Whoa! NOW Puts Letterman in Their Media Hall of Shame

I must admit this one surprises me. NOW was strangely silent during the entire campaign as cheap shot after cheap shot was taken at Sarah Palin, but after David Letterman used objectionable "jokes" about Palin's daughter, they were finally forced to act. Here's the latest entry in the NOW Media Hall of Shame:

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.

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. Letterman also joked about what he called Palin's "slutty flight attendant look" -- yet another example of how the media love to focus on a woman politician's appearance, especially as it relates to her sexual appeal to men. Someone of Letterman's stature, who appears on what used to be known as "the Tiffany Network" (CBS), should be above wallowing in the juvenile, sexist mud that other comedians and broadcasters seem to prefer.

At this point the entry goes off the rails a bit:

On that point, it's important to note that when Chelsea Clinton was 13 years old she was the target of numerous insults based on her appearance. Rush Limbaugh even referred to her as the "White House dog." 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.

Rush Limbaugh is the villain du jour for he Democrats right now, so NOW had to drag up an incident from 15 years ago to try and make it okay to blast Letterman. Unfortunately, they chose to repeat a myth rather than get the facts straight.

Yes, Rush was talking about the White House dog on his TV show when one of the techies put up the wrong graphic - a photo of Chelsea. They apologized for the error, but the myth that it was an intentional move has persisted since then and NOW repeated it. Too bad, they were on a roll.

Still, the fact that they would defend Palin under any circumstances is pretty amazing. Letterman really stepped in it this time.