Letterman Apology, Part 2

I had two thoughts while watching David Letterman's three-minute apology Monday night on the "Late Show" for a tasteless joke he made last week that upset the Palin family.

First, he really is in pain over what he called the perception of what the joke was about triumphing over the intent.

Secondly, he appears to be worried about something.

I'm sure it isn't over losing his job as "Late Night" host because of a silly campaign against him. More likely, he is worried about this one joke shattering his image and legacy.

Before he addressed the joke for the second time in a week, Letterman made four self-deprecating cracks in his monologue about how angry people have become over the joke and how hated he is now.

For those unaware of the controversy, Letterman is taking heat for a crack that during the seventh inning of a New York Yankees game that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin attended "her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

He conceded it was a "bad joke," that was "coarse" and "beyond flawed."

But he said the perception that it was about Palin's 14-year-old daughter, Willow -- who was at the Yankee game -- was wrong. He said it was about her 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, (who is an unwed mother).

Letterman added he didn't know either daughter was at the game and thought Gov. Palin was just there with former New York Yankee Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"And I really should have made the joke about Rudy," he cracked.

Continuing his defense, Letterman said he never made a joke like that in 31 years as a late-night host and blamed himself for it being misunderstood. Then he apologized to Gov. Palin, her daughters and anyone else who was offended.

I thought his second apology was heartfelt and sincere. What did you think of it and what do you think about the controversy?

-- Alan Pergament 

Comments

[Bob Burgio]

David Letterman is an absolute class act. He made an error in judgement and apologized for it. Meanwhile, Gov. Palin is using this event to helo restart her flawed campaign for vice president. Palin is the one using this joke to benefit herself at the expense of her daughter.

[Tom]

Bob you are drinking the kool-aid again. David Letterman is as liberal as it gets. And that's OK. But don't tell me he didn't know what he was saying. Two things as I see it: 1) He was blinded by the fact that he had an opportunity to attack a woman & family that is extremely opposed to his ideology. 2) All women should be outraged by his comments for obvious reasons. I believe that if President Obama's daughters were disrespected in this manner, Mr. Letterman might be off the air tonight.

[Sherry B]

He's a first class idiot! How "funny" would it be if someone made a joke about a pedophile molesting his son?????

[jts]

Yah, Bob Burgio blame the victim.

[Drew P]

Letterman's apology is a class act and can show that people can do the right thing. Take the politics out of it and break it down to the facts. It shows that a comedian made a comment about a grown man having sex with a 14 yr old girl. Anybody would be against that. The Gov was just being a mom and protecting her family. It is sad that some, including other journalist in this paper, still denegrate the Gov. One thing I loved about the WNY area is that people here had common sense and were willing to live and let live, but unfortunately the radicals on the left & right are dominating and fracturing this community. Even though we are predominatley democratic we never, in the past, just drank the liberial kool-aid. Now that is happening more often.

[Don H]

Letterman really did not have any other way to go with his apology other than sounding "hearfelt and sincere." His initial attept was more like an excuse as he rued that his barb was intended for the 18 year old and not the 14 year old and he regretted that some mistook his intention. The "joke" was crude, tasteless, unfunny, cruel and incredbly stupid, regardless of the target. Another overlooked victim in the remark is Alex Rodriguez. No apology for him. A-Rod has lots of money. I hope he sues.

[Eville Curmudgeon]

Letterman's apology was more about him than his tasteless joke's affect on the Palins, and I believe insincere.

I am most upset that the media has crossed a line that should never be crossed, and that is the coverage and commentary on the children of politicians.

Whether it is this incident, or the David Shuster "pimping of Chelsea" comment, the media has demonstrated a startling lack of sensitivity and judgement.

Whether it is Chelsea, the Bush twins, Palin's daughters, or Obama's girls, the media needs to back off and show a little common decency, obviously a trait in short supply on TV and the print media.

Shuster should have been fired, and Letterman taken off the air for a week as punishment. Perhaps then some of these clowns would think twice before taking shots at defenseless innocents.

[Bob]

as provided by CBS:

"All right, here — I've been thinking about this situation with Governor Palin and her family now for about a week — it was a week ago tonight, and maybe you know about it, maybe you don't know about it. 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...And I really should have made the joke about Rudy..." (audience applauds)

"But I didn't, and now people are getting angry and they're saying, 'Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl, and does that make you feel good to make those horrible jokes about a kid who's completely innocent, minding her own business,' and, turns out, she was at the ball game. I had no idea she was there. So she's now at the ball game and people think that I made the joke about her. And, but still, I'm wondering, 'Well, what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this?' I've never made jokes like this as long as we've been on the air, 30 long years, and you can't really be doing jokes like that. And I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself.

"And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer Newshour — this commentator, the columnist 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. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it's not a very good joke. And I'm certainly — " (Audience applause.) "— thank you. Well, my responsibility — I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. 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. That it was misunderstood." (Audience applauds.) "Thank you. So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future. Thank you very much." (audience applause)

[Larry]

It pains me as a long-time Letterman fan, to see how stale and uninteresting his show has been in the last several years. Monologue jokes have never been his strength - that used to be Carson's domain. Sadly, Dave never inherited Johnny's sense of class and style and timing. Carson would have never let himself get in a pickle like this.

My reaction to this absolutely disposable "joke" isn't about who it offended. (And whether they are really offended, or just being opportunistic.) It's that it shows how lazy Letterman's writers are. "Palin daughter" quips are a year too late. And do you realize he's also still flogging the "Clinton intern" horse? I've never gotten the impression that Dave has any hand in the monologue content - he simply reads whatever tired outdated tripe is written on the cue cards. And sometimes, it's the same jokes - verbatim - day after day.

This would be an excellent opportunity for Dave to flush out the writers and producers and staff that have been coasting for so long now. But I could easily see him deciding it's just not worth it any more.

[Watcher]

Who even knew or remembered that Sarah Palin had a 14 year old daughter?

Clearly Letterman was referring to the older daughter who got pregnant - an adult woman who was clearly part of a national conversation on teen pregnancy and whose mother saw fit to thrust into the public eye.

Its just disappointing that Governor Palin would rather thrust her children into a media spotlight than protect them from the glare. I can't wait for the Palin reality television show on VH1.

[mdckmn]

What's the big deal? It's not as though Letterman had any integrity to lose in the first place. He always been a buffoon.

[David C]

Let's hope this is the end of the David Letterman - Sarah Palin feud. While last week Letterman apologized, it was in a snarky sort of way, and wasn't accepted by Palin...
Exclusive Video here:david letterman sarah palin joke

[siket71]

The real joke is that people actually voted for Palin to be the vice president of this country. Are you kidding me. Even if she was a Democrat, i would never want her close to running this country. Wake the frack up America!!

[siket71]

Oh and Letterman is so yesterday and not funny. He used to have "it"...10 yrs ago. Today is the time of CONAN!

[Wow]

@Sherry... Wow, you're really stretching and drinking the Palin Kool-Aid.

It was a (dated) commentary about the Palin camp's "family values" vs. teen pregnancy, coupled with A-Rod's reputation as a womanizer who dumped his wife.

If anyone thinks he has the hots for some 14 year old, and that the joke was some Lolita fetish, that's a big stretch.

This is manipulating the media by Palin all over again. Overblown and really silly.

[donna]

Letterman's writers ain't what they used to be. His Top 10 Lists are weak at best in comparison to his old shows. That being said, Palin turned this into much more of a circus than she needed to. Her 15 minutes have been up for some time, no one is interested anymore..she knows this. I don't believe for one second that Dave thought he was referring to a 14 year old girl. Someone on his staff is likely taking some serious heat over this one, but unfortuntely it's Dave who has to answer for it where the public is concerned. He handled himself well considering everything and I hope he plans to stick around the airwaves for years to come. He's the best thing going on late night.

[Franklin]

The joke is that this is even a story.

[SSN]

Stupid joke and an even more absurd reaction. He is a late night comic people. He is supposed to satire and occasionaly cross the line.

[TOM]

TO Eville Curmudgeon .. You are so arrogant to say the apology is about Mr.Letterman and not the effect it had on others.. in this day and age of internet,tv,media.. it is so overwhelmingly easy to get offended by others, anyone can blog w/o credentials.

if you could not figure he was talking abuot the older daughter(i didnt know there was a younger one)you need to be smarter..

a man who has done his job to the best of his ability over the last 30 years would not stoop that low. maybe you would because you have no life and blog all day like ur a celebrity.(loser).

TO ALL WHO ARE EFFECTED BY THIS...YOU ARE ALL SO JADED AND BLINDED BY THE INTENSE MEDIA OUT THERE, TUNE OUT THE TV AND GO OUTSIDE SOMETIME AND NOT PLAY WITH UR COMPUTER (SELF), PS3, XBOX....ALL OF U NEED TO GET LIVES..who really cares????

SEACREST OUT!!!!

[Truth Detector]

It isn't believable for Letterman to say or imply "he didn't know either daughter was at the game" as Pergament describes him saying as part of his explanation. The entire premise of his joke was that Gov. Palin's daughter attended the game.

Here's his joke's wording:

"One awkward moment, though, during the game, maybe you heard about it, maybe you saw it on one of the highlight reels," he said. "One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/11/hot-button-91211101/?page=2

[BobbyCat]

This is what happened (IMHO):

Letterman or one of his writers saw the daughter at the Yankee game and assumed it was the elder daughter and wrote a tastless joke. If you try to write 5000 dynamite jokes and ultimately use 3000 on the show, many will be funny, some will bomb and some will be tastless.

It takes class to apologize. Letterman has it. And there is a proper,classy way to accept an apology and a unclassy way.

Gov. Palin is a nice lady but a redneck rube who never learned most of what ladies are expected to learn at her age. She an engaging personality but moreover she's a hot number. And of course, that's what propelled her into the spotlight. Being a hot babe can get you the top job in Alaska. But she needs to learn a lifetime of knowledge to continue in politics, including the short course on class.

[Mike T]

This was not a sincere apology - it was not heartfelt - it was "walletfelt" - it was his second attempt, and this one looks like the corporate lawyers wrote it for him. Palin accepted the apology - I will not.
14, 18 or 40 the "joke" was tasteless, sexist and not in the least funny.
Wonder if we'll ever see a top 10 Biden screw ups - he would have to run them 3 times a week for a year to catch up. God save the president, because we are in a world of hurt if the Veep ever takes over.

[Mike T]

Stop with "I didn't even know she had another daughter" comments", it just makes you look dumb. We all know that Obama has two daughters and that Palin has two daughters and two sons - if you watched the conventions and any television during October last year, you saw all the candidates and their families. Letterman is LYING when he says he did not know the daughter was at the game - even if she was not, the so called joke was wrong

[Celtic Tide]

I've been a fan of Dave's for years but this was over the line. If any mega media figure in the US makes a sexually oriented remark or accusation about an under aged person, they should have real problems, including worrying about their job and their fans and a lawsuit. I think Dave can and will be forgiven for this but an FCC fine is justified at the least.

[Huh?]

Bobby says "Being a hot babe can get you the top job in Alaska."

How many hot babes have ever been elected Alaska governor?