Any smart PR person will tell you that if you have a story that needs to be “buried” there are two ways to go — pick an incredibly busy news day so it gets lost amongst the clutter, or aim for a holiday when people aren’t paying attention.
Well, it so happens that today is a holiday and an extremely busy day — courtesy of Hurricane Gustav. This combination of factors makes it the ideal time to try to hide Sarah Palin’s controversial news. Her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Maybe one of these days, abstinence-only supporters will realize that approach isn’t exactly working.
From a PR standpoint, I guess it was kind of brilliant. Limit the damage by getting the story out there on a day when the media has shifted from politics to constant hurricane coverage.
For his part, Obama took the high road, asking the media to lay off these kinds of stories. As he pointed out, his mother had him when she was just 18. He believes families — and especially children — shouldn’t be subjected to the political scrutiny that comes with running for office.
We can only hope the media lay off the tabloid aspects of this story and let this 17-year-old girl deal with this challenge in private, but I hope the media uses this as an opportunity to closely examine Palin’s positions on associated issues like birth control and sex education.