Posted on 06/11/2009 9:00:15 AM PDT by Tolik
"We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter, the 18-year-old girl, who is — her name is Bristol, that's right, and so, then, now they're upset with me . . ."
"These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. I mean, look at my record. It has never happened. I don't think it's funny. I would never think it was funny. I wouldn't put it in a joke..."
Examine the logic. First, Letterman makes a gutter joke about Palin and her unnamed 14-year-old daughter attending a NY Yankees game. Then when a bit of outrage follows, he apparently claims he really meant to slur the other 18-year-old daughter who, back in Alaska, of course did not attend the game but was not named by Letterman. That would be okay, you see.
Second, then he evokes the now common straw man "they" who are apparently "upset" with him, hoping to play the victim card. Then he dribbles out something about his "last show" as if we are to weep that some mob is out to silence him. (But the reason he picked the Palins, and not the Obamas, Gores, Bidens, or Kerrys, was precisely because he knew it would not equate to his "last show").
Third, he strangely amplifies his joke by confessing it really was about "raping" and "having sex of any description," but just not with a "14-year-old girl," suggesting it would have been okay had he just been more explicit and named Bristol, the 18-year-old. In Letterman's world, because Bristol is 18, she is a year past most statuary rape clauses and thus the joke would have only been about "raping or having sex of any description with a [18-year-old] girl."
Nothing offered about his slurs against airline attendants and Governor Palin herself, when he sneered that she had a "slutty flight-attendant look," or his remark that Palin "was keeping Eliot Spitzer away from her daughter."
The self-serving, creepy apology was as bad as the initial slur. Letterman is emblematic of an aging, baby-boomer culture, that dresses up street vulgarity with a tie and coat. The only thing that saves him is his care to do this with the Palins from Alaska that don't figure into the usual no-go race/class/gender paradigm.
Letterman in His Dotage [Victor Davis Hanson]
Letterman attacked in crass sexual terms both Palin and her daughter: Two of the rhetorical cornerstones of the feminist movement used to be zero-tolerance for sexual slurs by men alleging promiscuity ("slutty flight-attendant look"), and jokes about something as serious as rape (e.g., Palin's 14-year-old daughter "knocked up by Alex Rodriguez"). David Letterman, who has become ever more creepy in his dotage, on both counts proved a boor — and receives only silence? (Personally, I admire flight attendants a great deal: They put up with a great deal from jet lag to obnoxious passengers, and somehow remain polite and hard-working — and with a modest and professional look.)
Men who make jokes about children being raped - (even if it's the children of MSM scapegoats: conservatives) those men are likely pervs.
Yup... spread the word. We can't let this Letterman/Palin "joke" situation just "go away"...
I called every one.
Thanks
to say nothing of her Dad...
I think there seriously has to be a FReep of Letterman's studio, or something. Letterman has to be taken down over this one, once and for all...
To any Obama brownshirts lurking: By "taken down" I mean Letterman should be booted off CBS and/or have his career ruined forever. Nothing more.
“Statutory rape fantasist David Letterman”
Exactly. We cannot let this situation die, as I'm sure Dave and the Left hope it does.
Just as I expected, Letterman issued a statement last night where he said he meant the jokes to be about 18-year-old Bristol Palin, not 14-year-old Willow Palin. Bristol was 4,000 miles away in Alaska last weekend, Willow was with her mom and dad and a cousin who suffers from Autism in NY last weekend. Sarah was mainly in NY to participate in a walk for Autism and to raise funds for a facility in NY that helps disabled children. And this is the crap she gets from the likes of Letterman (and some idiot on NBC's Today Show as well).
We cannot let this one just "go away". David Letterman = statutory rape fatasist. Spread the word...
Letterman had one objective, and one objective only .. to smear Gov. Palin. Using her children, or any of them, was irrelevant to achieving his goal. Given his own vulnerability in the child area, it’s particularly ironic.
no hysteria or hyperbole from Victor Davis Hanson
When I buy my island in the South Pacific, FReepers are welcome, but Democrats are barred from coming ashore.
I welcome them to come visit and walk around on the coral in the shallows to chum for sharks, though.
Letterman has a very nice house in St Barts where I am sure he gets to look at little girls on the beach to his hearts content.
Yes, he is a smear artist. Any other *artistic* talents left in him? Because he is definitely not funny, and for quite a long time.
Ignore Letterman and he’ll go away.
Just like the NYT. :)
Yes, Dave’s moronic wording of his non-apology did compound the offense.
Even lower he invited the Palins to appear on his show, in an attempt to get a ratings bump.
so it really wasn’t out of bounds to infer rape from what he originally said because he pretty much admits that was his intent, in his apology.
It would seem that in Letterman's world, absent the statutory rape if the girl is 18, the joke would have been about "sex of any description". However, given Dave's prior comment in the "explanation" that what he does there is joke about people who are in the news, the joke couldn't have been about the 18 y/o Bristol since A-Rod would have an awfully difficult time "knocking her up" during the 7th inning all the way in Alaska.
he also joked about the Palin daughter and Eliot Spitzer which implied prostitution, as well. that joke doesn’t seem to be getting as much play for some reason.
I heard references to it but didn’t hear exactly what the “joke” was. Without knowing specifically what was said, I have refrained from commenting on it. Joking that a well-known john tried to make contact with someone only implies that he was trying to solicit her for sex, which wouldn’t make her a prostitute. Joking that a well-known john responded to someone’s email or internet ad, etc. would imply that she was a prostitute. So, without knowing the verbiage of the joke, I really can’t comment on it. But given what I know of the whole story I would bet that it was tasteless, classless, and not funny.
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