time we've heard from Bristol herself. It appears she is striking out on her own. In fact, she told her mother about the interview and her plans to discuss teen pregnancy prevention during it just the day before. Some have spun this story as Bristol attacking her mother's abstinence-only policies. She clearly is not, but she is finding her own voice. (Anyway, it appears Governor Palin is reconsidering her position. She makes an appearance during the interview and admits that the abstinence-only approach is, as she puts it, "naive" which, in itself, is a big news the main stream media has yet to pick up on.)

What the interview reveals is that Bristol is lovely, humble, honest, no doubt still a teenager and refreshingly free of any political agenda--except to use her experience to steer teens away from the same fate. In startling candidness, Bristol expresses the conflicting emotions that come packaged with teen parenthood; her love for her child and of motherhood and her belief that waiting ten years before becoming a parent would have been a better path.

She explained,

    "I like being a mom, I love it. Just seeing him smile and stuff, it's awesome...It is very challenging but it's so rewarding...Of course, I wish it would happen in ten years so I could have a job and an education and be, like, prepared and have my own house and stuff... I just hope that people learn from my story and, I don't know, prevent teen pregnancy I guess... It's not just the baby part of it that's hard, it's that I'm not living for myself anymore I'm living for another human being...I'd like to be an advocate to prevent teen pregnancy because its not a situation you strive for I guess...Kids should just wait--it's not glamorous at all."


In many ways, Bristol appears on the national stage just in the nick of time. Teen birth rates are suddenly spiking nationally after fifteen years of steady decline and Congress is about to consider re-funding the failed abstinence-only policies that likely led to this trend. An organization like The National Campaign for the Prevention of Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy could use a spokesperson like Palin right about now. Together, armed with real data, they can educate teens about the real life consequences of sex and lobby for the policies that help delay teen sexual activity and prevent unintended pregnancy. Palin has already won fans in the organization. One is Bill Albert, Chief Program Officer. He described Palin as 'brave.'

"There has to be some real passion, great inner fortitude to come forward to talk about these issues," Albert explained, "she said something very powerful--'I wish I had waited, I wish this beautiful event could have happened in ten years.' She said it in her own words and it was not an anti-child message, not an anti-family message--it was about timing and what order you want to take life's most important events. If she could turn back the big hands on the clock of time she would have waited. That is a message on target with all the teen parents we talk to. Teen mothers and fathers are the most powerful messengers of all. She already is an advocate."


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11 comments
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This is the same kid that

This is the same kid that you people have been raking across the coals since June. Now, she says that she doesn't think abstinence education is realistic and suddenly you've decided she's lovely, humble and honest.
Why couldn't you give her credit for those qualities when she needed you?

Submitted by cmarie on February 17, 2009 - 5:57pm.
She has said the same thing before....

and we applauded her for it.  we congratulated her on the birth of her baby, and celebrated the fact that she was able to make her own choice in this pregnancy.  Far from raking her across the coals, we gave voice to what she was saying. 

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/01/02/bristol-palin-teens-dont-get-pregnant

I am not clear exactly how this constitutes raking her across the coals.

 

Jodi Jacobson

Submitted by Jodi Jacobson, Senior Political Editor on February 17, 2009 - 6:56pm.
"This is the same kid

"This is the same kid that you people have been raking across the coals since June."

 

How dishonest of you.

No one here 'raked' this young woman across the coals.All criticism was directed towards her mother for punishing her daughter by calling a press conference soon after she entered the race to announce her daughter's OOW pregnancy and then hauling her around like a tent revival exhibit.

Submitted by colleen on February 17, 2009 - 8:02pm.
Cristina and other
Cristina and other pro-choice advocates never raked Bristol Palin across the coals. What we object to, and strenuously, is that she and many other American teenagers aren't given the information they need to protect themselves and prevent parenting before they're ready. The good news is it sounds like Bristol wants to join the fight to teach them.
Submitted by Emily Douglas on February 17, 2009 - 6:17pm.
I hope that Bristol can

I hope that Bristol can use her name and stature to make some inroads into the Republican Party and its misogynist policies.

 

The personal is political.

Submitted by Alex_M on February 17, 2009 - 6:22pm.
Here's exactly what I've written about Bristol and Levi

I have previously written about Bristol and Levi on two separate occasions. Below are links to those pieces.

A Mom Before the Prom and Levi Drops Out of High School.

Using the very public debate about Palin's pregnancy to point out the realities of teen pregnancy (which weren't being discussed despite all the hoopla about her pregnancy) and calling for a more honest national discussion about it is not exactly raking Bristol over the coals. In fact, it is that very conversation Bristol is now hoping to begin.

Submitted by Cristina Page, Moderator, OnCommonGround on February 17, 2009 - 10:41pm.
Not really

I didn't hear any statement against abstinence-only education. She said abstinence was not "realistic" but then kept saying that everyone should "just wait 10 years." That sounds a lot like abstinence to me. I think she still doesn't get it, or at least doesn't have the courage to say it.

Submitted by Mark X on February 18, 2009 - 12:41am.
That;s not what she meant

Never did Bristol say that she wanted to wait ten years to have sex. Come on now! She wishes she had delayed childbearing. Access to information and birth control such as the five year Mirena IUD could have made a big difference in how her life would go. One can only hope that she now has access to a method of birth control that will work for her long term.

Submitted by Anonymous on February 18, 2009 - 7:14am.
Bristol Palin is

a lovely young lady. She seems to have her head on her shoulders much better than her mom. Athough I think that Sarah Palin is a good mother and hard worker I can not get past her Hate for animals and the earth. I can not understand how someone who appears to value life so much can have so many dead animals hanging on her walls!! It is not hunting that bothers me it is the whole wolf massacre, the beluga whales and now black bear killings for no good reasons that can be proven by wildlife experts. I hope Bristol and her siblings do not carry this vengeance towards animals and the planet.

Submitted by Anonymous on February 18, 2009 - 9:17am.
Great interview

Really good interview, Bristol seems pretty badass for wanting to share her story and to become an advocate for delaying childbearing till one has an education etc, and is not a teenager. I commend her for doing the interview on her own terms. I also like the fact that she flat out said, teen parenting is not glamorous. It is obvious that she loves her child, but she was realistic when she said she wishes the pregnancy had happened when she was 27, rather than 17.

I wish the interviewer had asked flat out (To both the Gov and Bristol), "Do you think teens should have access to and the correct information about birth control?". Not in a personal manner, just overall.

Also interesting how Gov. Palin said she thinks families need to help their teenagers if they are faced with a pregnancy, not the government. Unfortunately, not many teenagers are as lucky as Bristol and do not have a supportive family; what happens to these teenagers and their children if they have no where to go?

Gov. Palin was 1 month pregnant when she eloped with her husband in 1988, I hate the whole "Do as I say, not as I do". I hope she will put her money where her mouth is and fund comprehensive science-based sex education from now on in her state of Alaska.

Over 90% of people have sex before marriage, and that is not a bad thing. Let's be safe and able to plan our families!!!

Submitted by Shannon E O'Malley on February 18, 2009 - 12:03pm.
awful

Stroke of media mastery? How pathetic. This idyllic fantasy brought to you by a privileged teenager carrying around her baby in her mommy's house is not the way it is for most of America's teen mothers.

This is terrible journalism.

Submitted by Drew on February 18, 2009 - 1:18pm.