On CNN, talk show host Leslie Marshall says the “Family Guy” controversy has been a “win-win” for both Sarah Palin and Seth MacFarlane, the show’s producer, because it “ups her popularity and the show’s popularity.” Entertainment reporter Tanika Ray says MacFarlane’s goal is to stir up controversy. “He thinks: if Sarah Palin’s responding, he did his job.”

Blogging at the Baltimore Sun, critic David Zurawik says he supports the free speech rights of Bill Maher and Seth MacFarlane, but thinks they are “bullying” people with disabilities.

…there is a larger point to these two remarks this week: I think they are emblematic of how toxic and nasty our public discourse has become.

Reading some of the comments in reaction to my post from people who found the “Family Guy” joke funny, I was struck by just how far we have fallen as a society in our anger and need to feel superior to someone else.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper says Sarah Palin needs to acknowledge that the “Family Guy” episode was satire — unlike Rush Limbaugh’s “retard” reference.

And there’s coverage of Andrea Fay Friedman’s response to Palin at the New York Daily News, USA Today, CBS, Village Voice and elsewhere.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 10:57 am and is filed under Down syndrome, entertainment, humor, language, politics, R-word, television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.