Bozell & Graham Column: Howard Stern’s Pitch to Hillary

August 6th, 2016 9:02 AM

Sex-crazed radio shock jock Howard Stern has an impossible new fantasy that he can’t keep to himself: He wants an in-depth interview with Hillary Clinton.

Stern, who left broadcast radio for satellite radio so he could be as raunchy as possible, to make his millions dwelling on the lowest common denominator for the demographic Men 18-34, has a less-than-zero chance of scoring a Hillary interview. The risk-averse woman who hasn’t held a press conference yet in 2016 isn’t going to upset her every feminist supporter by pleasing Howard Stern.

If any Clinton adviser wanted to suggest to her that it could be a great opportunity to address the gender gap, one can easily look at what accomplished women discuss on his show. Take this Newsmax headline from a year ago:  “Megyn Kelly Talks with Howard Stern: Breasts, Penises, Sex.” That’s the lifelong obsession of Stern (and his audience).

So it was an act of media trolling for The Washington Post’s Geoff Edgers to help Stern make his sales pitch to Mrs. Clinton. Edgers insisted Stern is “simply the best broadcast entertainment interview show around.”

Stern gave the Post an hour-long interview, but somehow they didn’t ask why an aspirant for the highest office in the land should lower herself to an interview with a guy who played “Fartman” and sold videotapes with the title “Butt Bongo Fiesta.”

 For his part, Stern promised he would not ask Mrs. Clinton about the e-mail scandal (or scandals). But he’d have to ask about the adultery, presumably because it's more important. That said, Stern said “I don’t think it’s necessarily the central thing.” He’d like that subject to evolve, and not ask directly, because “that’s just poor form, and that’s not the way I approach a conversation in my home.”

Stern defines the term “poor form.” The Post didn’t recall low points of Stern’s career. He made sex jokes about the Columbine High School massacre. He mocked the Latin pop star Selena right after she was shot dead. The hits go on and on.

No, instead, Howard Stern is somehow the Indiana Jones of journalism. Edgers asked “You’ve had Steve Martin on, Bill Murray, McCartney, almost everyone. Is Hillary the Holy Grail at this point?” Stern at least said “I wouldn’t say that,” but promised he would be “fascinated by Hillary Clinton.”

Edgers told Stern “I’d want to hear what it was like being so accomplished and so skilled and then basically deciding, hey, Bill, I’ll become a mother and let you do it.” Stern replied it was like an actor turning down a role in what becomes a smash hit. Thus Bill Clinton’s presidency is somehow a blockbuster movie. Edgers also complained Hillary was an intellectual who ended up “getting grilled about some offhand comment about baking cookies.” That “grilling” never happened.

Speaking of grilling, Edgers asked Stern to condemn his friend Donald Trump. “You’re obviously a big believer in free speech. He’s been blocking the press and trying to control the press and trying to shut the press out. I can’t imagine you support that.” The Post couldn’t acknowledge that while Trump pulled their press credentials, Hillary has awarded them a tiny ten minutes of interview time during the entire presidential campaign. She's refused a press conference since last year and her campaign manager won't commit to one through the duration of the campaign.

But it's Trump who is blocking the press.

 Stern didn’t answer that complaint. He’s not going to criticize his pal Trump. He only wanted Hillary’s media allies to ignore his very sordid, crotch-obsessed career and honor him for producing “simply the best broadcast entertainment interview show around.” On that score he succeeded. But he won't land Hillary Clinton.

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