Growing up, there were two things I knew were off limits in our household: MTV and Howard Stern.
For decades, Stern has been crafting a persona synonymous with sexualization and objectification — specifically of women. The shock jock radio personality has spent so much time making sexist and explicit comments, he’s racked up millions of dollars in fines over the years from the Federal Communications Commission.
Stern, author of the new book “Howard Stern Comes Again,” claims to have turned from his old ways, back when he would spend hours watching porn stars disrobe in his studio, though he did just this week watch as one of his co-hosts had champagne poured down his rectum, so I’m loath to say he’s changed all that much. Alas, he appeared Thursday on “The View” to discuss his alleged rebirth.
There was one really big elephant in the room: Donald Trump. But the even bigger elephant in the room was right in front of the four co-hosts, and his name was Howard Stern.
Unbelievably, co-host Sunny Hostin bemoaned the fact Trump was, many years ago, “rating women” on Stern’s show. But none of the co-hosts — I repeat, none of the co-hosts — dared mention the fact it was Stern himself who suggested at one point Trump, who has a history of making sexist and derogatory comments about women (including his own daughter Ivanka), host a TV show during which he would judge women’s bodies.
The co-hosts of “The View” have often criticized Trump for his sexist past, so it’s really something to behold when they trip over themselves praising the self-appointed “King of All Media” who is just as guilty of normalizing the objectification of women and has given sexist men cover to continue ogling women and reducing them to the sum of their body parts.
If nothing else, Thursday’s episode of the morning talk show revealed, once again, that sexism is OK as long as the sexist isn’t a conservative.
The ABC panelists, to be fair, are not the only ones letting their double standards show. Here’s a sampling of a few others who have criticized Trump’s sexist past but are gleefully promoting Stern:
One of the first responses I usually get to pointing out this glaring double standard is this: “Well, [insert sexist man’s name] isn’t president.” So does that mean morality only applies to certain people at certain times? That doesn’t seem like a good lesson to teach children. It’s a prime example of one of the left’s go-to rebuttals: “Whataboutism!”
The only lesson to be gleaned from that kind of response is it’s not OK for the president of the United States to be sexist (a sentiment with which I agree), but it is OK for virtually anyone else to denigrate women (a sentiment with which I vehemently disagree).
The tricky thing about absolute truths — one of which being the value of human life in all stages — is they’re absolutely true all the time. If something is morally wrong for the president, it’s morally wrong for Stern, and you, and me, too.
Thursday’s show reminded me of two things: Don’t trust Hollywood to teach you good morals, and my parents were right about Howard Stern.