Hannity Brilliantly Calls Out Howard Stern for Mocking Ainsley Earhardt's Bible Study
If you stopped paying attention to Howard Stern back when he was hosting quiz shows in which a Klansman, a mentally challenged individual and a porn star would duke it out to see who was smarter, you’re not alone. I don’t remember who generally won these meetings of the minds, but the loser was pretty much anyone who bothered to listen.
The shock jock is, however, undergoing a bit of a rebrand as of late. At the age of 65, Stern has decided that he wants to be known as a Very Serious Person who opines on Very Serious Things and not the kind of guy who would prank call flower shops and see if they would put unspeakable things on the accompanying card.
This has worked well enough that even Hillary Clinton has dropped by Stern’s studios, something that would have been nigh unthinkable 10 years ago. The problem is that he’s still, at some level, Howard Stern.
Back in May, according to The Hill, Stern mocked Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt for relying on religion in the wake of her divorce. Among other things, Stern said she used religion to get her through “bouts of loneliness.”
In a Wednesday appearance on Earhardt’s Fox streaming show, “Ainsley’s Bible Study,” Fox News host Sean Hannity took aim at Stern’s comments.
“Honestly, he was like totally making fun of your ‘Bible Study,’ and what was really interesting to me is I actually viewed it for you, you had something that he didn’t have,” Hannity said.
“Now, I’ve interviewed Howard on radio and on TV. I’ve admired him a lot,” he said. “He’s a great champion, but I remember asking him, ‘Howard, I read that you go see a shrink five days a week. Howard, I read that you go home and smoke pot in your basement and watch porn.’ I’m like, ‘You have more money than God, or almost as much.’ And he’s like, ‘I know, I know.’
“And what I realized in that interview is he does not understand — as smart, talented and gifted, I will concede all of that to him, and honest as he is — he doesn’t have what you have, which is he doesn’t seem to think ever about the majesty of God or the need for the spiritual component.”
“There is a spiritual component to this experience on earth” that gives one confidence, Hannity said.
“You’re confident when you believe in God, so he was just making fun of it. You were talking about how you felt the presence of God coming in your life during a tough time, and I felt, ‘Wow. Howard does not understand that, as smart as he is.’
“I’m not saying anything bad. You know, you’re a friend so I didn’t like him attacking you, but I thought it made you look good.”
All of which is decidedly not inaccurate.
Video of Hannity’s appearance can be seen at The Wrap (the relevant part starts at 4:10).
Stern’s show has become overtly political. This makes sense in an environment where almost everything has been politicized, particularly on the radio, although it feels eerily similar to the transmogrification that Stern’s bête noire, Don Imus, underwent 30-odd years ago. Nevertheless, he hasn’t made any untoward, racially insensitive comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, so one can let that slide.
However, here’s some unsolicited advice Stern gave the president just nine days after his comments about Ainsley Earhardt:
“From what I know of Donald and his relationship with his father, it sounds traumatic. It sounds like the father was very domineering. The father expected a lot of him, and the father, I don’t know, there was military school. You know, you read these drips and drabs and you go wow,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“I can assure you he’s been traumatized because, you know, Donald, his level of narcissism is so strong. He has trouble with empathy. We know that. And I wish he would go into psychotherapy. I’d be so proud of him if he did, and he would flourish.”
All right. And how is that psychotherapy working for Stern? If Hannity’s description of his lifestyle isn’t wholly accurate, it’s just a matter of degrees. These aren’t the behaviors of a happy man. And yet, what he wants everyone to do is go into psychotherapy and put away that silly Bible.
Don’t get me wrong here — as someone who’s benefited greatly from psychotherapy, I’m not going to knock it. I’m also not in a position to say Earhardt or Trump needs it.
What I will say is that if you’re going to call someone’s religion a crutch to get people through “bouts of loneliness,” you might want to look at the crutches in your own life. Or, as a book I’ve read not infrequently puts it, the log in your own eye.
If Stern isn’t a theist, that’s his business. However, it’s profoundly condescending when a man who’s propounding the gospel of psychotherapy decides to dismissively look at someone who, as Hannity put it, “felt the presence of God coming in your life during a tough time.” This is particularly true when the newly serious Stern still finds time to get his employees high for the first time on-air as a stunt.
I guess it beats game shows in which a Kleagle, a porn star and a man with a serious birth defect try to guess the capital of Arkansas.
However, this still isn’t a man who should be passing his opinions on the meliorative powers of either a personal relationship with God or Bible study.
Just saying.
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