Last fall, while filming her reality show for Lifetime, Bristol Palin got into it with a bar customer in Los Angeles. He was totally out of line, screaming, "Your mother's a whore!" But she was just as nasty back to him when she "complimented" him on his "wife" (another man) and implied that being gay was somehow bad. Ew. Both of these people are nasty, nasty, nasty.
Now, of course, he is suing her for defamation after she blamed him for her move back to Alaska and used the footage without permission. He should win, too.
Here's the deal: Stephen Hanks claims he had no idea he was being filmed when he brawled (with words) with the reality star. He had no idea he was going to be on Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp. No release was signed. Does that seem fishy to anyone else? See the fight at the Saddle Ranch below:
It's not just that, either. Apparently Bristol blamed Hanks for her move back to Alaska in US Weekly, claiming he is the reason she left LA when, in fact, according to the lawsuit, she had bought a home in Wasilla two months before the incident.
Look, no one is defending a man who would scream, "Your mother's a whore," especially since Sarah Palin is no whore (at least to my knowledge). She may be a pompous windbag full of misinformation and laughably poor ethical standards, but she isn't a whore, and even if she were, that's just not nice.
But you know what? Bristol isn't nice, either. Using "gay" as an insult is so middle school. No one does that anymore. At least not smart people. Granted, she is young, but if she is going to be in the public eye (and make the big bucks), she has to learn to take the heat. Besides, her mother is a political super star with very strong opinions. She will get criticized. That's all there is to it.
It's not easy to deal with hecklers with grace and, lord knows, I am no expert. When people are critical, it does make you want to be critical right back. And sure, it's easy enough to see that a person is ugly, fat, or has some other perceived "weakness" that is easy to exploit. But that isn't a strong response. A better response would have been to simply rise above, smile, and ignore the heckler.
By fighting back, using the footage without permission, and blaming Hanks for her move in Us Weekly, she does look like a pretty big baby. And, while $75,000 in damages seems excessive, at the very least, he should get some compensation for his appearance on her show and he should have signed a release.
In a situation where she should look like the victim (he was out of line, after all), Palin comes off looking petty, immature, and downright manipulative.
Do you think Bristol is wrong here?
Image via YouTube
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Comments 20
Wouldn't it be her producers and Lifetime who used the footage with out permission, not her. And give me a break you see people following someone around with cameras, and all that microphone equipment then you speak to that person and you have no idea you're being filmed. What an idiot.
Her slam on him aside, this is a ridiculolus law suit, until this article how many people remembered this, or this guy, how many people know his name or his face, how many people even knew she supposedly moved because of this guy??? Not me, there fore I seriously doubt his charachter was harmed by anyone but himself.
This man is going to have a hard time proving he didn't see at least 3 cameramen and multiple flashes during the fight. He's just trying to get paid for his bad behavior because it was caught on film and it's now airing.
He shouldn't win. He started the whole thing, and how did he not know he was being filmed, when those big cameras were right in this face?? really??
"She may be a pompous windbag" She always seemed refreshingly down to earth to me. "full of misinformation" Bet you can't cite any. "and laughably poor ethical standards" Becoming the focal point of left wing hate agit-prop is not an ethical lapse on HER part. Both parties have crawled through every aspect of her life numerous times over numerous years. She is one of the most exhaustively investigated people on the planet. To date, she has turned up squeaky clean every time. To summarize this article; not only is "name calling OK when the liberals do it", making a reasoned logical response is grounds for a lawsuit that "should be won" on the grounds that the left wing sheep were programmed to hate her really really bad...
Why don't you lefties recite your standard slander against Palin, her family, and her children, one more time; and then tell us how conservatives are somehow the ones who are "haters".
Left wing hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Sorry, but if someone called my mother a whore I'd cut out their tongue. Doesn't matter if they were gay, straight, black or white, if someone called my mother a whore I'd hit them where it hurts. She behaved a lot better I'd have behaved.
Sasha Brown-Worsham: "In a situation where she should look like the victim (he was out of line, after all), Palin comes off looking petty, immature, and downright manipulative."
She IS the victim, despite you spending 100s of words trying to turn Stephen Hanks into the victim. LOL!
Sasha Brown-Worsham: "She (Sarah Palin) may be a pompous windbag full of misinformation and laughably poor ethical standards, but she isn't a whore, and even if she were, that's just not nice."
You know what else is "just not nice"? You accusing Sarah Palin of "laughably poor ethical standards". Could you provide your readers with some evidence of that?
That would also be evidence that you don't suffer from "poor ethical and journalism standards."
P.S. You might want to revisit that "pompous windbag full of misinformation" crack, as well. Ahem. There's that whole "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" proverb-thingy.