The Palin Pregnancy

Mustapha Shehu
Jour E-120 Ethics and Journalism.


Bristol Palin’s pregnancy is only news because she is the 17-year old daughter of the Republican Vice-Presidential Nominee and Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Save for this reason, it would have passed un-noticed in a country where teenage pregnancy is high. According to a 2006 report of the Guttmacher Institute which advances sexual and reproductive health worldwide through an interrelated program of social science research, public education and policy analysis, each year, almost 750,000 women aged 15-19 in the USA become pregnant. Overall, 75 pregnancies occur every year per 1,000 women aged 15-19.

The public image of Gov. Palin as that of a Christian Conservative makes the pregnancy, rightly or wrongly, newsworthy in a tough and close presidential campaign season in which this very image is seen to be the game changer for the republicans. So it is not unusual, particularly in this era of citizen journalism, that the issue is discussed by the media. This is in spite of the call by the Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barrack Obama and his running mate Senator Joe Biden to their campaign organisation to hands-off the private family life of their republican opponent.

Although the mainstream media have refused to heed to a request by Gov. Palin to hands-off her daughter’s private life, it is worthy to note that even if they had, the issue would still continue to be discussed in the blogosphere. The great thing about it though is that most of the discussions in the media that I happen to monitor from Nigeria, do not seen to question Gov, Palin’s suitability as vice presidential nominee.