The Huffington Post duplicitously linked comedian Steven Crowder with the third rail of GOP political discourse by telling its readers that he “made a questionable remark about actress and possible Kentucky Senate candidate Ashley Judd. ” HuffPo continued by offering a partial quote to support its claim: “What is this obsession with Ashley Judd and rape?” Crowder asked while joking about Judd and Apple products. “It’s pretty unnerving.”
In the post-Akin/Murdock world of American political discourse, the strategy employed by HuffPo is obvious. Create a headline and quick internet blurb using the words “rape,” “CPAC,” “Conservative.” and “Steven Crowder” and you’ve got a heck of a Google result if you’re looking for more ammo in the “War on women.” HuffPo got even more bang for their buck in the two paragraph post by throwing “Fox News Contributor” into the mix.
Unfortunate for the HuffPo reader is the fact that the article (which does not include a byline so we’ll go ahead and just blame the entire editorial staff for this one) does not even begin to tell the entire story of the joke Crowder made. Here’s the full story:
Acting as Emcee for the morning events at Day 3 of CPAC, comedian Steven Crowder made reference to some of the more controversial statements actress and potential senate candidate Ashley Judd has made in the past couple of years. As has been reported recently, Judd has had a strange habit of comparing international corporations and their labor practices to rape.
As Andrew Kaczinski reports, in 2010 Judd compared her home state of Kentucky’s mining laws to rape: In a 2010 speech to the National Press Club in Washington, Judd called mountain top removal — the controversial but principal type of surface mining in Appalachia that involves the removal of mountaintops to extract coal — “the state-sanctioned, federal government-supported, coal industry-operated rape of Appalachia.”
And as Alex Pappas reports, in the same year Judd used horrifically graphic language to attack Apple Corp: “Apple is known for the clean lines of their products, the alluring simplicity of their designs,” Judd wrote in the article. “Dare I….go so far….as to suggest…this signature cleanness is stained by the shit and urine of raped women’s leaking fistulas?”
With that as a backdrop, Crowder, a comedian, made a topical joke about Judd’s over-the-top references. Here is his entire joke:
“Breaking News: Ashley Judd just Tweeted that, ‘Buying Apple products is akin to rape’ from her iPhone. Now she knows how my brain felt after ‘Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood.’ Oh, she said it. What is this obsession with Ashley Judd and rape? It’s pretty unnerving. “
So HuffPo omitted the entire basis of the joke and failed to let their readers know the background that explains the humor of the joke, and instead pulls out his last sentence without any reference to make it appear as though Crowder is insensitively hammering Judd for an “obsession with rape.”
Interestingly, when a comedian HuffPo agrees with hammers GOP women in an offensive manner, they provide all the context in the world to their readers and treat him like he’s the next George Carlin. Bill Maher trots out multitudes of misogynist crap against Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann on a regular basis, and he gets puff pieces.
The tactic against conservative speakers is obvious and Crowder would probably be smart to just avoid controversial subjects like this to avoid giving the left more opportunities to lie about him. It’s not like they aren’t going to rise to this bait. It’s not like they’re going to honestly report his comments, ever. But, knowing Steven Crowder, my guess is this kind of attack from the left will just emobolden him even more.