Dear Billy Bush,
You have a lot of work to do.
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I say that as an American, a member of the audience that you had for years, you’ve got a long way to go. I’m not going to discuss how unimportant your work has been and how untalented you are.
What I am going to talk about, however, is how your behavior has stained our political system. As a member of the media and entertainment, you have a duty to the people that watch you. You have a duty to the millions of viewers the Today show, and of course, Access Hollywood has every week. Your attitude reflects a growing issue in our country, more so than actual sexual assault: condoning sexual assault.
Before we can ever hope for sexual assault to go away, the culture has to change. A culture in which laughing off the molestation of women as “banter” or “locker-room talk” isn’t OK. If you see or hear something, you say something. There is no difference between a child or a 60-year-old man.
While we have received an apology from you, you did hide behind excuses of naivety, claiming that you were younger and less mature 11 years ago. Of course we can all remember that you're no spring chicken, being in your early 30's when this happened.
Ok. We all make mistakes. Your apology, however, doesn't cut it for me. You have a few people you have to apologize to. The women that heard Trump's comments and who's PTSD from being assaulted need some acknowledgement from you that this rhetoric isn't OK.
Of course, Trump is 100% wrong in the comments he said, but you need to admit fault more than you did. It doesn't help that your termination will result in a payout for you. You have the power to send a strong message to people that watch you, and even those that don't, to denounce Trump's comments. You need to make a HUGE statement when you apologize.
Maybe you need to be out of the entertainment world for a bit. You can regroup, reinvent yourself, and learn (relearn?) what it means to stand by your values.
Sincerely,
A disappointed viewer.
