Ms. Palin, whose son Trig also has Down syndrome, has said that the “Family Guy” show “really isn’t funny” and was the work of “cruel, cold-hearted people.” Ms. Palin’s daughter Bristol has written that the “Family Guy” writers were “mocking my brother and my family,” and called them “heartless jerks.”
One person who supports the “Family Guy” staff is Andrea Fay Friedman, the 39-year-old actor and public speaker who played Ellen in that episode. Like the character, Ms. Friedman also has Down syndrome.
In an e-mail message sent on Thursday to The New York Times, Ms. Friedman wrote:
I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line “I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska” was very funny. I think the word is “sarcasm.”
In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes."
Oh this is perfect! I am absolutely loving the fact that Sarah Palin "Champion of Down syndrome children everywhere" is getting schooled by an actual person with Down syndrome!
Take a look at this part of the interview where Andea Fay Friedman explains to Sarah who was REALLY being made fun of.
Q.When did you find out about the reaction that the episode elicited from Sarah Palin and her family?
A.[laughs] That I did not even know about until my mom told me, “You’re on Channel 4!” And when I watched on Channel 4, on “Extra,” and I saw Sarah Palin with her son Trig. I’m like, “I’m not Trig. This is my life.” I was making fun of Sarah Palin, but not her son.
Now do you get it Sarah? They were laughing at YOU, not little Trig, YOU.
So stop hiding behind your children and face your critics like a real Alaskan woman.
Yeah fat chance of THAT happening!
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I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!! Can you say, "karma"??? You blew it big time, Scarah, when you let Rush get away with his horrible use of "retard". Now you've offended a real, live person with Down Syndrome, who has more class and grace than you could EVER hope to have. Fasten your seatbelt Scarah, it's going to be a bumpy ride...right into oblivion.
ReplyDeleteGood for Andrea. She should be very proud of herself.
ReplyDeleteI do not think the character was at all portrayed negatively because of her downs. I would be proud to have her as my daughter, as I'm sure most accountants with downs children would be.
Sarah and Bristol had absolutely no cause to be offended by this program, unless of course they're ashamed of or embarrassed by Trig.
The Times didn't print the whole email. Whatsup with that?
ReplyDeleteMs. Friedman said her mother didn't carry her around like a loaf of French bread like Sarah does Trig looking for sympathy and votes . . . . .
Hysterical!
Sarah has never treated Trig as a loving mother, he's always been just a prop she can use and brush aside when she's done with him. I truly feel sorry for that little boy.
ReplyDeleteDidn't a young man with DS repeatedly ask Sarahto quit belittling him by calling him Sweetheart at one of her book signing events?
ReplyDeleteJust an example of how little she knows or what little respect she'll give actual, high-functioning special needs people.
She has no idea what it takes to raise a SN person, she's never home with Trig. She has no idea what she's in for should he remain in the Palin household as a tween, teen, young / adult.
As it is with all her credentials, just cause she rang a register at the snowmachine shop doesn't make her an expert on the economy, just cause she hired a city manager to do her job in a hodunk town doesn't give her executive skills, her equally lame-ass quitting term as an oil and gas regulator (hahahahahahaha) doesn't make her an energy expert just cause she remembered the term, "fungible commodity," and her quarter effort at half a term doesn't give her Chief Executive qualifications.
Whether Trig is hers or not, she got ahead of herself when trying to adopt a SN pulpit when millions of families have adjusted, struggled or made good with their very real kitchen table challenges.
Note that she has better command of the English language than our Lady of Special Needs.
ReplyDeleteImpulse Control was never Sarah's strong suit.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad this articulate young woman not only stood up to Sarah/Bristol's ghostwriters, but also showed by example what's possible for all people, not just people with disabilities, when they're raised properly, with love and support from their families and others.
Stereotypes will never be broken by people like Sarah who constantly bring up these stererotypes to push her political agenda. Down Syndrone children and Trig especially deserve much better.
I think everyone knew that the joke was on Sarah Palin. Sarah is the one that made it out to be about her son. The rest of us knew that it was making fun of that half-witted, imbecile, Sarah Palin.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm glad Freidman spoke out to clarify that. Now Sarah knows that SHE is the butt of all jokes.
Gosh darn, Sarah! You really should have watched the whole episode. Oh, wait...I forgot about her paranoia and that she would have misinterpreted the cartoon even if she watched it.
ReplyDeleteDid Bristol even know that she wrote a rebuke of the non-attack on her mother's facebook page?
Anonymous 4:41, you forgot, intellegence. This girl is truely remarkable and has a lot more going on than Sarah. Proof, Sarah that if you get some early intervention, education, etc. for TRIG, he can have a wonderful life. The father of this girl must be beaming with pride.
ReplyDeleteOff topic, Gryph, but did you check Huff Post 2/18 The Republican Strategy: Covert Destruction at all cost, by Caroline Myss? She talks about how repubs will send palin packing among other scary tricks they are up to. Try check it out before HP takes it down.
ReplyDeleteNice work Scarah. Open mouth insert foot. Yes i know thats impossible when your head is so far up your...
ReplyDeleteGryphen,
ReplyDeleteYou need to update your post with the missing part of Andrea Friedman's statement.
"In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes."
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/02/actress-from-family-guy-sets-record.html
Okay Vera I updated it. Geez.
ReplyDeleteGryph~ The best thing iv'e read all day...Scarah is sooo stoopid...The gift that just keeps on giving..
ReplyDeleteWill she ever learn to sit down and stfu????? ROTFL
I wonder if Ms. Andrea Friedman (an obviously beautiful spirit and way more articulate than palin could ever be) would lead a coalition against palin and the way she carries her son around like "a loaf of French bread...looking for sympathy and votes." You go, Andrea! We all knew that this episode of Family Guy was making fun of palin herself and not her little son...we all knew that, except palin.
ReplyDeleteAndrea, if you or your family see this.....You rock girl! Congratultations to you and your parents.
ReplyDeleteWhen possible Sarah uses her kids to get sympathy and support when someone attacks her. She did it here with Trig. She did the same thing to Letterman. She was probably much more upset about the slutty flight attendant comment than she was about the jokes about Bristol. As far as Trig goes, she has never acted like a mother to him, because she is not his mother. He is just another prop to pull out when she needs him. Piper is her baby, not Trig.
ReplyDeleteCan you believe that $P named her kid after his condition (Trisomy G)? Is that supposed to be some sort of sick joke?
ReplyDeleteI cannot even imagine the type of sick, twisted thinking and heartlessness that went into naming Sarah's DS child "Trig."
Why hasn't the MSM called her out on this? It's just so disturbing and cruel.
I love it! In one short email, Ms. Friedman proves that she is more intelligent, has a better sense of humor, and knows more about parenting than SP.
ReplyDeleteSarah, darling, two things; develop a sense of humor, and stop hiding behind your children. They are people, not shields.
I keep wishing that Bristol is different than her mother. That she will see through this charade that she has been led into. At this point, Willow seems to be the only smart girl in the family.
ReplyDeleteLove it! Congratulations to Andrea and her family!
ReplyDeleteI fear that Trig will never achieve his potential because he lacks an intelligent, supportive family. They do not work together to make life more meaningful for each member.
Andrea gets it. Sarah does not.
Andrea's family gets it. Trig's family does not.
Andrea has more smarts than Sarah and Bristol combined. I feel sorry for Trig and Tripp being raised by dumb and dumber mothers. Also those baby boys have no strong male role model to look up too because Todd is such a wimpy weasel.
ReplyDeleteSarah loves the disabled SO SO much that she's in favor of pulling social security disability and Medicare from millions of Americans. Since she doesn't know that there is a north Korea and a south Korea I highly doubt that she knows millions of the disabled in the US depend on those programs and would die or be homeless without them.
ReplyDeleteAnd go Andrea!!! You are amazing for calling out Sarah for the opportunist she is. You can tell she is not giving Trig the best care and therapy possible!!
Palin lives in a Sarahocentric model of the universe. She is
ReplyDeletepre-Copernicus. She is 'pre' a whole lot of other things also, too.
So what's Baraccuda's line of attack going to be?
ReplyDeleteAndrea could not have written such a verbiage, perhaps she was gussied up by a liberal, elite ghostwriter.
Andrea, perhaps unfortunately, has been made too much a delicate little starlet all these years in Hollywood. Many many special needs children have been exploited for gutteral humor doing nothing to progress Special Needs like me.
Andrea, sweetheart, precious gift from God. Grateful so many many folks like you also like Trig. Also bless your
heart, but you are portraying me innacurrate, you are not my daughter and this just isn't funny cause gosh, it's not satire if it's about me. Now from what I understand from my email briefings from all my advisors everyday, Downs kids are supposed to be designed to be prescious gifts from God that don't sass former Quittin Governor's who happens to go about representin an iconic Mother's love of her Down Syndrom baby!! Kickin Bristol in the gut, also. Now just sit down and shut up.
Anon@639,
ReplyDeleteI keep asking myself that same question. It is common knowledge that Trig is a medical nickname for Downs Syndrome. I guess if anyone asks Sarah she will have some B.S. excuse and that again the media is picking on her.
That being said, I do think that this should be brought up.
How soon before Sarah and Bristol rush to Facebook to slam Andrea as not being representative of real Americans with Down Syndrome?
ReplyDelete"Note that she has better command of the English language than our Lady of Special Needs." ROFLMAO.
ReplyDeleteOne additional thing: Sarah, like all her supporters, insists that black and brown people (and other minorities) just keep quiet about who they are, stop using labels to identify themselves, and just pretend they are as equally advantaged as the rest of us. (Rush speaks of this ad nauseum) Obviously, a totally different standard applies to the minority group of SN people – BUT ONLY WHEN THE SN PERSON IS 'HER' CHILD. I am confident that all SN people who are progressive or who disagree with Sarah in any aspect must still conform to the same 'sit down, shut-up, and stop complaining' standard that Sarah requires for all other minority groups.
Getting into a fight with a cartoon character is bad enough, but being attacked publicly and nationally by the down syndrome voice BEHIND the cartoon character? Priceless. She is a comedian's dream come true – on an international level.
Jason Linkins from Huffpo has post with Andrea Friedmans response letter in a story post. He links back to Palingates as well right at the beginning of the story. PG Feedjit has been very busy.... many people coming from Huffpo.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/18/family-guy-actress-respon_n_468331.html
OT, but the following website talks about Half-a-gov belonging to the AIP in the 90's.
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/2008/09/02/america_gettting_closeup_view_of_alaska_politics.html
This is the most precious bit of comeuppance one could imagine.
ReplyDeletePalin being schooled by a person of the variety that she treats like,
"a loaf of French bread".
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! You can't write this stuff!!!
Andea made her point well, and wrote it clearly. Sarah hides behind ghost written statements and cannot speak clearly.
ReplyDeleteSarah has used Trig as a prop for too long now. First, she toted him out in front of loud crowds during the campaign and her book tour. Poor kid, no glasses, no hearing aids, poorly dressed for the cold weather, up too late, dragged around on airplanes which that is clearly not in his best interest.
Now, Sarah is using Trig as an example of her very thin skin, no jokes please, we're Palins.
If Sarah was really serious about her concern for Down syndrome kids, she would be speaking for awareness groups, raising money for National Association for Down Syndrome, doing public service announcements, and educating people as to the potential by showing successful kids like Andea to encourage other parents of Down syndrome kids. Oh yeah, and for free, no speaking fee, none of that "I donate it back" stuff.
But that would require Sarah to think of others, and we have seen no examples of Sarah's charitable nature. The only picture that I saw of Sarah in church was the one where she is receiving the blessings of the witch doctor. Sarah's great act of charity, cookies for starving, freezing Alaskans is laughable.
Memo to Sarah: It's a cartoon; it's satire. The actress thought that it was funny. Learn to pick your battles. If you keep tilting at windmills, no one will believe you any more. Lashing out at this kind of trivia make you trivial!
Stop hiding behind her children? Gryph, she'd just find someone or something else to hide behind. Remember Sarah's primary characteristic: cowardice. She's not going to go anywhere or do anything if she's not sheltered and protected from the real world.
ReplyDelete"Didn't a young man with DS repeatedly ask Sarahto quit belittling him by calling him Sweetheart at one of her book signing events?"
I never heard that. It sounds plausible, but is it possible to source this information? Thanks.
Will Palin dare try and talk smack about Andrea Fay Friedman? To date, Palin seems pathologically incapable of exercising any sort of discretion. Is she petty enough to go after Friedman? It is difficult to underestimate the depths of the pettiness and vindictiveness that Palin is capable of. For Ms. Friedman’s sake, I hope that Palin can simply let this one pass.
ReplyDeleteClearly Ms. Friedman is more aware of Palin’s overt use of Trip as a hand prop than are the teabaggers who don’t have Down Syndrome.
In this little drama, I think that it is crystal clear which of these actors actually have mental disabilities.
I hope those of you up in AK send copies of Andrea Friedman's response to ALL the newspapers in AK.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to make sure John & Meghan McCain get links -- not that they haven't already -- just because I know he doesn't like to vet before he hits the campaign trail. You betcha!
Palin has stepped into it this time and I don't see how she is going to get out of it although in typical Sarah-cowardly style, looks like she's going to hide behind her Palinbots. Their comments on HuffPo insulting Andrea Friedman and her family infuriate me.
How many more people is Palin going to hurt before somebody tells what they know on her?
Palin is now calling Rush and asking him how should she reply to Andrea Fay Friedman.
ReplyDeleteSeth set the bait...
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU!
O/T a little, but I just read on HuffPo that Tina Fey is going to be the guest host on SNL during one of the April shows. Now you KNOW they're going to "do a Palin." YAY!
ReplyDeleteI posted last night on the ADN article re Palin & Family Guy & said, among other things, that Palin was the only one who said "the retarded one." My comment was refused until I removed the word retard. Fortunately there's more than one way to skin a cat.... re.tard ed. ADN typically sent that story to the archives and removed all comments. They must be that darn librul media huh?
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, there is no article about Andrea's wonderful put down of ADN's favorite person.
Andrea's my hero! What a wonderful,intelligent role model she is. Very classy!
I can just hear Sarah's response to this:
ReplyDelete"Ah, shucks, that's cute. This girl tried to use big words to talk to the smart people, but we all know that she does not know what she is saying because she is retarded. This little perfect angel of god is just being taking advantage of by Hollywood and the liberal gotcha media."
Sarah Palin KNOWS they are really mocking her. That's why she comes back so viscerally each time, deflecting any perceived slight to her children. She is hoping to distract from the REAL joke--her!
ReplyDeleteI am serious.
Also, I noticed that the statement written by Andrea Friedman was crisper, clearer and more well thought out than anything Sarah, "Bristol", or any of her ghostwriters could ever come up with!
Imnotstarjones: This is a HOLLYWOOD DS kid, so she is necessarily tainted you see. If she lived in Arkansas where they make moonshine, she might be a REAL American with DS but her father is a HOLLYWOOD lawyer, did I say LAWYER?!!
ReplyDeleteHere's a snippet of Andrea Friedman's story
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk5Wma45ZMw
It's too bad that little Trig will never get this kind of support because of his Downs Syndrome Child Mother In Name Only.
Let's not forget about this from Levi's Early Show appearance:
ReplyDeleteLevi said Sarah Palin joked about her son Trig’s Down Syndrome and called him her “retarded baby.”
“I was just in shock the first time I heard it,” he said, when host Maggie Rodriguez expressed disbelief.
"At this point, Willow seems to be the only smart girl in the family."
ReplyDeletebeg to differ, smart girls don't commit B&E's, and drink and party all night with their friends.
OTOH, she is the only one to lie about the affair and lawyer up.
Here is a resume of Andrea Friedman's impressive accomplishments.
ReplyDeletehttp://standupforournation.blogspot.com/
Heh. Is Trig some measure of stupidity, like the urban legends about girls named Female (pronounced Fem-ally) or boys named Nosmo King?
ReplyDeleteI dunno.
Yeah, any new news on Willow's arrest and her lawyering up? Nobody seems to be saying or writing anything about this. I would think it would be big info, the half a gov's daughter getting into trouble like that?
ReplyDeleteIn SP's concession speech (just do a Google search for SP concession speech), which she never got to deliver, she said the following:
ReplyDelete"How could I ever forget a boy like Charlie, a fine young man we met at a rally in Florida who has Down Syndrome? Charlie and I swapped email addresses, and the last time he replied he said,
'By the way, please don’t call me ‘darlin’—it’s not tough enough.' So, tonight, a special shout-out to you, Chuck… darlin."
So not only did he have to point out to her that calling him "darlin" was neither appreciated nor appropriate, but she ignored his request and pointedly called him that again.
Andrea is a beautiful human being, who was nurtured, loved, cared for and not written off because she had Down Syndrome. Her parents actually encouraged Andrea to be more than her diagnosis and she succeeded to become an intelligent, talented, educated, capable, and loving person--with a wonderful sense of humor. Andrea was/is not a Quitter!
ReplyDeleteOh Sarah, just when I think you could not possibly be any more stupid and ignorant, crass and vile, there you are in your bottomless pit of ugliness yapping mindlessly and erroneously about your outrage of Trig and your family being ridiculed. Oh, how unfair it all is.
Your persecution complex, narcissism, psychopathy, and any other DSM IV diagnosis that is specific to you is in full-blown crash mode. Couldn't happen to a more deserving maladaptive human.
I was wondering if Sarah was going to respond but I see the Palinites are already trying to discredit Andrea.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Sarah will condemn picking on a special needs child. (holding breath)