Jasper Journal

I know I was going to talk about oil today, but the Letterman issue still has me angry.

Remember when Don Imus made the crude remarks  on the radio about players on the Rutger’s women’s basketball team?  He was crucified in the media, his network was boycotted by the pompous “Reverend” Sharpton, and even after profuse apologies, face to face meetings with the players, and their accepting his apology, he was fired.

Fast forward to this week. David Letterman makes a vile comment about a Yankee ballplayer  “Knocking up” Sara Palin’s 14 year old daughter.  Other than talk radio and conservative commentators, where was the outrage? Well thanks to the publicity generated by conservative talk radio and Fox news, something happened today that is earthshattering.  The national womens movement got involved.

According to Fox news,

The president of a national women’s public policy group on Thursday blasted David Letterman’s “offensive” jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter and called on the CBS late-night host to formally apologize.

“There’s a saying that out of the heart, the mouth speaks, and Letterman’s statement reveals a pretty ugly reflection of who Letterman may be,” Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, told FOXNews.com.

“On Thursday, Wright, whose group advocates biblical values and family traditions, called on Letterman to issue a “real” apology, saying his comments were “worse than” merely poor taste.

“The apology was inadequate and it was only about one of the statements,” Wright said. “Letterman’s very poor view of women and minor girls is very disturbing, and he certainly needs to do more to change his own attitudes and then prove that his attitude has changed.”

The National Organization of Women also blasted Letterman for inappropriate “jokes” on its Web site Thursday.

“Comedians in search of a laugh should really know better than to snicker about men having sex with teenage girls (or young women) less than half their age,” NOW said.

“The sexualization of girls and women in the media is reaching new lows these days — it is exploitative and has a negative effect on how all women and girls are perceived and how they view themselves.”

Deborah Donovan Rice, executive director of Stop It Now, an organization aiming to prevent the sexual abuse of children, also denounced Letterman’s jokes and praised Palin’s response as “spot on.”

 Letterman’s stupid response that he was referring to her 18 year old daughter is not only absurd, it is an insulting to every man woman and child in this country.  As if it is ok to insult a child if she is 18. 

 We cannot let this go. The trashing of a woman and her child by this so called celebrity is a disgrace. Letterman needs to be put off the air. His sponsors need to be boycotted.  His smarmy humour isn’t funny anyway and his vicious comments are enough to have him suspended indefinitely by the FCC.  I intend to write to CBS and any sponsor I can find,  and encourage you to do the same. Please  read the Palin response to this event.

In a statement posted on Facebook and distributed to the press yesterday, the governor said: 

“Concerning Letterman’s comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he’d ever dare make such comments about anyone else’s daughter): ‘Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands – that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone’s daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.’ ” 

Todd Palin added: “Any ‘jokes’ about raping my 14-year-old are despicable. Alaskans know it and I believe the rest of the world knows it, too.” 

  Perhaps the time has come that womens groups can truly be inclusive and not restricted to only those who pass a litmus test of abortion. The protection of hard earned womens rights is not party specific. Hooray for the Women’s movement! Now lets take care of Letterman!

I was planning to write about the rising oil prices but I just couldn’t resist this little exchange on MSNBC. It is a follow up to the David Letterman incident I wrote about yesterday. The liberals are in high dudgeon that there is a backlash to Letterman’s insults to Sara Palin and her daughter. In the interview below, MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer gets excoriated by her guest for the double standard on her network. Her response is to cut his mike. Yes, freedom of speech is there only for the cognoscenti. (read liberal establishment.)

 It makes me wonder how this group can push the fairness doctrine with a straight face. They don’t care about fairness… just their point of view. Watch the interview and see what I mean. Oil prices tomorrow since I fear they will still be going up.

I stopped watching David Letterman on a regular basis last year after a  vicious attack he launched on his guest Bill O’Reilly. I don’t expect late night funny men to be mean and ultra partisan. Now I just see clips from his show when they make the news.

Letterman has made it a habit of vilifying republicans at every level. He takes special aim at Sara Palin and her daughter. The other night he made another crude and disgusting joke at Palins daughters expense. He then proceeded to tear apart Sara Palin over her recent trip to New York. I guess that is OK so long as the target is not a darling of the media.

What I see today are comedians who wear their politics on their sleeves and make no bones about who they support. Today their hero is Barack Obama. Letterman is quoted as saying about him in the Economist “He (Obama) is cogent, eloquent and in complete command of the issues.” Bill Maher likens Obama to Brad Pitt. The adulation is non stop.

Who has had the courage to make fun of him? No one that I can think of, and that is truly sad. It is bad enough that the mainstream media are fawning over him and his wife as if they represent the second coming of Jesus Christ,  but comedians have a role in society too. By poking fun at the important or perceived to be important, they can help keep people grounded and answerable for their actions. The truly clever can use satire to point out the foibles of government leaders and policies. Say what you might about about South Park, but the satire there is brilliant! Christopher Hitchens recently wrote the following that I think sums up this issue very nicely: “When comedians flatter the president they become court jesters and the country becomes a banana republic.” How close to that are we getting today?