Posted on 06/15/2009 7:08:52 PM PDT by kristinn
David Letterman apologized tonight for a slanderous sexually degrading joke he told last week about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's 14-year-old daughter getting "knocked up" by New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez during the seventh inning of a game attended by the governor and her daughter, yet he failed to apologize for a joke the following night in which he insinuated the 14-year-old girl was a prostitute--indicting himself in the process.
The relevant portion of Letterman's apology:
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...
So, taking him at his word, the very next day Letterman learns the 14-year-old daughter was in town with her mother, not the 18-year-old. So what does Letterman do that night? He makes a joke calling the in town daughter a prostitute:
....The toughest part of her visit was keeping Eliot Spitzer away from her daughter.
Literally right before that 'joke', Letterman made a joke about Palin and Rudy Guiliani attending the Yankees game and being seated in the 'far, far right field.
Letterman makes the focus of his apology his failure to get across his intent that he was joking about the 18-year-old daughter getting 'knocked up' not the 14-year-old:
...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....
Letterman only apologizes for the one joke about Willow getting "knocked up", yet ignores the Willow-as-prostitute joke that by his own admissions he would have known explicitly was about her.
Link to blog with YouTube videos of Letterman 'jokes'.
From what I have read and heard about A-Rod, it doesn’t seem to me that he is too bright.
Rape is never a joking matter, whether it is the rape of a woman, a child, or a man.
Anyone who thinks it is a joking matter is a very sick person IMHO.
.
Mr. September has enough on his plate. He’s properly keeping a low profile on this one. There is no way he wins if he says anything.
And in his “apology” he keeps insisting he would have never told a joke like he told.
It makes no sense.
Gretta just had 2 ladies on who are behind
http://www.firedavidletterman.com/
Agreed. He’s spreading poison throughout our society.
I guess Letterman will kill himself if Bill Moyers brings it up.
Oh Dave is sorry alright! The problem is that the SOB doesn't realize how sorry he really is........
Their tongues will be there hangman’s noose.
Letterman will be gone by the end of the summer, as soon as they figger out who’s gonna replace him.
oops “there” should be “their”
My vote is for Craig Ferguson. Much funnier than Letterman (but that isn't saying much).
'Oh, boy, now I'm beginning to understand what makes Liberoids react. It's the negative attention of fellow Liberoids (to wit, Mark Shields).
But for this, David would not have a clue .... RIGHT!!!!
I’ve wondered that too. I’d be livid if I were him.
Apparently he has too many snakes in his closet to be dealing with this. Messy divorce, etc. I don’t think he’ll be coming near this mess. But I am surprised at the silence.
In Letterman's defense, this was a joke about Eliot Spitzer perceiving Sarah Palin's daughter (of whatever age) as a sexual object, it was not calling either of the Palin daughters a sexual object. It was purely a slam on Spitzer.
That said, I'm offended by the ARod joke, it was clearly implying mutually consensual sexual behavior, and was crude, lewd, and wrong.
Here’s the Email I sent to Embassy Suites.
Thank you for withdrawing commercial sponsorship from the david letterman show. As you know many people found letterman’s brand of political humor disgusting. Insinuating that fourteen year old Willow Palin would have public sex in a stadium or be solicited as a prostitute by elliot spitzer is not the type of humor I want to associate with Embassy Suites, Your quick (and I expect permanent) disassociation from the david letterman show ensures I will continue to enjoy staying at Embassy Suites.
If letterman is truly just a comedian and not a partisan shock jock, where is his comedy auction to get planned parenthood donations to win the right to impregnate the Obama daughters?
What Letterman apparently STILL fails to realize, apology notwithstanding, is that the “joke” would’ve still been mean-spirited and over the line even if it was the 18 year old daughter, Bristol, who accompanied Sarah to the game.
Dave who?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.