Sarah Palin slams MSNBC’s ‘hypocrisy’ for ignoring Martin Bashir’s attack

When Alec Baldwin threw a gay slur a paparazzo’s way, he was suspended for two weeks from his MSNBC show. When Martin Bashir suggested on MSNBC air that someone should defecate in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s mouth — nothing happened.

And Mrs. Palin, on Fox News, was quick to point out the hypocrisy.

“It depends on the target of the vile rants,” she said, Mediaite reported. “It doesn’t depend on what the rant itself actually is. Conservative women are a target.”

Mrs. Palin made the statements after Mr. Bashir apologized for his remarks. First his remarks: Mr. Bashir suggested that she should get the same treatment that Britain’s Thomas Thistlewood described in his diary as the fate of a slave who was caught stealing — that another slave was ordered to defecate in his mouth. He also called Mrs. Palin during the same broadcast the “residence dunce,” Mediaite reported.

Then the apology: “Last Friday, on this broadcast, I made some comments which were deeply offensive and directed at Gov. Sarah Palin. I wanted to take this opportunity to say sorry to Mrs. Palin and to also offer an unreserved apology to her friends and family, her supporters, our viewers and anyone who may have heard what I said. My words were wholly unacceptable. They were neither accurate, nor fair. They were unworthy of anyone who would claim to have an interest in politics.”

But he kept his job, while fellow MSNBC host Alec Baldwin immediately was suspended after his verbal assault on a member of the paparazzi, during which the Hollywood hothead was accused of hurling a gay slur.

Mrs. Palin, on Fox News, said she accepted Mr. Bashir’s apology. But she also dared him to call her husband and apologize to him directly — and see how that conversation progressed. Meanwhile, she also slammed the cable outlet for hypocrisy in how its executives handle such matters.

“As for the networks condoning those types of statements — because there’s been no punishment of a fella who said these words — that’s hypocrisy, that’s a given,” she said.