Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has slammed the "liberal media" for attacking Josh Duggar for past sexual misconduct while celebrating "Girls" creator Lena Dunham, who previously admitted to sexually "experimenting" with her younger sister.
"Such obvious double standards applied to equally relevant stories underestimate the wisdom of the public, discredit the press, and spit on the graves of every American who fought and died for the press's freedom," Palin wrote in a strongly-worded Facebook post on Thursday.
Palin, who ran alongside Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008, added that the "intolerant left's destructive personal intrusions and narrow-mindedness applied to their chosen targets are bad enough, but their double standards are beyond the pale."
"Case in point, they suggest Lena Dunham's sexual assault on her sibling is cute, and she's rewarded for it with fame and fortune," she continued. "Meanwhile, they crucify another, along with an entire family," referencing the widespread criticsm the"19 Kids and Counting" Duggar family has received after Josh Duggar admitted to "innapropriately touching" five underage girls as a young teenager.
Palin then shared a link to her daughter Bristol's Thursday morning Patheos blog post, in which Bristol reveals she was sickened by several passages in Dunham's Not That Kind of Girl memoir where she graphically describes sexually experimenting with her young sister.
"Remember the liberal media outrage?" Bristol asked. "Oh that's right. It didn't happen. The liberal media darling Dunham was praised for her 'honest and witty' book."
In her memoir, Dunham revealed she shared a bed with her sister until she was seventeen years of age and admitted that sometimes she "slipped my hand into my underwear to figure some stuff out" while sleeping next to her sister.
"[I did] anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl," Dunham wrote of her sister Grace, explaining that she used her as a "sexual outlet."
"It makes me want to puke...Liberals in today's media can do no wrong, while conservatives can do no right," Bristol continued.
Continuing her Facebook post, Sarah Palin emphasized that she is not "defending the Duggar boy's obvious wrongdoing over a decade ago," but noted that the "main victim in any story like this isn't the perpetrator, it's the innocent ones so harmfully affected."
"I'm not an apologist for any sexual predator, but I'm sickened that the media gives their chosen ones a pass for any behavior as long as they share their leftwing politics," she continued, referencing how the media turned a blind eye when former president Bill Clinton vacationed on "orgy Island" with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and a dozens of underage girls
Palin emphasized that the Duggar debate needs to now shift to focus on the "shocking, unethical leak of a private, legally protected counseling document by a politically motivated law enforcement official. Media - time to go after her or him for illegalities and for destroying the public's trust in law enforcement."
She continued, "I hate for anyone to go through this game liberals are allowed to play, relentlessly attacking on an uneven playing field until a conservative's career, relationships, and reputation are destroyed," Sarah Palin said. "To the media's targets I encourage, 'Rise above by never claiming 'victim', tell the truth, and keep the faith!'"
