GayPatriot

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On Letterman’s Non-Apology & Media Double Standards

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it seems the only problem David Letterman finds with his derogatory reference to the Governor of Alaska and his joke about an athlete raping her fourteen-year-old daughter was not that he may have said something inappropriate, but that it caused some people to get upset with him.

In his brilliant dissection of Letterman’s non-apology, Victor Davis Hanson looks into that pronoun Letterman used to describe the offended parties:

. . . 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”).

I just watched the entire segment where the talk show host addresses, but does not apologize for his crude humor.  I’m not going to post the video here;  if you really want to watch, Fausta has it up on her blog (along with a good post).

But, while saying that “Of course we make mistakes, left and right,” Letterman never acknowledged any particular mistake he made.  Instead he acts as if he’s the wrong party. (Endora-Award winning blogress Tammy Bruce might call him a “malignant narcissist.”)  Steve Chapman, no Palin fan he, says the talk show host needs to apologize:

Instead of acting as though he’s the victim of someone else’s misunderstanding, as he did last night, Letterman ought to simply admit he blew it, big time, and personally apologize to the Palins and his viewers.

He also should to keep in mind that if you’re going to ridicule someone’s sex life, you might pick on someone your own size. And  make very sure you have the right person.

But, Letterman, as Jim Treacher who also has the video up, points out, didn’t offer an apology, he gave us “an angry, insincere, self-pitying (“Get yourself a talk show, folks”), self-justifying whine.”  He never acknowledged any wrongdoing.  The closest he came was to acknowledge “regret”:

Do I regret having told them [the jokes]?  Well, I think probably I do.

But you know what?  There are thousands of jokes I regret telling on this program.

So, it’s just like those other jokes which fell flat?  He only regrets saying it because he was a bad joke (like those thousands he told before)?  Or was it upset because it caused a media firestorm?  He doesn’t regret that his joke crossed a line and that he hadn’t know that Palin had taken her 14-year-old and not her 18-year-old daughter to the game.

I guess when it comes to the children of Republican politicians, there are no lines to cross.  Anything is fair game.  Even if (as Letterman claims) he were joking about the 18-year-old Bristol, what has that very young woman done to earn just scorn?  Did she choose to be born to a prominent politician?  Has Letterman subjected the children of Democratic politicians to such scrutiny?

Don Imus didn’t get away with his crude remarks and he apologized.  Shouldn’t we hold David Letterman to the same standard?

Comments

  1. Letterman is such a douchebag that he would be incapable of seeing that what he said was way out of line.

    Not only did he insult Sarah Palin by calling her a slut, and then her 14 year old daughter by inferring that she is a slut, but he also slandered Alex Rodriguez and I do hope that Rodriguez will take him to the cleaners for that piece of slander…. he was implying that the baseball player is in the habit of screwing underage girls.

  2. From what I’ve gathered, it seems he graduated from the DICK “Turban” Durbin correspondence course of Half-Assed Apologies for Liberal Dummies.

  3. Of course, I agree with everything here, but I would also say there is a double-standard when it comes to being smart enough to get one’s facts straight. After eight years of hearing liberals and faux-moderates joke about how stupid Bush apparently is, I don’t have a lot of patience for liberals who are too lazy (or too stupid) to get the facts straight first and who are not at all knowledgeable about what they speak of. To be sure, I’m not saying comedians need to become as knowledgeable about a topic as a politician, pundit, or reporter to address an issue, but you would think Dave and his staff could at least have done enough investigating to figure out which daughter was really at the game. (I’m not saying that would have made it right, but mixing up the daughters adds an extra layer to the stupidity involved here.)

    This reminds me of Sen. Kerry’s “stuck in Iraq” joke. He aimed his joke at Pres. Bush and accidentally hit the troops instead. His apology was basically “sorry you are all stupid enough to think I meant the joke the way it actually came out; I was trying to joke about that idiotic leader you signed up to serve under.” Letterman’s apology was basically “sorry you are all stupid enough to think I meant the joke the way it actually came out; I was trying to joke about Willow’s slutty sister.”

  4. Enough of David Letterman. This man has crossed the line doing his obcene jokes about our Governor Sarah Palin and her family. He has hidden behind the guise of being a “Comedian”. There is nothing funny about this. He is a mean spirited man who has taken his beliefs beyond that of the “comedy role”. If CBS doesn’t do anything about this, in all fairness FCC must step in and take actions to prevent further comments. I know this young girl or should say all of the family. They are hard working, good “American” family. This young girl still goes to school, can you imagine the teasing she gets. This is a young girl that has no voice; she needs your protection. David Letterman should be so lucky to have a family like this. America is watching and if something is not done we will know that only the “rich”, famous”, can get away with whatever they want.

  5. I see a lot of lefties hauling out the “He was calling the *other* daughter a whore”) talking point; which even if true, doesn’t make it all right.

    This wasn’t about comedy, this was about him flipping off a politician he doesn’t like by attacking her kids; which any decent person should view as despicable. But his audience simply guffawed and applauded like trained seals.

    I honestly don’t understand what stops people on the left from just saying, “It was a rotten thing to do,” and leaving it… unless they really are as nasty and hateful as we think they are.

    As for why the hatred against Sarah Palin, I think it’s quite simple: She is a person who dealt with a difficult personal situation with dignity, compassion, and respect for life. The people attacking her have none of those qualities.

  7. V the K,

    I wish to add to your observations that “progressives” are free to roam the realms of moral relativity, but they hold conservatives to rigid standards and squawk and squeal like harpies when a conservative is involved in something less than Puritanical.

    Letterman has, until recently, raised a bastard. (Technically, he is still a bastard.) But that is of no consequence to a “progressive” and it is so common that it is of little consequence to much of anyone. But when Sarah Palin’s daughter got pregnant, why the “progressives” threw a hypocrisy festival in her honor. To them, Sarah Palin should have rushed the daughter off to George Tiller and, in Obama’s world, kept her daughter from having “to live with a mistake.” Progressives hate the Palins for accepting the responsibility of a new life and moving forward with new realities.

    Letterman has to make the Palin daughter into a whore. He can not stand all that self sacrifice and fatalism. The daughter didn’t abort the clump of cells, to Hell with her and her Church Lady mother and the whole cretan, moose shooting, hill billy family.

    Read the “progressives” who comment on the Palins. They hate them for their honesty and dedicated integrity. They really hate Sarah because she is as close to Wonder Woman in looks, words and deeds as they have ever seen.

    The Palin derangement syndrome is real. When you break it down, you see what a whining, free-floating bunch of misfits the “progressives” really are.

  8. As I posited on the earlier thread, the only reason Letterman attacked Palin is because there is NO WAY he would ever do the same to The Snob and his wife.

    Don’t believe me? OK – just for comparison purposes, let’s see how Dippy Dave would have gone over if his monlogue had gone like this:

    “The category tonight – Top Ten Hghlights of Michelle Obama’s Visit to New York. I didn’t know she was coming but we made room for her on the show. I hope she shows us those wonderful arms.

    “She was here, she was up at Yankee Stadium. OK, Top Ten Hghlights of Michelle Obama’s Visit to New York. Here we go:

    “10. Visited New York landmarks of the country she’s finally proud of.

    “9. Laughed at all the homeless whiteys she saw on the streets.

    “8. Made collard greens and chitlins on Rachel Ray.

    “7. Broke into and stole a car on Park Avenue.

    “6. After pulling a gun and screaming, “I’m gonna pop a cap in your ass” at a drug dealer, scored a kilo of cocaine for her husband.

    “5. Made a sleeveless sweater out of 100 live rats.

    “4. Sat in for Kelly Ripa after she pulled a knife on Kelly and threatened to slice and dice her.

    “3. Made a white guy give up his seat for her on the subway.

    “2. Bought a new wardrobe at Bloomingdale’s to update her ‘crack-ho’ look.

    “And the number-one Top Ten Hghlight of Michelle Obama’s Visit to New York: Especially enjoyed showing off her $540 sneakers at a local homeless shelter.”

    (Musical interlude by Paul Schaeffer.)

    “In a related story, Michelle attended a Yankee’s game. One awkward moment during the game. Maybe you heard about it or saw it on one of the highlight reels. An awkward moment for Michelle Obama at the Yankee’s game. During the 7th inning, both her daughters were knocked up by Alex Rodriguez. You can see how that would be awkward.

    “But, given President Obama’s love of abortion there are no worries. Those mistakes can have their brains sucked out and be killed just as they’re coming out of the girls. No sense in punishing a preteen with a child.”

    Gee, really funny, huh?

    Not.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  9. I find Michelle Obama easy to mock–I don’t see why comedians don’t. I think the gay community should be up in arms, so to speak, about her clothes. We should be angry at Obama for DADT, DOMA, not speaking against Iran, etc., and angry at Michelle for buying her tops at Sears.

  10. We should be angry at Obama for DADT, DOMA, not speaking against Iran, etc., and angry at Michelle for buying her tops at Sears.

    Personally, I couldn’t give a rat’s @$$ about the fashion of first ladies. As for DADT, DOMA, plenty of us are angry about it. As for the treatment of gay persons and humans, in general, in Iran and the Middle East, well, I’m angry about it.

  11. I’ve been busy writing to CBS and advertisers on Letterman’s show to complain about his disgusting “jokes” and non-apology. Believe me, the advertisers are now aware of the firestorm. I know this from calls I’ve made.

    While I realize this Letterman/Palin thing won’t make a big difference in my life (like socialized healthcare and cap & trade legislation), I devote time to this because it is personal to me. I have a teen daughter. We must be vigilant against the sexism and smug meanness that’s so common on the Left.

  13. I think that liberals are, generally, extremely out of touch with how most religious conservatives actually treat teen moms. Liberals seem to imagine that conservatives are out there viciously judging teenage girls who become pregnant, as if we were characters from A Scarlet Letter. I don’t doubt that some churches and families do provide judgment rather than support for pregnant teens/teenage moms, but I for one haven’t seen that in my own experience as the son of a pastor at a fairly conservative church. From time to time, a teen/young women from the church will get pregnant and give birth, and I’ve never heard of a single condemnation of any of the young mothers. Instead, they are typically treated with baby showers and all sorts of support. While almost all of the church people and most of these young moms would acknowledge that becoming a mom at such a young age is not the way things ought to be, compassionate words and actions easily outweigh whatever judgmental words slip out of someone’s mouth at the church.

    Contrast that with the libertine comedians and pundits who ostensibly see nothing morally wrong with sex outside of marriage yet see no problem levelling scornful insults at certain individuals who fall short of morals they (the comedians and pundits) don’t even believe in. David Letterman may believe that Bristol Palin’s classmates should stop listening to the party poopers and do each other, but if Bristol Palin does it and gets caught (via a pregnancy), he for some reason feels entitled to trash her just because he doesn’t like her mom.

    There are hypocrites out there, but they aren’t the Palins or people at my church who strongly believe in certain ideals but who take a pass on judging those who fall short of them. Believing in certain ideals does not obligate one to judge those who fall short of those ideals; after all, virtually everyone falls short of his or her own ideals on occasion, regardless of one’s religious and political beliefs. The hypocrites are people like David Letterman, people who really don’t seem to care much about sexual morals but who feel free to treat the Bristol Palins of the world inhumanely for their own ends.

  14. When will Letterman tell jokes about the President and his family? Letterman is dead and has never been funny. Even Julia Roberts can not save him . Go away Dave and take Katie with you. CBS is going to die as well.

  17. I’ve always been a fan of Lettermen, I like his ironic humor. But like most hollywood and NYC liberals they are tone def when it comes to conservatives, christians, and rural folk. Now that the lefties have taken the gloves off, and as some said Palin has used faux outrage, can conservatives begin to attack Sasha and Melica? Their school, their garden, their travels? I’ve said it here before, liberals think anything goes when attacking a conservative because they are inherently evil. And liberals consider themselves righteous.