Letterman Apologizes

[bush_cheney2004]

David Letterman has finally succumbed to withering fire from all political sides:

Under fire for a risque joke last week, David Letterman has apologized to Gov. Sarah Palin and her supporters. But a group urging CBS to fire the host says it's still not enough.

On CBS' "Late Show" tonight, Letterman says he's sorry about a monologue earlier this month in which he joked that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez impregnated Palin's daughter during a game. Letterman has said he intended the joke to be in reference to Palin's 18-year-old daughter Bristol, but Gov. Palin actually attended the game with her 14-year-old daughter Willow. Some critics have accused Letterman of joking about statutory rape.

"I told a bad joke," Letterman told viewers at an afternoon taping. "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."

He concluded, "I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future."

Women's groups are mad as hell and they won't take it anymore!

[Sir Bandelot]

Letterman's a sap. He was a sap for telling the joke, and even more for apologizing.

[Shady]

It's good to see that he's finally doing the right thing. Even if it took a few more days then it should have.

[kimmy]

The dude just took (as us Albertans would say) a good old fashioned curb-stomping.

-k

[DogOnPorch]

Dave is still King of Latenight. It's a shame the networks have put he and Conan head-to-head.

[Oleg Bach]

Dave is still King of Latenight. It's a shame the networks have put he and Conan head-to-head.

He's a jerk - a while back he had Hillary Clinton as a guest - and as a prank one of the band leaders started to eat a cream puff - mimicing sperm coming out of the corners of his mouth in a subtle - but not so subtle insult to Hillary - and a clear reverence to her swallowing and spilling Bill's sperm ----The look on Hillarys face was stern and vengeful...she was contained but absloutely livid and looked at Letterman as if she was going to cut his heart out -----------------------later they did cut his heart out...sometimes I wonder if Hillary made a few calls.

[Oleg Bach]

He's a jerk - a while back he had Hillary Clinton as a guest - and as a prank one of the band leaders started to eat a cream puff - mimicing sperm coming out of the corners of his mouth in a subtle - but not so subtle insult to Hillary - and a clear reverence to her swallowing and spilling Bill's sperm ----The look on Hillarys face was stern and vengeful...she was contained but absloutely livid and looked at Letterman as if she was going to cut his heart out -----------------------later they did cut his heart out...sometimes I wonder if Hillary made a few calls.

Correction - " a clear reference to MONICA swallowing and spilling Bill's sperm" - Letter man is a disrespectful creep who fancifully believes that New York High Jews control the nation and that people like Hillary is a joke and he is above her...apparently David is very thankful to the anglo doctors that allowed him to live....fool is a good discription of this spoiled brat.

[Argus]

I think that, when you set yourself up as a family values person, when that is, in essence you're whole reason d'etre, and you trumpet it at every turn, then failing in that area deserves to be mocked and ridiculed.

For a woman who trumpets family values and was opposed to abortion and sex education, well, the fact her teenage daughter became pregnant was rich fodder for mockery. I sympathise with the daughter for being held up as a joke aimed at her mother, but I have no sympathy for Palin.

[bush_cheney2004]

I think that, when you set yourself up as a family values person, when that is, in essence you're whole reason d'etre, and you trumpet it at every turn, then failing in that area deserves to be mocked and ridiculed.

Keeping babies full term is not failing her values. Mocking statutory rape is not particulary funny....Letterman found this out the hard way.

[Oleg Bach]

Keeping babies full term is not failing her values. Mocking statutory rape is not particulary funny....Letterman found this out the hard way.

Not giving support to a family member about to bear a child that IS a family member - is not a family value- what? Aborting the child and taking the easy way out is a family value? Letterman is so damned modern and arrogant that he forgets the common idea of repect - the empowerment of others! To attempt to demean a person and disempower them is totally disrespectful ---------------to bear a child and bring it into the world is blessed...no matter how it arrives - or whether it is sanctioned by the state or church - life is sanctioned by God - and not by human institutions ------any family that looks upon the arrival of a new member with embarssment - because the child it "out of wedlock" --- or the person is young ----people who are young have been baring children for thousands of years without problem....What does society consider respectable birth? Perhaps a silly conditioned woman that waits till she is 43 - and needs artifical help to birth is respectable? Who needs drugs to enduce conception because they bought into liberal feminism that is a lie.

[sharkman]

I think that, when you set yourself up as a family values person, when that is, in essence you're whole reason d'etre, and you trumpet it at every turn, then failing in that area deserves to be mocked and ridiculed.

For a woman who trumpets family values and was opposed to abortion and sex education, well, the fact her teenage daughter became pregnant was rich fodder for mockery. I sympathise with the daughter for being held up as a joke aimed at her mother, but I have no sympathy for Palin.

Well look at it again. Where did Sarah fall in the area of family values? How can what her child did be Palin's failure? Only in a Dem world. Had Bristol chosen an abortion I could see your point, because that kind of choice would involve the parent(even though the left blesses the choice of a girl to slink off while at high school to get an abortion, without so much as a parent's consent, although one is needed if the child is going on a field trip)

And that is one thing, to point out a failure of a candidate, but to attack the children repeatedly is something that the left does when it can gain advantage. Did Obama's kids get attacked? Did the Clinton's? Have any Dem candidates gotten this treatment for unsavory behavior? Very little compared to the campaign waged on the Palin family and Bristol in particular, for making what the left doesn't even consider a mistake if their own do it, get pregnant outside of marriage.

Edited June 17, 2009 by sharkman

[Argus]

Keeping babies full term is not failing her values. Mocking statutory rape is not particulary funny....Letterman found this out the hard way.

Statuatory rape is a bit of a joke given we used to call 14 year olds "mom", but in any event he was talking about the older daughter not the younger, so it doesn't apply. Anyway, a joke is good if it's funny. Funny excuses everything else. I remember Chris Rock doing some awards show years ago making a joke about some rapper who was up on charges for doing a sex tape with a fifteen year old, and saying how it was a good thing the Olsen Twins weren't seated near him. It broke the place up.

Edited June 17, 2009 by Argus

[bush_cheney2004]

Statuatory rape is a bit of a joke given we used to call 14 year olds "mom", but in any event he was talking about the older daughter not the younger, so it doesn't apply.

That's his story, but he specifically made reference to Gov. Palin's attendance at a Yankees game with her 14 year old daughter to set up the "joke".

This is why Letterman has always been second rate....compared to Parr, Carson, Leno, Snyder, etc., who would edit out tasteless "comedy" from their writers. Letterman has grown old and aloof, a legend in his own mind who forgets what it means to be an entertainer.

I think Letterman has also knocked someone up.

[Oleg Bach]

Statuatory rape is a bit of a joke given we used to call 14 year olds "mom", but in any event he was talking about the older daughter not the younger, so it doesn't apply. Anyway, a joke is good if it's funny. Funny excuses everything else. I remember Chris Rock doing some awards show years ago making a joke about some rapper who was up on charges for doing a sex tape with a fifteen year old, and saying how it was a good thing the Olsen Twins weren't seated near him. It broke the place up.

There was a time when 14 year olds wed ----my mother was a war mate - she was 15 and my father was 33 - they loved each other to the end.. The point was the letterman's offence was to call a young person a whore - a person he did not know - Palins daughters are not whores..do we call every young mother a whore - while Letterman was a whore monger most of his life?

[Argus]

Well look at it again. Where did Sarah fall in the area of family values? How can what her child did be Palin's failure? Only in a Dem world.

We hear from the Sarah Palins of the world an endless prattle about how their family values results in better child rearing, in raising children with better moral values. That's the whole theme behind the family values circus. And an aspect of this highly popular among the religious right - of which she is a standard bearer - is that sex education only leads to children being involved in more sex, and in teenage pregnancy. Well, surprise surprise, that turns out to be wrong. It's actually the children who don't have parents who discuss sex and sexuality honestly with them, who don't allow them to learn about sex in school, who tend to have a higher rate of teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, etc. So her own teenage daughter becoming sexually active and then not even taking precautions to not become pregnant is just too delicious a fulfilment of what the statistics tell us. I fell sorry for the girl, but no one is deliberately targeting her. They're using her as an example to show that her mother, and by inference, the whole of the religious right, are wrong about how to treat the issue of children and sexuality.

Another aspect of it is that if Bristol were the daughter of some liberal democrat, the Sarah Palins and Bill O'Reillys and Ann Coulters and Rush Limbaughs of the right would be condemning their lifestyle and trumpeting how if only she'd had the proper religious education and family values upbringing that never would have happened.

And of course, the whole attitude of American religious conservative people would be that Bristol is a slut.

[Oleg Bach]

Letterman's a sap. He was a sap for telling the joke, and even more for apologizing.

He does not know what an apology is.....nothing lost and nothing gained - still - giving birith does not make a woman a whore - young or old...what is Letterman - some sort of mother loving Italian Catholic that believes that your mother is a virgin - and that your wife is a saint until the moment of first intercourse then suddenly she is a whore -----he is an immature and underdeveloped spoiled little rich man - a fool - with clib humor that is not funny - I have never heard him say anything remotely comedic..

[Shady]

Argus, your premise is severely flawed. It sounds as though you think children are robots, who do everything their parents tell them to do. Unfortuantely that isn't the case. And despite what political affiliation parents tend to be, or if they're religious or agnostic, in any case, I find it very difficult to find parents who think it's a positive thing for their unmarried teenage daughters to have children.

[Oleg Bach]

Argus, your premise is severely flawed. It sounds as though you think children are robots, who do everything their parents tell them to do. Unfortuantely that isn't the case. And despite what political affiliation parents tend to be, or if they're religious or agnostic, in any case, I find it very difficult to find parents who think it's a positive thing for their unmarried teenage daughters to have children.

It's a negative thing for your genetic familiar lineage to die out....I don't give a damn if my kids are married or not - Just give me grand children and forget about having dogs replace offspring.. I never married and at my side is my woman 27 year later - and my kids are all bright contributors...those that critized us all those years are all divorced and their chilren are nuts..

[sharkman]

We hear from the Sarah Palins of the world an endless prattle about how their family values results in better child rearing, in raising children with better moral values. That's the whole theme behind the family values circus. And an aspect of this highly popular among the religious right - of which she is a standard bearer - is that sex education only leads to children being involved in more sex, and in teenage pregnancy. Well, surprise surprise, that turns out to be wrong. It's actually the children who don't have parents who discuss sex and sexuality honestly with them, who don't allow them to learn about sex in school, who tend to have a higher rate of teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, etc. So her own teenage daughter becoming sexually active and then not even taking precautions to not become pregnant is just too delicious a fulfilment of what the statistics tell us. I fell sorry for the girl, but no one is deliberately targeting her. They're using her as an example to show that her mother, and by inference, the whole of the religious right, are wrong about how to treat the issue of children and sexuality.

Another aspect of it is that if Bristol were the daughter of some liberal democrat, the Sarah Palins and Bill O'Reillys and Ann Coulters and Rush Limbaughs of the right would be condemning their lifestyle and trumpeting how if only she'd had the proper religious education and family values upbringing that never would have happened.

And of course, the whole attitude of American religious conservative people would be that Bristol is a slut.

That post did not directly answer the point you quoted.

You are making assumptions about Bristol's behavior based on what? Whatever nonsense the boyfriend said on his make some money tour? Sex education is not the issue here, it's how the left attacked a girl for a mistake she made, because they could gain advantage for the election. Whatever thought process they go through in their rationalizations to attack the children is besides the point. The fact is, they do attack kids when they can.

As a religious conservative person, I do not view Bristol as a slut, nor any Dem daughter who is sexually active. Talk about a generalization! I heavily doubt that the mainstream right would go after the children of a prominent Dem who got pregnant, and I suspect I listen to Rush, O'reilly, etc. much more than you do. It is the left that is willing to damage the chances of their opponents through their children. There is plenty enough in the lives of the adults to go after already.

[Oleg Bach]

Jesus the Christ would never persecute a mother and child - state sanctioned or socially exceptable.....all children and all mothers are holy...sorry - hate to break it to all of you - life is sacred and death literally stinks..

[Argus]

Argus, your premise is severely flawed. It sounds as though you think children are robots, who do everything their parents tell them to do. Unfortuantely that isn't the case. And despite what political affiliation parents tend to be, or if they're religious or agnostic, in any case, I find it very difficult to find parents who think it's a positive thing for their unmarried teenage daughters to have children.

That's not my premise, it's the premise of the religious right, which has fought long and hard against sex education for kids, in favour of the pious and ridiculous "just say no" type campaigns. The religious conservatives are also the first to blame the parents and a child's upbringing for a youth "gone bad".

They think prayer in schools and no sex education leads to more moral and righteous youths who won't get into trouble. Unfortunately, Palin and her daughter are the perfect argument against that.

[DogOnPorch]

He's a jerk - a while back he had Hillary Clinton as a guest - and as a prank one of the band leaders started to eat a cream puff - mimicing sperm coming out of the corners of his mouth in a subtle - but not so subtle insult to Hillary - and a clear reverence to her swallowing and spilling Bill's sperm ----The look on Hillarys face was stern and vengeful...she was contained but absloutely livid and looked at Letterman as if she was going to cut his heart out -----------------------later they did cut his heart out...sometimes I wonder if Hillary made a few calls.

More Oleg BS. Hillary Clinton did no such thing and her various Letterman visits are all available on YouTube. Have another scotch you old sot.

[Argus]

That post did not directly answer the point you quoted.

You are making assumptions about Bristol's behavior based on what? Whatever nonsense the boyfriend said on his make some money tour? Sex education is not the issue here, it's how the left attacked a girl for a mistake she made, because they could gain advantage for the election.

The girl was not attacked. The mother was attacked, and her behaviour clearly involved getting naked with her boyfriend and doing all the things religious conservatives are so horrified at young girls doing.

As a religious conservative person, I do not view Bristol as a slut, nor any Dem daughter who is sexually active. Talk about a generalization!

Well good for you, but most religious conservatives in the US have rather strongly dissaproving views of the morality of teenage girls having sex and getting pregnant.

[sharkman]

The girl was not attacked. The mother was attacked, and her behaviour clearly involved getting naked with her boyfriend and doing all the things religious conservatives are so horrified at young girls doing.

Well good for you, but most religious conservatives in the US have rather strongly dissaproving views of the morality of teenage girls having sex and getting pregnant.

I don't think you are seeing this clearly(but maybe now I'm assuming things). When Bristol's pregnancy is reported, made fun of, and otherwise laughed at, then it is Bristol who is getting attacked. She indeed has been attacked.

Your thoughts on religious conservatives here is more accurate, but I'm still not sure you understand them as I do. The point is not what they think of promiscuity, but the support offered to such girls after they get in some kind of trouble. That is where the rubber hits the road. They are not the haters the the left in the media make them out to be.

Edited June 17, 2009 by sharkman

[Oleg Bach]

No such thing as religious conservatives - just flakes who call themselves conservatives - two young people "getting naked" is not a case of liberalism or conservatism - it's a case of supervision - a case of trust - and the parents knowing what is going on - If your kids love you - they confide in you - if they are cold towards you and the relationship is artifical but presentable - they keep secrets - My kids do not keep secrets because I am not an ass hole --- why would I persecute lovers/// But I will either approve of a partner or mate or I will disapprove - my jog is to protect by using my wealth of experience...and to have the ability and right to pass that wealth as an inheritance down to my kids ---liberals do not want you to make your kids smart - they want them f**king like dogs - so they will grow to be obedient dogs to liberal domination and experimentation.. Those that are "religious" worship life - and love - It is not real religion to damn young love because you are worried about what the neighbours think..that's cowardice and sucking up to society and ignoring the will of God...which is to do goodness and hope for goodness for your children - Palin - did what was good and right - she supported the idea of bringing new life into the world.