Posted on 06/15/2009 5:21:19 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Letterman to Make Full Apology Tonight for Joke About Palin's Daughter By Brent Baker Created 2009-06-15 20:10
“David Letterman is making a full-throated apology for his controversial joke about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter,” TV Week reported a short while ago [1]. “During a taping of tonight's [Monday 6/15] edition of his CBS Late Show, Letterman went much further than his last explanation of the joke, in which he quipped that a baseball player had 'knocked up' Palin's daughter,” Josef Adalian wrote.
Though Palin and conservatives were outraged and demanded an apology [2] and retraction for a “joke” seemed aimed at the 14-year-old daughter though Letterman said he was referring to the 18-year-old daughter, it took the liberal columnist Mark Shields on PBS to convince Letterman he had a problem. Letterman will explain:
I was watching the Jim Lehrer Newshour -- this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, was talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old girl, and I thought, 'Oh, boy, now I'm beginning to understand what the problem is here. It's the perception rather than the intent.' It doesn't make any difference what my intent was, it's the perception. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it's not a very good joke.
On Monday's show last week, Letterman's monologue included [2]: “One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning her daughter was knocked-up by Alex Rodriguez.” That Late Show also featured the “Top Ten Highlights of Sarah Palin's Trip to New York” with this entry: “Bought makeup from Bloomingdale's to update her 'slutty flight attendant' look.”
TV Week provided “a transcript of Letterman's comments, as supplied by CBS publicity.” The full text which should match what he'll say on tonight's Late Show [3]:
"All right, here - I've been thinking about this situation with Governor Palin and her family now for about a week - it was a week ago tonight, and maybe you know about it, maybe you don't know about it. But there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There's no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can't be defended.
The next day, people are outraged. They're angry at me because they said, 'How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ball game?' And I had, honestly, no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ball game except the Governor and I was told at the time she was there with Rudy Giuliani...And I really should have made the joke about Rudy..." (audience applauds) "But I didn't, and now people are getting angry and they're saying, 'Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl, and does that make you feel good to make those horrible jokes about a kid who's completely innocent, minding her own business,' and, turns out, she was at the ball game. I had no idea she was there. So she's now at the ball game and people think that I made the joke about her. And, but still, I'm wondering, 'Well, what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this?' I've never made jokes like this as long as we've been on the air, 30 long years, and you can't really be doing jokes like that. And I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself.
"And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer 'Newshour' - this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, was talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old girl, and I thought, 'Oh, boy, now I'm beginning to understand what the problem is here. It's the perception rather than the intent.' It doesn't make any difference what my intent was, it's the perception. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it's not a very good joke. And I'm certainly - " (audience applause) "- thank you. Well, my responsibility - I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault. That it was misunderstood." (audience applauds) "Thank you. So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future. Thank you very much." (audience applause)
“Hey Imus resigned.......... “
Imus was fired but collected the rest of his 40 million contract.
I smell fear. Good.
All the affirmative beauty action in the world would not make Letterman’s wife good looking. Letterman has done a great job of keeping her in the background. It’s a story in itself how a rich, successful, guy who could have his pick of hollywould beauties would go for her! Kind of like Charles and Camilla I guess.
bears repeating that letterman “knocked her up” and only married her recently......
Yet, he dated her for years and years, always keeping her in the background! Who could blame him!!
Also heard that they lost Hilton Embassy Suites as an advertiser due to complaints. :)
Does Dave’s wife have any teeth, or is that Meth-Mouth?
personally, Lurid Letterman's "apology" is more lies, obfuscation, sickening false indignation, insincerity and denial of guilt. He is explicitly upping the situation. And this latest stunt infuriates me to no end for young girls.
Excellent!
Dave Letterman: Pervert.
That’s your unwritten obit, Dave.
Slutty flight attendant, knocked up daughter, and he has to be told this is innapropriate. He knew these jokes were off color when he told them but was playing to his hate filled liberal audience. Maybe we should compare these jokes to the hard hitting jokes he has told about Obama...anybody?..anybody?
No one can step into another person's mind and know for sure the "intent" of anything. In this case the perception that he told a joke about the daughter who was at the game is also the reality of the situation.
If I told a rape joke about one of President Obama's daughters, but in my mind I was thinking "Hillary" it wouldn't matter to anyone. It would be offensive.
Letterman did the right thing to try to apologize. It's too little - too late ... but time will tell if he means it. In his favor I don't remember him telling rape jokes about children before - but then again he doesn't see conservatives as the equals of liberals - or our children.
Does anyone remember him calling a liberal governor "slutty"? I'd like to know - but I already know - his contempt is saved for traditional conservative Americans.
Yes it would, as long as it's a sincere apology and not the mocking first one he presented.
Screw him, keep the pressure on the advertisers, it’s working.
Indeed. I never watch nor listen to Letterman, anyway.
LET IT GO. Move on.
Late night talk show died when Johnny Carson retired.
I complained. Don’t do that often because I don’t want to get put on a spam list. No form letter or anything from the network though.
So who is this joke writer that Letterman is quoting? Why is he/she still on staff? Why would Letterman continue an association with this person?
The “www.firedavidletterman.com” guys are up
Next up on Gretta, FOX NEWS, 10:30 eastern
I love Embassy Suites and we go out of our way to stop there when traveling. Good for them and the families they serve.
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