Great Post I Highly Recommend

keyboard.jockey makes some great points here:

http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/06/tgif-circus-life-tipping-points-not.html

© Janet Crain

Click here to view all recent Sarah Palin in 2012 posts

Who Knew the Obama era would bring back the 50's.............the 1850's that is.

by Janet Crain

Those good ol' days of frat boy misogyny which followed the well heeled dogs scions of yesteryear throughout their privileged
pampered lives are alive and well in some quarters.

It was a time when any woman who worked for a living was fair game for their lust. Maids, waitresses, nurses, nannies, flight attendants, secretaries and store clerks were imagined to be "slutty". Just longing to jump in the sack with them. How these men must miss those days. Some like David Letterman are still stuck in the 50's.

Actually the term "slut" first meant kitchen slut, a lowly poorly paid kitchen worker in Merry Old England. It's obvious society associated poorly paid working women with promiscuity then as some do now.

Send CBS a message to dump him and his phony insincere apologies.

http://www.cbs.com

Did David Letterman get a free pass?

If there was any question that a stubborn strain of old-school sexism persists in Obama's America, one has only to look at certain leaders of what the right wing loves to call the "liberal media" but which is sounding and acting, recently, more like the frat-house media. There, like a virus hiding in the body before, perhaps, staging a comeback, misogyny has found a place to lurk almost undetected, at least by the usually sharp eyes of progressive feminists.

"Slutty flight attendant" is not just a sexual put-down; it's a socioeconomic one.

Examine the symptoms of this infection, beginning with David Letterman's comments (widely noted but insufficiently analyzed) about Sarah Palin "buying makeup at Bloomingdale's to update her slutty flight attendant look," as well as his joke about Palin's teenage daughter: "Sarah Palin went to a Yankees Game yesterday … during the seventh inning stretch, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez." (Letterman insists he was talking about her 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, who actually had been, well, knocked up, not her 14-year-old, Willow, the daughter who attended the game.) A week before these remarks aired, there was an uglier outbreak of the contagion in the pages of Playboy -- never a bastion of egalitarian forward thinking, but still -- where writer Guy Cimbalo published a list of 10 conservative women he'd like to "hate f**k," a term that various observers interpreted as rough sex, sex tinged by rage, or rape. (Gabe Winant wrote for Broadsheet about the "Hate F**k" story, which has since been yanked by Playboy.) Worse than the violence of the general sentiment was the graphic specificity of the "Hate F**k Rating" appended to each woman -- a list that included Michelle Malkin, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Dana Perino and Laura Ingraham. On Hasslebeck: "You'd be better served sucking off Regis Philbin." On Malkin: "Worse than f**king Eva Braun."

Both cases were met with a tepid response from the left. Though Letterman apologized on Wednesday’s show (see video below), his tone was mock-serious, and his audience chuckled along.

Imagine if, say, Michelle Obama, or Rachel Maddow, or Nancy Pelosi became the target of similar invective. The outcry from the left would be deafening. Shouldn’t liberals exhibit the same sort of decorous treatment we demand for ourselves? Sexist comments like Letterman’s and Cimbalo’s also evoke a troublingly insular, clubhouse atmosphere in lieu of an inclusive political party. What's more, the gender-based stereotypes they conjure are as stale and ignorant as any voiced by the old Neanderthal right: Pretty women are de facto stupid, sexually promiscuous and low-class. Indeed, it's the latter slight that has been least remarked upon and is, perhaps, the most disturbing. “Slutty flight attendant” is not just a sexual put-down; it's a socioeconomic one. Likewise, when Cimbalo says, of right-wing blogger Pamela Geller, "Even a Silkwood shower won't get rid of the stench of Fascist divorcee and Elizabeth Arden's Red Door," the classist sentiment is unmistakable. It's a combination of gutter misogyny and snobbery, a return to a 1950s kind of insult. This is like saying a woman has a "reputation," that she's "that kind of girl," one from "the wrong side of the tracks." Cimbalo seems to be holding his nose not at the smell of some supposedly déclassé perfume but at the stench of working for a living, of being middle-class or having middle-class taste.

Cont. here:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/06/12/letterman_palin/index.html?source=newsletter

Related:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090612/D98P6KCO0.html
© Janet Crain

Click here to view all recent Sarah Palin in 2012 posts

What's Wrong with Letterman's apology?

by Janet Crain

Well for starters, if he was going to say something so provocative about Sarah Palin's daughter(s), he might have found out which one was with her. He says he didn't know any were with her. Come on......everybody knows Sarah Palin takes her kids with her. Unlike others who have let nannies raise their kids.

And four years difference in age do not make it OK to say rude, crude remarks about the 18 year old daughter. Is Bristol our Hester Prynne? Is she branded for life with a Scarlet Letter and compelled to suffer the scorn and abuse of a "sinless" community forever as women were 350 years ago? Does he wear buckles on his hat and shoes?

And it is not OK for a local clown comedian to make ridiculously crude jokes about a sitting governor visiting New York and attending a ballgame. Should she be called a SLUT or that she looks or dresses like a SLUT? Would he have said this about a Democratic governor?

Letterman re-addresses Palin: 'I had no idea [Willow] was there'

David Letterman re-addressed the controversy surrounding his jokes about Sarah Palin's family during the taping of CBS' "Late Show" on Monday.

Letterman said he had no idea Palin was at the game with her 14-year-old daughter, Willow, and apologized to the governor.

"I had, honestly, no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ball game except the governor, and I was told at the time she was there with Rudy Giuliani," Letterman said. "It’s not your fault that it was misunderstood, it’s my fault. ... So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke."

The comedian's jokes about Palin's family last week caused an uproar. One CBS advertiser has reportedly pulled its ads in response to the subsequent protests, which have demanded CBS fire Letterman.

© Janet Crain

Click here to view all recent Sarah Palin in 2012 posts

Join Facebook Group Protesting David Letterman

In a ratings war he was losing last week, David Letterman made some remarks in appallingly bad taste. They were not funny and I don't know what he hoped to gain by insulting women everywhere.

But if you would like to join a Facebook event that will be protesting tomorrow, go here:

http://www.facebook.com/srch.php?s=0&sid=a2f24a4d92720ec27b53f36dda6ca1c0#/event.php?eid=110587311092&ref=mf

Remember Imus was fired by CBS for an off the cuff remark. Letterman's remarks were scripted and he had plenty of time to consider his so called "jokes". Jokes directed toward teen aged girls, pedophilia, rape, and working women of the World.

I really believe if David Letterman is fired or forced to apologize publicly, women everywhere will earn a measure of respect.

Who knows maybe television could become enjoyable once again.

Television is very educational.Every time someone turns one on I go in another room and read a book.

Groucho Marx

© Janet Crain

Click here to view all recent Sarah Palin in 2012 posts

NOW Adds Letterman to It's Hall of Shame

by Janet Crain

Just for the record I was horrified and appalled by the Chelsea jokes. She was a child at the time. I have repeatedly said I condemn such remarks and would never make a joke about the Obama girls.

Hang down your head, David Letterman,

Hang down your head and cry,

Make a joke about my daughter,

Poor boy, you're going to die!

Offender: David Letterman on "Late Show with David Letterman"

Media Outlet: CBS, aired 6/8/09

The Offense: Late night TV host David Letterman "joked" that during their recent trip to New York, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter "was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez" during a Yankees baseball game. The next night Letterman said that the hardest part of Palin's trip was "keeping Eliot Spitzer away from her daughter."

NOW Analysis: After two nights of "jokes" at the expense of Palin and her family, Letterman tried to explain himself and offer something of an apology. On his June 10 show, Letterman said he was referring to Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol -- not the 14-year-old daughter who actually accompanied Palin on her New York trip. Letterman said "I recognize that these are ugly" jokes. NOW agrees. 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.

http://www.now.org/issues/media/hall-of-shame/

Related:
http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/06/hey-dave-was-she-asking-for-it.html

© Janet Crain

Click here to view all recent Sarah Palin in 2012 posts

Inform CBS that Letterman Has Stepped Over the Line......

By now I'm sure everyone has heard about David Letterman's incredibly stupid remarks.

Please go here to express your views to CBS regarding this serious matter.

http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.php,

You may contact CBS at (212)-975-4321, send a message via the online feedback form:

or mail your feedback to:

CBS Television Network

51 West 52nd Street

New York, NY 10019

I intend to do all three.


I think comedians and others think it is OK to make fun of the obese, the elderly, Appalachian Rednecks and Sarah Palin and her family.

She seems to be in a special category. Maybe they think she can't hear them way up in Alaska.

They're pretty dumb, so they may not realize Alaska gets TV, Internet and newspapers.

And what about the way Letterman insulted all the flight attendants? In a 1950's "Coffee, tea or me?" mindset which illustrates what he is thinking about when he flies. I sincerely hope a flight attendant manages to accidentally spill a cup of very hot coffee on his crotch.



© Janet Crain

Click here to view all recent Sarah Palin in 2012 posts