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.)
Just a partial list. More at the link: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index
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Pajamasmedia: http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/
And, where is a issued comment from the NOW organization regarding the sloop that spills out of letterman’s snout? Did I miss it? I mean...I am a woman, not a member of NOW, but have been become entranced with their ability to ONLY protect lesbians or liberal women.
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except that he did. Bristol Palin (18) was 4000+ miles away. Willow Palin (14) was the daughter that accompanied her mother to Yankee Stadium.
Leave the children out of it. Is that such a tough rule? Too many nuances for comedy? Too subtle for intellectual giants such as Letterman? What is the matter with these people?
On Wednesday, Palin’s office released the following statement:
“Concerning Letterman’s comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he’d ever dare make such comments about anyone else’s daughter): ‘Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands — that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone’s daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.’”
Did you see where Roman Polanski knocked up Sasha and Malia Obama in Paris?? HEY, I’M EDGY TOO!!!
Now he continues to ridicule Bush, Cheney,and Palin regularly and only light stuff about Obama, his new hero.
Monday night he blasted Palin in both the monologue and the top-ten list. On a couple of the "jokes" there was a mumbling in the audience. I don't know why people don't blurt our boos or if they do and they're edited out.
Since Spitzer had sex with whores, Letterman is clearly calling Palin’s daughter a whore.
Sick SOB....I couldn’t stand Dave and his constant Bush bashing.....Now he is sinking WAY BELOW even bad taste to try and grab ratings....
I think alot of libs are kind of sad they don’t have W to bash constantly any more......
I know Anderson Cooper and Keith Olberman’s ratings aren’t doing as well since Obama took office...Dave is a raging lib so he can’t make fun of Barry ....
I wonder if there soon will be a Bush is NOT in office liberal derangement syndrome soon?? LOL
Hey I got a joke for ya Dave, how ‘bout this?
“Yankee’s game last night, David Letterman and his 6 year old son Harry were in attendance for the whole game, well except for that brief absence after young Harry’s little accident when he dropped his hot dog, and Daddy wouldn’t let him put it back in the bun, way too dirty for that, right Dad?”
I thought Letterman’s phony touch of not remembering Bristols name was telling.
So, he thinks this makes it okay that an aging pervert meant to pick on an 18 year old girl on national television? It's okay that they do so little research that they take a simple phrase from the news "Sarah Palin and daughter at the game" and turn it into a sick joke because they didn't think they needed to fact check their slam on the Palins before broadcasting? Letterman is disgusting ... and I hope no one lets him near their young children.
I have said it twice before, and I will say it again for emphasis. David Letterman is a clueless, classless ass.
Were he to have said that about any of my daughters at any age I would have paid Mr. Letterman a visit and you would learn my real name on the network news.
Screen name is appropriate.
That is a Natural Law. That most of us understand.
Who is this “David Letterman” fellow?
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