A Top Ten List for Letterman's Conservative Critics

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He doesn't host his own syndicated talk radio show. That isn't his chair behind the desk of a cable-news program. You won't find his byline on the op-ed pages, discussing the ins and outs of President Obama's latest policy proposal.

He's a gap-toothed, late night comedian, and he's in justifiably hot water with conservatives for making some pretty vile jokes.

Earlier this month on CBS' Late Show, host David Letterman took aim at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's recent trip to New York City, offering up some off-color and patently sexist quips. During his opening monologue, Letterman said, "One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game. During the 7th inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez." Then, later in the same broadcast, while presenting No. 2 on his famed Top Ten list, this time of "Highlights of Sarah Palin's Trip to New York," Letterman said the former Republican vice presidential nominee had "bought makeup at Bloomingdale's to update her 'slutty flight attendant' look."

Letterman did the right thing in apologizing twice for his tasteless attempts at humor, finally noting that the intention of his jokes was meaningless when considering the way any rational-thinking person would perceive his jokes. Ultimately, though, it is Letterman's future conduct that will determine the sincerity of his contrition.

Still, the right's fury rages on.

It is hard, however, to take conservatives seriously when one considers that each and every day, real players in the rudderless conservative movement -- powerful talk-radio hosts, cable-news hosts, pundits, columnists, and bloggers -- throw aside the reasonable boundaries of a civil political discourse by using wickedly divisive, cruelly insensitive, intentionally misleading, and downright hateful rhetoric. And the response from their followers? Hardly a peep.

Rank hypocrisy is nothing new for right-wingers -- or politics in general, for that matter -- but in a selfless attempt to help them avoid the "hypocrite" label this time around, I humbly present a Top Ten list of "Right-Wingers From Whom Conservatives Should Be Demanding Apologies."

10) Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, for falsely claiming a hate-crimes bill that adds gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans to the list of protected groups would also protect those who commit incest, necrophilia, pedophilia, bestiality, and a host of other perversions.

9) Fox News' Sean Hannity, for hosting "Internet journalist" Andy Martin, who once called a judge a "crooked, slimy Jew, who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race."

8) Syndicated radio host Neal Boortz, for describing welfare recipients as "human parasitic garbage lining up to get their applications to loot."

7) Fox News conspiracy-theorist-in-chief Glenn Beck, for describing Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court as, "Hey, Hispanic chick lady! You're empathetic. ... You're in!"

6) MSNBC's resident cranky uncle, Pat Buchanan, for saying prior to Sotomayor's selection that he wanted Obama to pick a Supreme Court justice "who has real stature, impresses people" but thinking instead that Obama would pick "a minority, a woman and/or a Hispanic."

5) Syndicated radio host Jim Quinn, for repeatedly calling NOW the "National Organization of Whores."

4) Cincinnati-based radio host Bill Cunningham, for alleging that "Obama wants to gas the Jews."

3) Michael Savage (née Weiner), the third-highest-rated radio host in America, for saying "Obama hates" and "is raping America."

2) Fox News' irrepressible mega-star Bill O'Reilly, for repeatedly quacking that the legalization of gay marriage could lead to folks marrying ducks.

And No. 1, the conservative movement's de facto leader, Rush Limbaugh, for saying of Obama, "We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black."

In all honesty, the list could have included dozens of other media conservatives, with comments and actions numbering in the hundreds.

At the end of the day, expecting consistency from a movement motivated primarily by divisiveness and fearmongering is perhaps a bit much to ask. It's sad that the righteous complaints over Letterman's ill-conceived jokes are undermined by the right's inability to hold their own ilk accountable.

We should all be concerned about the level of sexism, racism, homophobia, and bigotry in general found in today's media landscape -- regardless of the offending party. Unfortunately, much like the iconic gap between Letterman's front teeth, so too is there a gaping hole in the credibility of his conservative critics, however justified their claims may be.

Karl Frisch is a Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog and research and information center based in Washington, D.C. Frisch also contributes to County Fair, a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the Web as well as original commentary. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook or sign up to receive his columns by email.

Follow Karl Frisch on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KarlFrisch

Comments

[DEJM]

Frisch misses the point. It's not a conservative thing. It's a decency thing.

Cruel and out of line insults are flying on both sides of the aisle. We don't need a blow-by-blow accounting, Frisch. We hear them everyday.

It was a consensus that Letterman wasn't funny. And that's because he wasn't going for the laugh. His ratings are down and desperate people do desperate things.

Frisch and his fellow fellows should abandon the useless cataloguing of conservative insults and focus on what we all know and he apparently doesn't.

Political leaders want Americans slinging political mud at each other. That means we're not paying attention to all the dirty deals going on between Congress and lobbyists, democrat and republican.

[Jakealoper]

Trouble is that Letterman is a comic, not a commentator, newscaster or a political operator.

[regroupthink]

Right Wing Conservatives are just to dumb to figure this out. They all need the "Right Wing Deprogrammer" from Regroupthink.

[imfedup]

Repubs NEVER apologize. Unless they're trying to suck up to the wives they have cheated on so they don't get taken to the cleaners . . .

[traveler501]

this is all about nonsense...the slutty flight attendant joke was pretty funny IMO...it is classic political satire and nicely dresses her down for her presumption (is she not a failed beauty queen who is attempting to run a state with the same "skills?") the daughter joke was simply another chance to mention A-Rod with someone else currently big in the media gossip circle...it was mindless, but also typical of such late night fare. indeed, as Letterman said...it was a cheap laugh. there never was any attack on the young daughter, no women's issues were breached...this is Palin and NOW and desperate conservatives all clambering on a pile of false umbrage, hoping for yet another hour in the limelight.

[JeremiahA]

I guess you did not watch Late Night and the entire David Letterman monologue. If you had, I would like to suggest that you may see that this was not an "attack" on a 14-year-old girl, but an attack on a politician through her 14-year-old daughter. That's the point. It doesn't matter whether the politician was conservative, liberal, libertarian, green, etc.

[imfedup]

It had NOTHING to do with her 14-year-old daughter. That argument is so two weeks ago..

[JeremiahA]

This is not about being a liberal. This is not about being a conservative.

This is about common, human decency.

Has the political discourse in this country become so hard-hearted that now we feel it is okay to target the children of politicians for ridicule?

At least NOW came out with a statement condemning Mr. Letterman and his excuses. A proper apology from the beginning would have made a great difference.

[MjaFla]

Letterman's best conservative joke to date was "Anybody here from New Zealand? They have a big, new attraction. It's a live sex show in New Zealand. They have actual bulls mounting a simulated cow. Good to see Ann Coulter getting some work."

Does anybody know that the first amendment protects Dave from Sarah, not the other way around. She trotted her kids out on talk shows and interviews and public appearances, she asked for it. Period.

[S1m0n]

That *is* an excellent joke.

[LMPE]

Reactionaries are the supreme hypocrites.

[JeremiahA]

Karl Frisch equates comments (which I don't all agree with) by adults about adults with a joke about an adult male having sex with a teenager? It would seem that he, and many others, are so full of hate that they cannot objectively view how disgusting Mr. Letterman's joke was.

What if Mr. Letterman had said, "During the 7th inning, Obama's daughters were knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

The only reason I would write the last degenerate, disgusting, morally repulsive sentence is because it appears that people are actually saying, "What so wrong? Can't Palin take a joke?"

I think that's why the latest national Gallup poll on political affiliations in America stated that 40% of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal.

[kitkatborn]

Really? only 40%. Hmmm.

[JeremiahA]

Yes, and they found that while single women are more likely to vote Democrat, single women with children, married women, and married women with children are more likely to vote Republican. Please take a look at their website, because a lot of media have not reported on this newest survey.

[sinope]

Because Obama's daughters aren't getting knocked up.

[Rrhain]

Reminds of a cartoonist who also didn't get it. Was saying that with regard to Carter's kid, Clinton's kid, and the Obama's kids, "Hands off!" but somehow there is hypocrisy with regard to Palin's.

Hmm...

Amy Carter: Underage, not made part of the campaign.
Chelsea Clinton: Underage, not made part of the campaign.
Malia and Sasha Obama: Underage, not made part of the campaign.

Bristol Palin: Legally an adult, made part of the campaign.

Might one understand why there is a difference in treatment? When an 18-year-old is put forward as a model for abstinence when she got pregnant out of wedlock, then she makes herself available for commentary.

[csavage]

Read a bit of White Protestant Nation. The author alleges that the GOP since the '20s has had the support of the KKK. So, if you assume that argument is valid, then it's no surprise conservatives are crying foul over the blatantly racist statements from their spokesmen(Coulter included), they really feel that way....
I can tell you, my neo-con friends feel that way. This most recent election has shown me the depths of their racism

[truthartbeauty]

his vile jokes? it was one joke and it was hardly vile!

[Marnie1]

I am guessing that Palin accepted Letterman's second apology, not becasue she is basically a civil person, but because of the tidel wave of hate filled comments reminding all of us who the sexist hate mongers of this nation really are.

[therblig]

luckily, the audience for the conservative shriek fest is getting smaller and smaller. soon, they'll turn on each other to grasp at that dwindling market share. rush will say billo isn't conservative enough, hannity will compare scarborough to colmes and eventually they'll all go down in flames.

except ann coulter...isn't that just like a woman :)

[ssg13565]

The one thing the right wing has taught us in this contretemps is that one can organize loud protests calling for the offending person's firing.

I guess that already happened with Don Imus, but who knew we could do it to Rush Limbaugh, too.

Let's call for the firing of all the bad examples raised in this article. Let's boycott their sponsors. It should be fun.

Somebody will have to watch those shows and tell me who those sponsors are.

[jaamzturkot]

Youre awesome. so is obama

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

David Letterman's job is making jokes, and that his jokes often sting the right is great. Even the "worst" of his Palin jokes pale beside the joke of her even being a national political figure.

Dave is SUPPOSED to be slightly offensive now and then. A comic who never offends anyone is shirking his duty, just to be safe. A never-offensive comic is a bore. They have a name for comics like that: "Jay Leno." [zzzzz]

So you go, Dave. When the conservatives start squawking, you know you're doing it right.