After days of making light of his nasty "joke" about Sarah Palin's daughter, David Letterman has finally issued a real apology. He has blinked. Of course, he blinked under duress.
Pressure was mounting against Letterman, and it was starting to come from all sides. The National Organization for Women finally issued a statement criticizing Letterman's "humor", and even uberliberal Joy Behar voiced qualified sympathy for Palin on "The View" yesterday (I wonder what changed her mind). And today a politically mixed crowd of protestors gathered in front of CBS's headquarters and called for Letterman to be fired. A cross section of Americans is simply disgusted with dear ol' Dave.
It's always good to see their side of the political aisle cave, but on a certain level this controversy isn't about politics. The Letterman-Palin "feud" is about hypocrisy. We as Americans need to agree, once and for all, on a single rule of conduct vis-a-vis the families of politicians, and violators of that rule must be held to equal account. The families, and especially the children, of politicians should be off limits, period. We all must drop the nasty habit of excusing disparaging remarks when they're made against the families of those on the other side. Hopefully, Letterman's blink will help us do just that.
6 comments:
The vast majority of folks on both side of the aisle would likely agree to this; but there are hatemeisters on the Far Left and Far Right that simply haven't the stones to put aside their venom, and avoid the "pile-on" urge.
I also vote that when an authentic apology is issued in a case like this, it be the "put paid" to it, and it be let go.
Again, see the second half of my first paragraph for the wishful thinking there.
PS: I understand that Sarah Palin accepted Letterman's apology; that should be good enough for the rest of us.
Skuny,
I agree, there are those on the left who will ignore an wrong-doing solely because it's against Sarah Palin and there are those on the right who will drag this out for all it is worth.
We need to find a happy medium.
As long as common sense and decency are absent from our society, this incident will be repeated only with different players.
I know everyone I know agrees with this. Great post my friend. I, as always am pleased with what you have written. But it is just as Tom said: As long as common Sense and decency in our society is absent, then we can expect more of the same, if not from Dave, from some other liberal in the ranks.
Actually, common sense and decency isn't absent from our society; it just doesn't have any place in the media. The media hates common sense and decency; it isn't "hot". It isn't "trendy". It isn't "controversial". It's "boring".
So...I vote we waterboard the media. Who's with me...any takers? ;)
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