US Weekly Lies about Bristol Palin's Relationship

A rumor started by US Weekly alleges that Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston are "spending nights together" at her new condo in Anchorage. An anonymous source told the rumor to US Weekly. Subsequently, other major media outlets picked up the story, without fact-checking and the story spread like wild fire.

Responsibility to Children Continues After Relationship Breaks

When a couple has children, even if the romantic union dissolves, each partner has certain responsibilities to the children they've brought into this world. Bristol has been doing a fantastic job in this regard, as reported by Elisa Lipsky-Karasz in a Harper's Bazaar article "Bristol Palin's Tea Party."



Caring for Tripp - and swaddling him - punctuates every aspect of Bristol's life. She has been Tripp's, sole provider and caretaker for the past two years. She changed the diapers, fed, cared for, comforted and provided her love. Bristol was and is fulfilling her responsibilities. She is a medical assistant in a dermatologist's office working full-time 8 AM till 5 PM. She advocates against teenage pregnancy for the Candies Foundation, owns her own condominium which "she is fiercely proud of," for she bought and paid for everything with her own money.



Johnston is taking more of an interest in his son and being more of a father - two years late, but hopefully this will continue on for at least the next sixteen years. Johnston squandered a fair amount of time being an absent father, and making poor decisions, such as: trashing Tripp's grandmother in various media, lying about the Palins, using his infant son for his own publicity, and pursuing a soft-core porn career. We're glad he is finally starting to behave as a father should. He owes the Palins a very public apology for all that he's done these past two years. Leaving soft-core porn entirely, getting a real job, rebuilding his education and his life would also be steps in the right direction.

According to the ABC News report, Gov. Palin expressed hope last year that Levi would "come back on the right road of wanting to be part of the family and Tripp's life." We concur.

Journalism 101

US Weekly ran a story entirely based on statements given by an anonymous source. True to form, the lamestream media cannot adhere to the basic tenets of Journalism 101 and fact check. Instead, they rely on dodgy anonymous sources, who always tend to either have a beef with the Palins or not even know them at all. Just because an anonymous person said Bristol and Levi are back together does not make it so. Media professionals could not see that this anonymous person's account does not compute?

It seems that US Weekly never bothered to contact Bristol or Levi to confirm or deny the source's statement, which is very basic journalism: get all sides of the story. Various media sources then re-ran the US Weekly story without any corroboration giving it much bigger play. Then they wonder why we call them "lamestream."

The Bottom Line:

Bristol has been a great mother for two years and is supported by a great family. It's about time Levi , started coming around. Co-parenting, albeit the right decision does not make them a couple because an anonymous source said so. The media has a responsibility to get all sides of the story. Integrity should trump ratings and sensationalism.