David Letterman apologizes
Monday, June 15, 2009
I suspect that we all saw this coming.
It looks like David Letterman finally woke up and realized that there is only one recourse when it comes to that extremely crude and in bad taste joke that he told last week.
Like they always say, "better late than never." But in this case I doubt that any apology, no matter how sincere, is going to do much the quell the uproar that this whole incident has caused. And what Letterman went on to say didn't help matters much. He is now claiming that he checked before the show to "make sure, in fact, that she is of legal age, 18." Well, he must have already has some indication that the joke might not go down well or else he wouldn't have had to check on it in the first place. If he was already sensitive to the age the girl he was joking about, then that sensitivity should have been enough to quash the joke for good. But as we know, he went forward with the tasteless joke, and now the rest is history.
Will Letterman survive this controversy, or will he go the way of Don Imus and lose his show? As far as I know, CBS, Letterman's network, has not commented yet, but as long as this incident doesn't have a negative effect on his ratings, I think he is safe. In fact, all of the publicity surrounding this incident might at least in the short run provide a ratings boost to Letterman. That outcome might not be fair to the Palin family, but at least the family can be consoled by the fact that they have conducted themselves honorably during this whole fiasco.
And who knows for sure what the long term impact of this might be? Will this be something that Letterman is forced to live with for a long time, or will it quickly fade from public memory? If I had to guess I would choose the former possibility. A few curiosity seekers might boost Letterman's ratings for as while, but after that notoriety fades this incident could very well turn out to be something that Letterman regrets long into the future.
He (Letterman) apologized to both daughters, "and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke," he said as the studio audience applauded. "I'm sorry about it, and I'll try to do better in the future."Letterman apologizes
It looks like David Letterman finally woke up and realized that there is only one recourse when it comes to that extremely crude and in bad taste joke that he told last week.
Like they always say, "better late than never." But in this case I doubt that any apology, no matter how sincere, is going to do much the quell the uproar that this whole incident has caused. And what Letterman went on to say didn't help matters much. He is now claiming that he checked before the show to "make sure, in fact, that she is of legal age, 18." Well, he must have already has some indication that the joke might not go down well or else he wouldn't have had to check on it in the first place. If he was already sensitive to the age the girl he was joking about, then that sensitivity should have been enough to quash the joke for good. But as we know, he went forward with the tasteless joke, and now the rest is history.
Will Letterman survive this controversy, or will he go the way of Don Imus and lose his show? As far as I know, CBS, Letterman's network, has not commented yet, but as long as this incident doesn't have a negative effect on his ratings, I think he is safe. In fact, all of the publicity surrounding this incident might at least in the short run provide a ratings boost to Letterman. That outcome might not be fair to the Palin family, but at least the family can be consoled by the fact that they have conducted themselves honorably during this whole fiasco.
And who knows for sure what the long term impact of this might be? Will this be something that Letterman is forced to live with for a long time, or will it quickly fade from public memory? If I had to guess I would choose the former possibility. A few curiosity seekers might boost Letterman's ratings for as while, but after that notoriety fades this incident could very well turn out to be something that Letterman regrets long into the future.
1 Comments:
David Letterman did not have to say he was sorry for what he said about sarah palin's daughter. She put her daughter out there into the spotlight. Not Dave.
commented by 
Tony, June 18, 2009 at 1:23 AM
Tony, June 18, 2009 at 1:23 AM
