DECEMBER 6--In the days after Bristol Palin was voted into the finals of “Dancing with the Stars,” viewers from across the country wrote to the Federal Communications Commission accusing the ABC show of everything from running a “payola type program” to “encouraging and promoting teen pregnancy.”
Many of the complainants, whose letters were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, were upset that, as one Oregonian put it, “the top scores were voted off yet Sarah Palin’s daughter remained on.”
Yes, that has never ever happened before...NOT! In previous seasons, higher scoring couples were voted off to the benefit of those less talented or lower scoring. Going back a few years, many felt Emmitt Smith was not the best dancer in his season, but he even won the championship. Kate Gosselin was a horrific dancer, but she stuck around far longer than her performances deserved. And stuffing votes through communications is nothing new, but I guess conservatives are not allowed to do it:
Another source of grievances was a hug delivered to the 20-year-old Palin by one of the show’s judges, Carrie Ann Inaba.
Noting that “no other dancer was called over for a hug,” one viewer claimed that the clinch was a “signal for the GOP/Tea Party supporters of Sarah Palin to ‘stuff’ the vote for Bristol Palin, who on both dates had to be dragged over the dance floor.” The writer added, “My 96 year old Mother-in-Law can dance better than Ms. Palin...I want my Government to protect me the viewer from deceptive practices.”
A Cerritos, California resident reported that the “physical contact” made by Inaba “sets the contestant up for thinking the judge will favor them. She was impartial to one and partial to the others.”
Other viewers sought an FCC probe of the show’s voting, since “people are bragging how they ‘gamed the system'.” Two other viewers (one from Indianapolis, the other a Brooklynite) were upset that Palin beat out the R&B singer Brandy for the last spot in the program’s three-person final.
Seriously? Really? I guess other females should be harassed and disqualified for hugging Len Goodman. I guess Donny Osmond should have been banned for kissing Bruno? Come on now. Look, a whole lot of people game the system. They take to their twitters, their facebooks, and their fans get behind them. Get over the fact that you hate Sarah Palin. Bristol, while not the best, had a great deal of improvement. And to say that it promotes Teen pregnancy, look more at the morons from Jersey Shore, or to Jerry Springer and other scum who have mucked around the show.
To you Palin haters out there, and especially to those of you nutjobs who think this rises to some type of conspiracy worthy of government intervention, I leave you with this from William Shatner:
