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Thursday, November 26, 2009

David Letterman isn’t funny and the HuffPo isn’t serious

The Huffington Post is a necessary part of the national discussion on culture and politics. But its promotion and defense of David Letterman dampens the blog's standing as a respectable participant in the world of ideas.
Letterman's conduct with female staffers over the years, in which he wooed women much younger than he to be in intimate relationships with him, should be condemned. Instead, it is condoned by the like of HuffPo, which continues to give him and his antics a forum on the blog.
Where else wbut in the so-called liberal media would a man get away with sexual harassment? Where else but in the liberal media would a man get away with making "jokes" about a politician's teenage daughter having sex with an athlete?
This is the bitter pill that I refuse to swallow as a supporter of liberal causes: watching leaders ignore or add insult to injury when it comes to women's issues.
The fact that sexism is the "ism" that few regard with any measure of seriousness means that women and girls in the United States and worldwide will continue to suffer brutalities that make us unworthy of calling ourselves liberals and progressive and all those other lables that separate us with W. and his friends.
When the news broke how American soldiers were abusing Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Gharib prison, everyone from The New York Times to Fox News was appalled about how the men were disrobed and forced to endure brutal humiliations.
Yet, when French Guinea soldiers pulled women returning from an anti-government rally onto the sidewalks, stripped them and gang-raped and amused themselves by taking pictures with their mobile phones of the attacks, hardly anyone said anything. The story had little traction. Of course the Obama administration, possibly history's most progressive administration, did address the brutality and had the fiercest ally women and girls have worldwide, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to condemn the president of French Guinea, even hinting that his days are numbered as the leader of the country.
And just this week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the international community to do something to end "the global pandemic of violence against women and girls."
These calls for action come as a result of the brutal sexism that is allowed to flourish among soldiers -- and a liberal media outlet that doesn't even see how Letterman's sexism is part of the greater problem.
It's no surprise that Don Imus got back on the radio a few months after making offensive remarks about a university women's basketball team.
If there is one thing that HuffPO and Fox News and everyone in between agree on, it's that the plight of women and girls doesn't exist.