Letterman Apologizes to Palin for Offensive Joke; UPDATE: Palin Accepts Apology
BY: NCViking
David Letterman finally apologized to Sarah Palin for his offensive joke about her daughter. He said he had no idea that Willow was at the ball game and that he came to the understanding that it was the ‘perception’ not the ‘intent’ of the joke that caused outrage. It’s amazing that it took a week for him to admit wrongdoing, but he did. And what about this ‘intent’ Dave is talking about? I will accept he may not have ‘intended’ on calling Willow a 14-year-old whore and Alex Rodriguez a child molesting pervert.
By the way, where is the outrage about the sick insult of ARod?
Anyway, besides it being an unabated open season on wealthy men these days (see his comment about Rudi Giuliani), Letterman’s ‘intent’ was a big part of the controversy. There is no question that a public figure’s underage children should be off limits, but it is who the jokes were directed at and why that makes it that much worse.
Letterman despises Conservatives and Republicans. This disdain is indicative of most attitudes in the media and entertainment industry and is usually carefully veiled inside programming. Letterman pulled back the curtain with this one. His ‘intent’ was to insult Palin because she is a politically Conservative woman. There was and will be no jokes of this nature directed at Sonia Sotomayor, Michelle Obama or the Obama children, even Hilary Clinton. Many have goofed on Hilary, but nothing to the level of calling her slutty or Chelsea a whore. That would rightly be unacceptable and not tolerated by anyone in the liberal media – they would universally hand out pitchforks! On the other hand, Conservatives and Republicans are often marginalized and privately hated so naturally the outrage did not come from this source. No, the outrage came from average Americans.
What you are still not understanding, Mr. Letterman, is that the joke’s ‘perception’ of inappropriateness was simply the spark – your ‘intent’ is the incendiary that fueled the explosion, and average Americans are getting quite sick of it.
Letterman’s apology:
UPDATE: Palin Accepts Letterman Apology
From Fox:
Sarah Palin has accepted comedian David Letterman’s apology made during Monday night’s broadcast of “The Late Show” for crude jokes made about her and her teen daughters last week.
In a statement to FOXNews.com early Tuesday, the Alaska governor said, “Of course it’s accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who ‘joke’ about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve.”
“Letterman certainly has the right to ‘joke’ about whatever he wants to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction,” Palin said. “This is all thanks to our U.S. Military women and men putting their lives on the line for us to secure America’s Right to Free Speech – in this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect.”
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I keep hearing people argue that the joke was fair game because the joke was about 18-year old Bristol who was “knocked up” and that it is funny because Conservatives are all prude “and stuff” and because they are some kind of hypocrites. That makes little sense to me.
The joke was targeting the child of a politician, not the politician. Comedians have their targets, and for whatever reason Letterman likes going after Palin. She’s fair game in the world of politics, although I would keep the jokes on what she says and does as opposed to the way she looks. Sarah can not help that she is attractive, and calling her look a “slutty flight attendant” is a joke in very bad taste. Bad taste is not reprehensible per se.
As for the Palin kids, they should be off limits. I thought the jokes about how ugly Chelsea Clinton were were completely out of bounds, but for the most part she and the Bush girls were spared media scrutiny (with the key exception being their drinking binges, which to me was not a personally demeaning story). Obama’s daughters should be left along and any fringe comedian who went after them would not deserve any respect.
This is not a Lefist sin only. Laura Ingraham went over the line a few months ago making fun of Meghan McCain’s weight. We can argue policy and positions, but making fun of someones appearance dehumanizes them, and discredits the person putting forth the line. Meghan has chosen to be in the limelight herself, but she should still not be belittled and dehumanized.
Bottom line, Letterman and his writers should concentrate on writing jokes about their intended targets, regardless on how tasteful they are or are not. Willow and Bristol Palin should be left alone. The only reason that Bristol not Willow) could even be considered “fair game” is because she is now a public figure in her own right, taking on that spokesman position for abstinence or something. On the other hand, it is not the role of a nationally famous comedian to tear apart a young girl like he does… it is despicable.
Is Letterman ever going to be funny again – or was he ever funny in the first place? Just asking.
I actually find Letterman hilarious. He can deliver a joke very well, and many of his off-the-cuff, non-ideological humor is really good. The problem is that he came out of the closet a few years ago, like many, as a guy who will cut the Left a break and go crushing the Right. He was pretty tough on Clinton back in the 1990’s, but seemed to forget how to attack Democrats starting in 2006.
I don’t think he’s been funny since his early days at CBS. My opinion.
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