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STERN: "For Best Actress, it's Sandra Bullock, and then you go, there's Helen Mirren, then there's Meryl Streep, 16 time nominee, and then you go, there's the most enormous fat black chick I have ever seen.  She is enormous.  Everybody is pretending she's a part of show business.  She's never going to be in another movie.  What movie is she going to be in?  Blindside 2, she could be the football player.  She could take up the whole front line." (ABC News) 

Shock-talk radio jock Howard Stern has set off a firestorm of criticism with his comments about Academy Award Nominee Gabourey Sidibe.  Now he's defending his comments and lashing out at his critics.  So, should the PC police back off?  Or is Stern way out of line? 

We have perspectives from ABC News, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post and the L.A. Times.

We start with ABC News -- who took Stern to task on it's World News Now program.

"To be candid -- Howard Stern isn't a whole lot to look at either.  Just so we're clear...and Robin is not terribly thin either.  Right. And just to be clear too -- she is a working actress still.  She just landed a couple of roles in a new show on Showtime called "The Big C" and also in a movie called "Yelling at the Sky" -- so Gabourey, pay no attention."

A day later -- Stern fired back.  World News Now -- airing the exchange.

"'Howard Stern in hot water with critics.'  Hot water -- who cares?  These two geniuses on ABC News want to pretend like .. don't say anything.  Nothing will happen.  Nothing bad -- let's go live in lah-lah land. But he went on to say we are in the midst of a health care reform problem in our nation...she is sort of an example of what is a drain." This had nothing to do with health.  And it's sort of the typical shock-jock thing, I think, to say something encindiary, hope there's the appropriate amount of media indignation, and then try to intellectualize it after there is that media indignation and say, I was just worried about her health."

It took no time -- for the San Francisco Chronicle's Zennie Abraham -- to tee off on Stern.

"Now it can be said that Howard Stern's the dumbest man on the planet...Howard was so busy being prejudiced against fat women, especially "fat black chicks", he turned his brain off."

But, in a story entitled, Howard Stern Can Shove it -- Gabby's Hot!, the Huffington Post's Laura Beck defends the shock jock -- sort of.  And then launches into a larger defense of Sidibe.

"I have to say, there is a purity to what Stern does. At least he's honest about his ridiculous, bigoted opinions....are you really worried about her weight? I love the fact that Gabourey is making America look at her. Take up space, girl."

The L.A. Times says, like it or not, Stern and his sidekick may not be far off the mark about the history of overweight African-American actresses.  In an attached LA Times poll, more than half say Stern is just saying what everyone else is thinking.

"The two of them have a point; Sidibe isn’t exactly a classic Hollywood beauty. Jennifer Hudson, also not a skinny woman, has had some acting work since her Oscar win a few years ago, but nothing as rich or varied as other Oscar winners, say, Renee Zellweger."

So what do you think? Is Stern just saying what everyone else is thinking? Or should he just shut up and give  Gabourey Sidibe some credit?