Levi Johnston: Another Sarah Palin bombshell in Vanity Fair
Bristol Palin's ex-fiancé paints an ugly picture of the Palin household.
"For the first time in my life, I feel sympathy for Sarah Palin," said Gail Collins in The New York Times. In excerpts from an interview in the October issue of Vanity Fair, the ex-fiancé of Palin's daughter Bristol paints an ugly picture of the Palins' family life—claiming Sarah and husband Todd Palin often talked divorce, and left all the cooking and cleaning to the kids. It's hard to muster sympathy for Johnston, a 19-year-old dropout, when he complains that Palin tried to make Bristol break up with him—that belongs "in the rather slim folder titled 'Sarah Palin’s Good Ideas.'"
This hit job proves that Levi Johnston is a "scumbag," said Lucy Jones in Britain's DailyTelegraph. This is his baby's grandmother he's attacking. "Yet, perhaps Vanity Fair is more at fault here, with its peculiar obsession with savaging Sarah Palin." Attacking her as a narcissist and "an elk-shooting bimbo" wasn't enough—now the magazine is "scraping the barrel" and attacking Palin using "a teenage scumbag who would put his ego before his child."
There's certainly "good reason to be skeptical" about Levi Johnston's "explosive stories," said Alex Koppelman in Salon. In previous interviews, for example, he said the family never discussed adoption —which contradicts his new claim that Sarah Palin wanted to hide Bristol's pregnancy, adopt her baby, and raise him as her own. Still, Johnston's insistence that Sarah and Todd Palin didn't have time to do much parenting "does tend to put a little bit of a crimp in Palin's family values talk."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
5 immersive books to read this April for a brief escape
The Week Recommends A dystopian tale takes us to the library, a journalist's ode to her refugee parents and more
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
'The winners and losers of AI may not be where we expect'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Shingles vaccine cuts dementia risk, study finds
Speed Read Getting vaccinated appears to significantly reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published