Ultra-Liberal Letterman

           David Letterman made his indefensible comments about Sarah Palin and daughter Willow during the week I was off spending time with my family. I usually ignore celebrities and was more than content to continue that practice, but last night Letterman made a sincere sounding apology and I feel compelled to remark.

According to his own statement, it was only after watching a commentator on the Jim Lehrer News Hour, that he begin to “understand what the problem is...” Simply put, when commentators on the left leaning PBS network condemn him, he had to act. A man with thirty years of television experience does not stumble blindly into telling a crude joke. He knew what he was doing however, I am fairly sure that Letterman thought he was making the joke about Bristol, the eighteen year old daughter. In his statement, he repeatedly says that he didn’t know that it was Willow at the ball game. Still, instead of instantly apologizing for slandering a young girl, he tried to ride out the storm.

During his on-air explanation he makes it clear that he left the impression that he was telling a joke about Willow and that he needed to apologize for that. He also states that before the show, when he thought the joke was about Bristol, he made sure that she was of legal age. Apparently in David Letterman’s mind telling a joke about Bristol having sex at the ballpark would have been okay. In this bloggers humble opinion it would still be a very tasteless joke.

I understand that Governor Sarah Palin is an adult political figure and so is therefore more of a target, but do we really need to do, as Letterman did, and call an elected official “slutty?”

           By telling reprehensible jokes about women I’m certain that David Letterman has achieved one of his goals, his ratings bumped up for a few days and for him, ratings are all that matter.