Updates below:
What kind of pig do you have to be to make a joke about a 14-year-old girl getting raped (which is what it would be) by a New York Yankee?
That is exactly what he did with Todd and Sarah Palin’s daughter, Willow on Monday night, saying that “she was knocked up by Alex Rodriquez.”
He also made an inappropriate comment about Governor Palin in his top 10 list on Monday saying that:
2. Bought makeup from Bloomingdale’s to update her "slutty flight attendant" look
That was bad, but this is beyond the pale. Not surprisingly the New York Times covers Letterman’s joke up. Would they have done the same if it were a conservative radio talk show host making a comment about Michelle Obama or his daughters? Absolutely not. Would Letterman make comments like this about liberal women and their daughters?
No. And he shouldn’t. No one deserves to be talked about this way, let alone a 14-year-old kid who had no say about being in the public spotlight. Her crime? Going on a trip with her mom, who happens to be someone the left despises.
Governor Palin and her husband Todd both issued statements about Letterman:
“Any ‘jokes’ about raping my 14-year-old are despicable. Alaskans know it and I believe the rest of the world knows it, too." – Todd Palin
"Concerning Letterman’s comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he’d ever dare make such comments about anyone else’s daughter): ‘Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands — that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone’s daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.” – Governor Sarah Palin
This type of “entertainment” is perverted. It is inappropriate, and it should not go unchecked. Conservatives 4 Palin listed some contact information to CBS, and a list of Letterman’s sponsors. We need to send a clear message that jokes like this about ANYBODY’s teenage daughter (or son for that matter) is wrong, disgusting and unconscionable.
Please at the very least, regardless of your political persuasion, contact CBS. What if this was your daughter he was talking about?
- General CBS contact form can be found here.
- "Lateshow" feedback form can be found here.
- Call CBS: 212-975-4321
CBS bigwig contact addresses:
If you have time, you may want to contact Letterman’s Sponsors:
Update: These may be people who are advertising locally with the affiliate channel that the person who provided this list watched.
- TV.com
- On The Border Restaurants
- Best Western (got an email from Best Western, they said they are not affiliated with any networks or programs).
- Intel
- CBSports.com
- JohnFreida.com
- DiTech
- Lexus
- Earn My Degree
- True Credit by TransUnion
- Lifelock (Tami Nealy, their Director of Public Affairs said that they are not sponsors of the show or the national CBS).
- Bowflex
- Mars Candy
- Capitol One
- LasikPlus
- Embassy Suites
- EBay
- ancestry.com (Ancestry.com contacted me to inform me that they are not a sponsor.)
2nd Update: Some additional sponsors can be found here.
3rd Update: the folks at Hillbuzz (a pro-Hillary Clinton blog) says – Not. On. Our. Watch. I commend them for standing up, but I’m just wondering why the silence from other Democrats? Why don’t we have feminists on the left standing up and crying foul!?
4th Update: Other reactions from around the blogosphere.
Tabitha Hale – “Hijacking The Feminist Movement”
The sheer hatred expressed toward Palin has not died down, even though she has not been a national candidate for seven months now. Letterman’s Top 10 list this week was centered around her trip to New York, cracking jokes about her “slutty flight attendant” look. Note that there is nothing “slutty” about Palin’s look – she’s simply a beautiful woman who wears nice clothes. Not only that, he cracked jokes about her 14 year old daughter getting “knocked up” during the 7th inning. Seems to be a trend among liberal men. And these things still elicit laughter. Hahaha! Statutory rape!! Haha! It’s disgusting.
Kate Stokes – “sarah palin, david letterman, and decency”
if david letterman had referred to a female democratic politician as he did to sarah palin, then joked about her fourteen-year-old daughter being raped, liberal heads would be exploding all over the country; the media would cover it night and day; letterman would be imus’d; and obama would release a statement within hours.
Josh Painter – “Todd and Sarah are not amused”
The sexualization of young girls by Hollyweirdos and other media scum contributes to the moral decay that is unravelling the fabric of our society, and it places them at greater risk.
Rob Harrison – “David Letterman is despicable”
This should not be a liberal/conservative issue… the divide here should be between people who think it’s appropriate to make crude sexual comments about women, particularly in public and particularly underage girls, and those who recognize that such things are sick and wrong and do not constitute appropriate public discourse. Don Imus got fired for less; in a just world, David Letterman would receive the same fate.
Fausta – “Vile”
Attacking women for political purposes is an old story that is despicable and vile enough, but what is it with these impotent jerks and Palin’s children?
The title says it all with this one – “Aging man, 62, jokes about girl, 14” by Andrew Malcolm.
John Nolte – “Top Ten Possible Letterman Reactions to Fallout Over Willow Palin Rape ‘Joke’”
Melissa Clouthier – “Sexist Leftist Of The Day”
David Letterman made news for spewing sexist tripe about Sarah Palin, but more than that, making jokes about Palin’s 14 year old daughter–because, you know, it’s okay to talk about statutory rape if she’s a conservative women. They’re not people!
5th Update: David Letterman’s response
“We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter [Bristol]… and now they’re upset with me…” Letterman says on tonight’s show. "These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl…. Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was okay for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No." Saying he hopes he’s "cleared part of this up," Letterman extended an invitation to Palin to come on the show as a guest.
How can you try to even defend that? He should apologize, period, not make excuses for himself. Pathetic.