Sunday 14 June 2009

Gadhafi & Van Susteren: Where are the feminists?

Together in spirit, though not on the same continent and likely not even in the same universe: Moammar Gadhafi and Greta Van Susteren.

Gadhafi lectures Italians on women's rights - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi gave Italians a contradictory take on women's rights Friday, criticizing Islam's treatment of women but then suggesting it should be up to male relatives to decide if a woman can drive. ... At times he appeared to strike out for women's rights, but also backed some of Islam's strictest tenets and criticized the history of women's emancipation in the West.

Gadhafi, a self-styled feminist on his first trip to Italy, arrived at the auditorium dressed in traditional robes and surrounded by his female bodyguards. After his speech, he reached out to the veil of a woman in his entourage and used it to wipe the sweat off his brow.



Meanwhile, back in the US, Greta Van Susteren played the indignant feminist card on Fox News Infotainment, citing first Rush Limbaugh's faux-trage as he spins his claim that Letterman suggested
"that Palin's daughter was raped at 14 years old during a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. And who's denouncing it? Who denounced any of the hatred against Sarah Palin?"


Disregarding the fact that Letterman didn't actually say that, Van Susteren then brought on as guest Jane Swift, the former governor of Massachusetts as some sort of expert on feminism, or perhaps to proclaim that Limbaugh is now a champion of women's rights. In fact, Swift's authority appears limited and specific to the role she played during the Republican presidential campaign as the head of a "truth squad", with the purpose of debunking false rumors about Sarah Palin. Is that the odour of a well-greased political machine grinding away to keep Palin in the news or the stench of Limbaugh roasting in his own fat under the TV studio lights that we can smell?


Oh, and by the way Greta, how's that Best Friends Forever thing with Sarah working out for you?

2 comments:

Jim Parrett said...

Leno joke from September:

“Gov. Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it.”

Where was the outrage?

deBeauxOs said...

Back then the Republicans thought Palin was the sizzle that would sell their beefsteak.

Now that Sa-wah is merely an also-ran the unofficial campaign to get her back on the ticket - this time on *top* - has to flame every little spark into a conflagration to keep Palin's name in the "news".

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