It appears that CBS and David Letterman have been feeling some heat for the latter’s vile comments about Willow Palin, since he felt the need to offer a mealy-mouthed half-baked pseudo-“apology” that amounted to “Oops, I meant to make vile comments about Bristol Palin.” Sorry, not buying it, and not buying that that makes it all OK even if I believed him. I think R. A. Mansour summed up my thoughts well in her updates on this post:
We are fighting this because if we let this slide then we are saying that the Palins are fair game for everything. If their 14-year-old daughter is not off limits, then nothing is. If this heartless jerk can get away with this, then what next? Can we expect jokes about little Piper? When is enough enough?
I would be disgusted by this if it were anyone’s daughter.
Are you upset by this? Then make your voices heard. . . .
Call CBS at 212-975-3247. Melt their phones.
Call every women’s organization you can think of. Call every sexual assault victims organization you can think of. Call every child protection advocacy group you can think of. Call every teen pregnancy organization you can think. Get a comment from all of them. Ask them if they have anything to say about David Letterman’s jokes about the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. Ask them if they think it was alright that David Letterman declared that his joke was really about Gov. Palin’s 18-year-old daughter. Does it make it alright that he was mocking an 18-year-old mother? And if they have no comment, ask them why. Ask them what makes the Palins any different from any other family.
Don’t stand for this. Do you want ordinary citizen politicians? Well, the Palins are ordinary people. They got into politics for the right reasons. They wanted to serve. And this is how they are treated. If you want more people to get into politics for the right reasons, then you had better defend this family—otherwise what other family would put themselves out there when this is how they know they will be treated?
As she goes on to note, it’s also a good idea to put pressure on CBS’ advertisers, and Sebastian Gray at HillBuzz has excellent advice on how to do so productively.
Update: HillBuzz suggests M&M Mars, Olive Garden, and Kellogg’s, with specific strategies for each as well as another general strategy post; and here’s another good list of advertisers to target, courtesy of Judy Silver at The New Agenda:
Aveeno (owned by Johnson & Johnson)
Canon
Charmin (owned by Proctor & Gamble)
Citibank
Downy (also owned by P&G)
Hellman’s
Lexus (owned by Toyota)
Nissan
Rogaine
Is it worth pushing these companies? Gray says yes, that if we’re persistent, we will see results:
CBS is in real trouble right now. Katie Couric just clocked the lowest ratings for a news broadcast on American television in HISTORY. Ad revenues are down everywhere, and once a month when Dr. Utopia gets on the TV and commandeers primetime for one of his ego trip national addresses, the networks lose tens of millions of dollars.
CBS cannot afford to lose M&M Mars or any two other large advertisers. If you direct all of your firepower at three big players like this, all selling products to families, and you heed my advice above, SOMETHING will happen before a month is out. You just have to put a little Al Sharpton in your life, be persistent, and write, write, write.
I would also add that it’s worth calling out CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves on this one. By way of comparison, here’s his statement on Don Imus after Imus called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos”:
From the outset, I believe all of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air about the young women who represented Rutgers University in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship with such class, energy and talent. While we have already made our disappointment and outrage clear, I would like to take the opportunity to offer my personal apologies to the Rutgers team, its impressive Coach, and the entire Athletic Department and Administration of Rutgers University. CBS has nothing but the highest regard for that establishment and its students, and we are sorry that offense was given in such a brutal and insensitive manner.
I would also like to extend an apology to everyone beyond Rutgers. Those who have spoken with us the last few days represent people of goodwill from all segments of our society—all races, economic groups, men and women alike. In our meetings with concerned groups, there has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society. That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision, as have the many emails, phone calls and personal discussions we have had with our colleagues across the CBS Corporation and our many other constituencies.
And here’s what Moonves has had to say about Letterman’s significantly more vile attack on the Palin family:
*sound of crickets chirping*
Apparently, the head of CBS doesn’t care when “offense [is] given in such a brutal and insensitive manner” to conservative women, or worry about “the effect language like this has on our young people” when the purpose of that language is to hurt a Republican. This sort of hypocrisy is simply not tolerable; call him on it. Contact his office, but also do everything you can to make it clear that Moonves is a hypocrite and a chauvinist fraud.
On this one, we know where the real feminists are standing: liberal or not, they’re standing with the Palins; they understand that “sexism isn’t selective, and misogyny isn’t something that only applies to certain women.” May all of us rise up and say “Enough!”—whether you care about the Palins or not, for your own sake, and the sake of your daughters. For the sake of my daughters. Enough is enough.
Update: Kudos to NOW, which issued a great statement on this. They’re clearly trying to use this as a lever on conservatives, but more power to them:
NOW hopes that all the conservatives who are fired up about sexism in the media lately will join us in calling out sexism when it is directed at women who aren’t professed conservatives.
I’ll second that, and give them credit for putting principle over party, and for being smart enough to do so in a way that really advances that principle. What NOW has done here is the sort of move that could really make a positive difference in political conversation in this country, as I think the response at Hot Air from Allahpundit and Ed Morrissey shows, and they deserve applause for that.
All due respect Pastor Rob, but I think we are hurting our cause when we point out that Sarah Palin is a conservative woman. To make this about conservative vs. democrat does the entire issue a disservice. These types of remarks should be off limits about any woman, and the minor children of any politician should be off limits. Anyone who makes vulgar jokes at their expense should pay a heavy price, regardless of their parents political party. We need to leave party and ideology out of the equation, and go after this on the basis of human decency (or lack thereof, in the case of Letterman). Don Imus was fired for his offensive comments. David Letterman is under fire, and needs to pay the same price that Imus did. By the same token, when Rush Limbaugh referred to a then teen-age Chelsea Clinton as the family dog, or when John McCain joked that she was ugly because her parents were Hillary and Janet Reno, they should have been ostracized as well.
This is georgiapeach (a.k.a. PalinDemocrat) posting as anonymous because I'm having trouble getting my google account to cooperate, as usual.
I'm not pointing out that Gov. Palin is a conservative woman; that's already known. I'm pointing out that because she's a conservative woman, there are a lot of folks out there who don't think the rules apply to attacks on her. Yeah, these kinds of remarks ought to be off limits about any woman, and especially about any child; I'll admit that I'm probably angrier because of the long roll of attacks on Gov. Palin, but if this sort of vile commentary had been launched at a liberal politician's kids, I'd be pretty near as furious. (I thought the nasty cracks on Chelsea Clinton back in the day were nauseating, and I had no brief for her father at all. In that case, you have to give her kudos–the best revenge is living well, and she managed it. Watch out for her, she's as tough as her mother.) There are a lot of folks on the Left who can't say the same thing, and their hypocrisy also makes me angry.
And btw–sorry if I sound testy, but I truly am angry about this–but I appreciate your comment. It's good to see you drop in. 🙂
I stop in pretty often Pastor Rob, I just don't comment very often. Don't take me wrong. I am as furious about this as you are. I just think the attacks on Gov. Palin have more to do with her class and her gender than her political ideology. Granted, most "entertainers" are firmly on the left side of the page. But as someone pointed out on a PUMA blog, attacks like this would be much less likely, let alone accepted if they were directed at "Gov. Sam Palin". I think Gov. Palin was on the right track in her interview with Matt Lauer this morning when she pointed out that shrugging this type of commentary off contributes to an atmosphere that is degrading to women and young girls.
Oh, I'm not taking you wrong on that one–I just wanted to make sure I wasn't coming across wrong. And I agree that Gov. Palin's gender is primary here, and I think you're right about the role her class plays–but if she were a blue-collar liberal woman, Letterman wouldn't have dared say such a thing, while Playboy did dare entertain its rape fantasies against conservative women who aren't of Gov. Palin's class.
It's the perfect storm, I think: because she's a woman outside the Beltway/NE elite, she's a safe target for male liberal jerks (and some male conservative jerks, for that matter) to indulge their otherwise-suppressed misogyny. I think this is especially true for those who got a taste of it slandering Sen. Clinton during the primary campaign last year (which became acceptable once the media fell head over heels for Sen. Obama); that was, I believe, the first stage in this particular uglification of our culture, and really laid the groundwork for the attacks on Gov. Palin. Fundamentally, no question, this isn't about conservative vs. liberal, it's about this is wildly inappropriate, no matter who it is you're talking about. We need to draw a line in the sand here; we need to push back, and I hope the pushback not only continues, but intensifies.
Here's a line in the sand for ya Pastor Rob.
http://www.firedavidletterman.com/
The guy running this blog also suggest calling local CBS affiliates and contacting and boycotting local sponsors whose ads are aired in that time slot. They need to feel the heat at every level, and we need to keep cranking up the thermostat until David Letterman is gone. The New Agenda (http://thenewagenda.net/) is dedicated to defending ALL female politicians from this kind of attack. They are non-partisan, and they are all over this issue. If you are interested, several of the PUMA blogs (http://dailypuma.blogspot.com/) are supporting/defending Gov. Palin, as well. If you are so inclined, I would appreciate it if you could post these links at
C4P. I am having trouble posting there for some reason. This is the coalition that we need to stop this kind of behavior in it's tracks.
I think those have all been posted over there, actually–not sure about dailypuma.blogspot.com, but The New Agenda has been added to the sidebar, and mentioned prominently in posts. I really appreciate those folks.
The jking comment about any woman being "knocked up" from David Letterman is like the pot calling the kettle black! After all, didn't he "knock up" his girlfiend? It's in bad taste no matter if it was consentual or raped. What about the guy he accused of "knocking up" Sarah Palin's daughter? Wasn't he upset?
Agreed. The interesting thing is, I haven't seen or heard any comment from Alex Rodriguez or the Yankees–A-Rod was certainly insulted as well, but I suspect he's just keeping his head down, afraid to say anything.
I posted the dailypuma link because it is updated every time someone on their blogroll puts up a new post. They are coming fast and furious in defense of Sarah Palin, even from some who were not her biggest fans. One of the bigger progressive blogs, NoQuarter, has a post up right now by the blog owner defending Gov. Palin, and giving an excellent explanation for the left's irrational hatred of her.
Right, I followed a number of the links (didn't see the one from NoQuarter, though–I'll have to read that one), and I appreciate you mentioning it. I don't have the ability to edit posts, over there, but I'm going to call folks' attention to it when I get the chance.