Sarah Palin fires back at Sasha Baron Cohen for his Showtime Prank

Isn’t this for a television show?

In other words, he’s playing characters, just like he’s always played characters.

You heard it here first, folks-you’re only playing a character if it’s a movie. Not TV.

This has been his shtick for some time now. Have you see Ali G? Borat? Bruno?

I highly recommend you guys familiarize yourself with his style and characters. This is not new, nor is is stolen valor.

What they actually said was:

“In addition, Baron Cohen never presented himself as a veteran of the U.S. military to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin during the booking process or during the filming of her interview, and contrary to her claims he did not appear in a wheelchair,” the statement said.

“In addition, Baron Cohen never presented himself as a veteran of the U.S. military to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin during the booking process or during the filming of her interview, and contrary to her claims he did not appear in a wheelchair,” the statement said.

Sounds like Palin needs better people booking her engagements.

"“It was proposed to me as a legitimate interview to speak about veterans’ issues in our military and current events to a new audience,” Palin said in that interview. “It was supposed to be this big time Showtime documentary and it was passed on to me by a speakers’ bureau, which, you know, I would assume had done some vetting.”’

She made an assumption, and is making an ass out of herself over it instead of just laughing it off. Ted Koppel was also contact to do a taping, and he laughed it off. The exact e-mail he was sent regarding doing the show is in the article below. I’d love to see the exact information Palin’s speaker’s bureau was sent-I suspect it was similar in nature to the one Koppel got.

Some people laugh it off when they get pranked. Some people get a stick up their ass. Not surprised to see Palin being the latter. She’s always been America’s #1 Conservative Victim.

James O’Keefe makes his living pretending to be other people. I wonder if our right-wing friends have a problem with that.

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Yes, but it’s not a drama. It’s more akin to “Candid Camera.” It’s an ambush interview show where the interviewee is deceived into the interview under false pretenses for the purposes of embarrassing them.

No … he is lying to people about who he is in order to trick them into being embarrassed on camera as entertainment for his sick audience and for his personal financial gain.

Yes, like I said before:

If you have such a stick up your ass that you can’t laugh at it when he gets you, or your people aren’t very good at vetting people who want to interview you, then you have no one to blame but yourself.

Ted Koppel also got punked by Cohen, and laughed it off. Palin, the perpetual victim, is acting like a self-righteous victim, like she has always done.

He s NOT playing a role, he is deceiving his guests into believing they are there for something entirely different than what he intends. That’s why they call it “pranking” and not “acting.”

I seem to remember liberals going ballistic about the videos of Planned Parenthood talking to a person alleging to be a representative of a non-existent company called Biomax Procurement Services to discuss buying fetal tissue from PP. Why is that deceptive behavior all fun and games to you now?

Yes, he’s playing a role. He’s playing characters, like he’s always done.

Read the rebuttals from Showtime. Ted Koppel even provided the e-mail he was sent to get an interview, and he laughed the whole thing off.

Do you really not see the difference between what Cohen does and what O’Keefe does?

Here’s Cohen playing Borat in his movie Borat where he interviewed prominent former Georgia representative Bob Barr. He told Bob Barr he was eating cheese made from the milk of his wife’s breasts.

Barr laughed it off when asked about it:

It’s actually pretty interesting-he tells the whole story about how he ended up in the movie.

@Samm, you and Palin and those defending her are being major snowflakes about this. She got punked. The only damage done was to her pride.

Huh? Try English please-maybe some misisng punctuation?

I see the difference. O’Keefe deceives to expose illegal activities and Cohen deceives for personal profit.

But you are missing the point. Cohen pretended to be a disabled veteran in order to fool Palin into agreeing to come on his show to be embarrassed for amusement (and profit.) The key words there are “pretended” and “disabled veteran.” i.e. stolen valor.

Stolen valor? Give me a break.

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No, one of the key differences is that O’Keefe goes in with hidden cameras and tried to wire tap phones, and claims to be a journalist, whereas Cohen is simply playing an entertainment character. Kinda like the difference between Sean Hannity and Shep Smith. One is a journalist, one is an entertainer.

No, you are. It’s not illegal to play a character.

Keywords are “according to Palin,” because both Cohen and Showtime deny that is what happened.

But even if that were the case, PLAYING A CHARACTER does not make one guilty of stolen valor.

By the way, @Samm, what SPECIFIC part of the Stolen Valor Act did Cohen violate? Please be specific.

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Did you have a problem with O’Keefe’s tactics?

Apparently, @Samm and @GWH need a lesson regarding “Stolen Valor.”

The original Stolen Valor Act, signed into law by Bush II was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in US vs Alvarez as a violation of the 1st Amendment.

It was passed again in 2013, but this time specifically refers to claiming you were the recipient of various service medals or honors (such as the Purple Heart or Medal of Honor).

Not only was what Cohen did NOT stolen valor, but it allegedly didn’t even happen. All we even have to go on right now is Cohen/Showtime v Palin, and quite honestly, I’m inclined to believe Cohen pulled some of his regular nonsense, but while PLAYING A CHARACTER.