Bonnie Erbe

David Letterman Owes Palin and All Thinking Americans an Apology

June 12, 2009 RSS Feed Print

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

Gov. Sarah Palin says comedian David Letterman owes the young women of this country an apology for making an off-color (and unfunny) joke about one of her daughters getting "knocked up" by New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez while she was traveling with 14-year-old daughter Willow to New York:

"I would like to see him apologize to young women across the country for contributing to kind of that thread that is throughout our culture that makes it sound like it is OK to talk about young girls in that way, where it's kind of OK, accepted and funny to talk about statutory rape," she said. "It's not cool. It's not funny."

Letterman has said his joke was about Palin's 18-year-old daughter Bristol, who is an unwed mother (no name was used). Problem was, the Alaska governor was traveling with 14-year-old Willow. Palin said it took Letterman time to think of the "convenient excuse" that he was talking about Bristol instead of Willow.

I love to laugh but if Letterman and his writers think his one-liner was funny about any teenager, or grown woman for that matter, he's got a lot of thinking to do. I would go beyond what Gov. Palin said to say Letterman owes an apology to all women and beyond that, to all thinking Americans. And he needs a new writer.

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Sarah Palin

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Letterman used to be entertaining many years ago. He's now a neo political pundit that only caters to a select group that wants to hear republican bashing instead of real comedy. Its time a real comedian takes over the reigns late nite. His one sided point of view is not funny and it shows. The younger crowd that he's lost, wants to have a laugh, not a political diatribe by a has been talk show host thats out of touch. Is it any wonder that he lost the Tonight Show to Leno years ago? Nobody wants to listen to his crap.

Roy Lemeux of AL 12:20AM August 11, 2009

Gorby: "Billy, Do you have kids?"

No.

"I'm just asking, because if someone said something like that about one of my daughters, I would have punched his lights out"

Let me direct your attention to the fact that you're not a nationally-recognized politician. Do you think that might make the tiniest bit of difference whether the public says things about your kids (especially those of legal age, which is what Dave thought he was doing) that might offend you, but which you'd have to put up with?

"You're letting your blind hatred for Palin interfere with your cognitive skills."

It's not blind, and I don't hate her. My opinion's based on evidence. I felt positively toward her until she ripped out that cheap "pedophile" insinuation and then tried to back away from the consequences -- yet without denying it -- when confronted about it. She's revealed herself to be mean, sneaky, AND a coward. If Letterman didn't have better things to do he could have her defending herself in court for insinuating he's a pedophile...you must be aware that any tiny whiff of that, even unsubstantiated, can destroy a career, and Palin just pulled it right out of the slimebucket and threw it when she got mad. Nor has she retracted it or clarified that OF COURSE she didn't mean that -- she just lets it sit out there, doing its damage, while trying to pretend she's not responsible.

"So, if you think she was a bitch for responding the way she did, I'd ask you to reflect upon how you'd have responded if it was your daughter/sister/mother/wife."

If my d/s/w were a campaigning politician, or in one's immediate family, I'd shrug it off just like Palin should have.

I wonder how many people reading this are aware that "Bristol" is Cockney rhyming slang for "boob", as in "nice pair of Bristols there" ("Bristol City = "titty")? Sometimes thing just work out perfectly, don't they?

Billy Solestis of TX 11:36AM June 17, 2009

Bonnie,

I'm worried about you. In one column you fear that D.Cheney wishes for America to be attacked and then in another you write a completely sane piece about the Letterman/Palin scuff up.

Billy,

Do you have kids? I'm just asking, because if someone said something like that about one of my daughters, I would have punched his lights out because it was certainly not, "...a little over the line...". I'll give Letterman the benefit of the doubt that he didn't know that first night that it was Willow at the game, not Bristol (who didn't even go to NY), but by the second night it was common knowledge and still he thought it more appropriate to throw another sleazy remark about trying to keep Eliot Spitzer off of Palin's daughter (Bristol?). So, then once the outrage begins and sponsors start getting antsy, Letterman makes an explanation, but no apology (were either 'sorry' or 'apologize' uttered that first night...no.). One sponsor confirms that they pull their sponsorship, and then the next night Letterman actually apologizes. Now, Letterman's attitude towards women not withstanding, I think he *actual* apology was sufficient and acceptable, but he certainly NEVER held the high ground regardless of what Palin said or did. You're letting your blind hatred for Palin interfere with your cognitive skills. So, if you think she was a bitch for responding the way she did, I'd ask you to reflect upon how you'd have responded if it was your daughter/sister/mother/wife.

Gorby of FL 9:19AM June 17, 2009

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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