Letterman apologizes, calls joke about Palin’s daughter “coarse”
David Letterman apologized on his show Monday evening for the joke he told last week about Sarah Palin’s daughter.
Associated Press television writer Frazier Moore reports:
On Monday’s edition of “Late Show,” Letterman explained that the risque joke thought by some to have targeted Palin’s underage daughter, Willow, was actually referring to 18-year-old daughter Bristol. The name of the daughter wasn’t mentioned in the joke, which was part of Letterman’s monologue on last Monday’s show.
It was “a coarse joke,” ”a bad joke,” Letterman told viewers. “But I never thought it was (about) anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure, in fact, that she is of legal age, 18.”
“The joke, really, in and of itself, can’t be defended,” he declared.
Moore reports:
On Monday’s show, Letterman said, “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.”
If that’s the misconception - that the joke was aimed at a 14-year-old - he understands why people are upset, he said. “I would be upset myself.” Letterman has said from the beginning that he thought the Palin daughter who attended the Yankee game was Bristol.
“I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke,” he said. “It’s not your fault that it was misunderstood, it’s my fault that it was misunderstood.”
He 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.”
Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
OK, so Letterman apologized, despite it being obvious that he would have been talking about Bristol. But will this satisfy Palin? Of course not. The woman is all about getting as much political traction out of her family as she can, and this incident plays right into it. Besides that, if she’s supposedly a Christian, she should be willing to forgive and let it go. Once again — and mark my words — she won’t.
Nice twist on the “she was asking for it” defense, Rotert. Classless as always.
Letterman’s a putz.
EJR….I marked your words. That was useless, little fellow. She did, in fact, accept his apology.
What is that yellow stuff on your face? It looks like the yoke of an egg.
No, there’s never a discrepancy between what Palin says and what she actually does, or did (ref., `Bridge to Nowhere’). Just wait. I still bet she continues to exploit this for political traction.
Besides, making a comment about some men `evolving’ doesn’t sound to me like a sincere acceptance. No, you can’t put any stock in anything that comes out of that woman’s mouth.
Letterman did the right thing, although anybody with a brain knew his admittedly crude humor was directed at Bristol, and not at Willow Palin. And yes, Sarah has accepted his apology. Grandstanding politicians are grandstanding politicians, comics are comics, TV humor is TV humor, and this is a classic tempest in a teapot.
Can we move on now? Have the thoroughly scandalized and hypocritically righteous gotten enough mileage out of this silliness?
As an aside — I want Palin to continue to milk every opportunity for publicity, right up until the next Presidential election. My greatest hope is that the GOP is populated with enough clueless knee-jerk demagogues to put her at the head of their ticket, thereby guaranteeing President Obama another term.
Also, I find it funny that Palin would make a remark about the opposite sex exploiting her gender when it’s apparent she’s exploited men’s desires to get where she is today. She’s a hypocrite, saying whatever’s expedient for her career.
EJ,
It appears to be much easier to be a democrat. You can defend anything that any liberal does because they do not appear to actually stand for anything. No morals, no steadfast truths that they choose to live by. No Guiding principles or in most cases, any principles.
They go with the flow and say what they think the general public wants to hear and then does whatever they want to do. The MSM does not question them on anything and when someone does, we are racist or haters. Must be nice to just walk through life making it up as you go along.
Most people on the right try to live by standards that we set for ourselves based on either our religious beliefs or we try to treat others as we would like to be treated. The down side of that, we are human and we make mistakes. Most of the time, we do not make excuses. We ask our creator and our families for forgiveness. Our creator has granted us his forgiveness and that is the most important. We also try to learn from our mistakes so we do not continue to make the same ones.
I realize that you hate Sarah Palin. Sorry you have a heart that allows to hate anyone. Your life must suck to have that much hate. It may in your mind be obvious that Letterman was trying to joke about Bristol, but, if you are going to make such a comment, either Dave or his staff should have been able to verify which daughter actually went to the game. Since they did not take the time to make sure who they were joking about, this is what you get.
Palin was in NY for a great cause. She was there to help raise money for a charity. Did Dave mention that? NO. He is the one that started the entire mess and yet you choose to blame Palin for wanting media attention. If you and the left did not hate her so much, none of this would have happened in the first place.
If you disagree with my above comments, please explain why it is OK for Dave to have “knocked up” his girlfriend 6 years ago, but not OK for Bristol to become “knocked up”.
Sca, very well said.
Actually, it’s much easier to be a Conservative Republican. It’s all black-and-white thinking, or — figuratively — lying on the mental welfare couch all day. It’s lazy, knee-jerk thinking that’s been handed down from conservative generation to conservative generation, ad nauseum. And it’s simply to protect the status quo, which is in the conservative plutocracy’s interest (imagine that). Sometimes issues do boil down to black-and-white solutions, but the majority demand thinking in shades of gray to get to the truth, something for which conservatives usually don’t have either the interest or the stamina.
Someone once said or wrote, “The greatest vested interest is not property, but ignorance.” A good quote to always remember.
One’s children are not “fair game,” no matter if they are 14 or 18. He didn’t attack Palin, who is able to defend herself, but they attacked her innocent child/children. Letterman is responsible for what’s on his show and her should take responsibility and face up! Sniveling and trying to explain it away is not acceptable. A talented person doesn’t need to resort to this kind of thing.