A Strange Story Gets Stranger

Thursday morning update: Words geek that I am, as I wrote this post yesterday afternoon I considered the possibility that the identify of Bristol's baby daddy "has not been determined" wasn't really what reporter Wendy Griffith meant to say. Perhaps she really meant "hasn't been made public," and just got sloppy or doesn't have a good editor. I thought it was possible another correction might be coming, but I was wrong. As of this morning, nothing has changed. Apparently whoever pressured the website into changing the original language is fine with what's on there now. The father's identity has not been determined. Double yikes.  

Original post:
Who, exactly, is the father of Bristol Palin's baby? Does she even know? As background, here's what I wrote on June 28, shortly after she announced her pregnancy:

Who's the daddy? So far, Bristol hasn't said. Given that she was engaged to Meyer from mid-March to mid-May and was living with him in Kentucky during the weeks prior to the wedding, the obvious guess is that he is, but she didn't say so in her announcement. ("Although Dakota and I will not be getting married, we are committed to raising this child, blah, blah, blah...") Again, one might make the case that it's nobody's business but theirs, but once you've courted the spotlight and enjoyed the good parts of being famous, that spotlight can't be turned off at will. My guess is that all the tabloids are scrambling to get the full scoop and be the first to name the father, especially if it turns out it's not Meyer.

Speaking of Dakota Meyer, what's really going on here? I admit, I'm curious. A surprise engagement to be followed by a quickie wedding two months later seemed a little strange. Then in the week before the wedding it came out that Meyer had been married before and kept it secret, followed by news that the wedding was off. Bristol insisted at the time that she had known all about the first marriage but if so, why was the wedding cancelled? Then came the pregnancy announcement with its conspicuous lack of an identified father. The whole thing is just strange.

Yesterday, in an article previewing her upcoming interview with Sarah Palin, CBN News reporter Wendy Griffith wrote,  "...the tabloids went into overdrive when the long-awaited marriage of her [Sarah Palin's] 25-year-old daughter Bristol didn't happen, even though she's pregnant with her ex-fiancé's baby."

Her ex-fiancé's baby? Did Griffith just confirm what Sarah, Bristol and Meyer had all conspicuously declined to confirm? Not exactly. A close reading of the article makes clear that the reporter wasn't quoting Palin directly when she referred to the "ex-fiancé's baby;" most likely she had just assumed the most obvious possibility. As of this morning however, the article has been changed to read "the father's identity has not been determined." Yikes. 

The father's identity has not been determined? Really? Bristol really doesn't know who the father is? This story just keeps getting stranger and stranger. You can read the current version of the CBN story here; my original blog post about the pregnancy is here.