While we disagree with Mediaite from time to time in this space, there is one thing on which we do agree and that is children used as political targets: you shouldn’t.

Tommy Christopher takes on Wonkette Editor Ken Layne:


If Ken Layne really believes in retard jokes as a vehicle for the public good, he should absolutely stand by them, and I’ll stand where I stand.

[…]

Great. I guess I’m in a feud with Ken Layne now. Get in line, pal.

Update 2: I’ve received another reply from Ken Layne, and in the interest of fairness, I’m going to include my response to him. Two things about that: First, there’s some strong language.

Second, I divulge to Layne that I’m the parent of two special needs children. I don’t generally include that information in my commentaries (and didn’t intend to here) because I don’t wish to use that fact to gain moral authority, or to be emotionally manipulative. I believe an argument should stand on its own merit. I include it here because it would be unfair to Layne to publish his responses, and not my own.

Here’s Ken Layne’s response to me:

But there’s already a Mediaite story, which is why I’m asking what Mediaite’s interest is in having a post taken down.

You *honestly* don’t know of the Palin fanatics’ Cult of Trig? I find that hard to believe, if you’ve been on the Internet before. In any case, spend a day at Team Sarah and then try to tell us there’s no Cult of Trig. Where do you think the pictures and poems Jack always mocks comes from? (He links to them.)

And my response to him:

I told you, I’m writing a piece of commentary, and wanted to present your side of the story. I guess you have. My interest in writing commentary is that I was deeply offended by the piece, and as the father of two special needs children, felt compelled to write about it. You and Jack think your satirical point redeems the vile child-fucking and retard jokes, I disagree.

Read the entire article here.

*UPDATE: Slate chimes in:

The original Wonkette post was gross, and I’ve never understood why anyone would make fun of Trig Palin’s disability. Criticize Palin for how she uses her child in political arguments? That’s one thing. Make fun of a kid who was born with a mental impairment? How is that funny?

The National Journal misses the mark:

Who’s Winning: The original Wonkette post was, if activism, pretty tasteless activism. Derek Hunter scored a win for his side by getting Papa John’s to withdraw advertising. Yet you also have to give Wonkette credit for turning the tables that quickly and ferociously to defend and clarify the original post. Who knows how this will end up. The only thing we can say definitively is that Papa John’s does not win for unwittingly getting in the middle of all this when a shockingly low number of their customers probably read Wonkette.

What, exactly, did Wonkette “clarify?” That it’s OK to mock a child with Down Syndrome and excuse it by saying oh, “confused target.”

They’re incorrect in classifying this as a “political debate.” It’s not a political debate to mock a special needs child simply because you dislike his mother. They insult the art of political debate with such reasoning.

Papa John’s received a boat load of business today for the integrity they showed in refusing to subsidize a website which considers acceptable attacking special needs children without apology.

*UPDATE 3: Adweek releases the full email conversation from Wonkette editor Ken Layne, who lies about attacking Trig. Get ready to be offended. Bold, my emphasis with my notes for the truly amazing parts:

After Adweek wrote Wonkette editor Ken Layne to ask for comment, he sent the following reply, CC’ing Weigel:

Hello Dylan!

“Every year or so, Sarah Palin’s fanatic audience finds Wonkette and professes outrage because we have been mocking Sarah Palin since before most Americans had any idea who she was. (This is true; check our archives! We even gave her the satirical nickname “America’s Hottest Governor,” which her own staff thought was a complement, and not an insult. But it was an insult.)

That said, we should always make it clear that it’s *Sarah Palin* who is the target of our disgust, because of what she does to that child. Jack should not refer to the child as “retarded,” even in a clearly over-the-top piece of political satire, because obviously the people who are going to act outraged about this are not going to be following the nuances of a notorious meta-humor website like Wonkette. [Ed. note: On Layne’s watch Wonkette regressed from enjoyable political snark to complete juvenile inanity. The inmates run the prison now, and they don’t know how to write actual “satire.”] Remember, these are the same people who were somehow *personally offended* by Tina Fey’s comedy routines using Sarah Palin as a character. I cannot count the number of emails — because I deleted them — that I received informing me that Palin didn’t really say she could see Russia from her house. Well really, you don’t say.

But seriously, I have four kids myself and I wouldn’t want them mocked on the Internet by a bunch of cretins on the Internet. And that’s just one reason why I wouldn’t parade my children around in the media. What kind of mother does that?

In any case, Jack has been admonished and put on night probation until further notice. [Ed. Note: Admonished! Night duty! Cute.] Anything involving Palin, I want to make it extra clear that *Palin* is the problem with America. [Ed. Note: How so?] Not her kids. Not her little kid, anyway. The older ones seem to be on their own path and you can’t really blame Sarah for it, although she certainly encourages the sleaziest possible behavior from her grown children, which is hardly a very “family values” thing to do. But as far as Jack’s future, a few months on the night shift cleaning up the furious, ALLCAPS unmoderated Wonkette comments, without pay, should teach him a thing or two about writing stuff that confuses the target. [Ed. Note: “Confuses the target?” Calling a kid a “retard” and half human is confusing the target? Too petty to just apologize?] Trig is cool with us. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is a grave danger to America.

Also, Dave Weigel is a weasel. Let’s see who runs to his defense next time he’s fired for calling Tea Party people a bunch of “Paultards”! What is wrong with that guy, anyway?!

cheers,

ken

Minutes later, Weigel sent the following response:

Since I’m looped in — my only problems with the post are the joking references to the kid himself. My only comments about it came on Twitter when I said that it was “gross” and on the blog after Papa John’s announced its new policy. I thought the boycott was newsy bc it was a conservative campaign that only had to exist for a few hours on some blog posts and tweets to get the job done. On a 36-hour-old post!

Sorry to learn that I’m a weasel, but 1) I’ll stick up for any satire that doesn’t *make fun of a mentally disabled toddler* and 2) there’s a subtle difference between private e-mails that get leaked out of context and material that’s written and published for everyone to read. There’s a more obvious difference between a generic term that uses the suffix -tard and a personal joke at the expense of some kid who, through no choice of his own, will not be able to live a completely normal life. There’s a way to make fun of Palin and her fanbase without going there.

This, in turn, prompted another email from Layne:

Oh settle down, Weigel. I am poking fun at you for acting butthurt about the word “retarded” when that’s exactly what got you fired from the Washington Post. (Well, that and the WaPo being run by a bunch of hundred-year-old wusses.)

You know there’s not a damn thing anywhere on Wonkette that is directed at that child. [Ed. Note: Really? You want to correct that lie, Ken Layne?] “There’s a way to make fun of Palin and her fanbase without going there.” You know, I wish this was true. But you can’t, because the fanbase has become the Cult of Trig. It is a weird garbage loop and really, like I told Jack, the only way to avoid it is to ignore her dumb base and stick to mocking Palin. Allah knows they go crazy enough over *that*.