Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Letterman vs. Palin

Late night talk show host David Letterman is very well known for poking fun at celebrities and bordering on inappropriate humor just like many other hosts.  Since this seems to be the norm I was surprised with how much press a comment he made about Sarah Palin's daughter has gotten recently. Letterman made a joke about her daughter being 'knocked-up" by a baseball player during the 7th inning stretch at a baseball game. Apparently Palin was upset because her 14 year old daughter was actually the one attending the game and not her 18 year old (who just recently had a child) that Letterman had planned the joke for. 

While I understand Palin could be offended because of this remark, why is everyone paying it so much attention? Every evening viewers who tune into Letterman's late night show will hear many inappropriate jokes. He simply exercises his first amendment rights to the best of his ability. 

People have been outraged at him requesting apologies and charitable donations among others. They really have no grounds to demand these things out of him. While he did apologize on air, I'm not sure I agree that he should have. Whether or not I agree with his jokes I definitely feel he has the right to exercise his first amendment rights. If someone doesn't agree they simply don't need to watch his show!

2 comments:

  1. Ok, I agree. I do not think he had to apologize. Letterman has rights too. He should be able to make fun of knocked up teens. Palin is conservative and a book banner. I think she had a point. I disagree with the humor towards young women and feel it is disrespectful. He is still allowed to say it. I side with her because I am in the girlclub on almost every issue. I think she was more mad thathe thinks that wat, truly. She just wanted him to realize she is ashamed of American Pop culture. I understand her. Women are still being made fun of a lot and while I support freedom of speech, I too wish he did not think to make that joke. Wouldn't the world be a great place for women when no thinks to degrade them in anyway. Out of all the jokes, he disrespected women. That still sucks, but he has rights. It was nice that he apologized, maybe he got her point. It was not as much about censorship as it was repect for women

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  2. Obviously, Letterman's decision to apologize was entirely his own. Part of intellectual freedom is being able to not apologize, or to apologize for any reason: sincere regret, financial or political pandering, hoping to move on, etc (he might fear losing sponsorships or pressure from future guests, etc).

    The real hypocracy with both Palin and Letterman is that they each think they can personally say what they want, and that they are personally funny, but the other has no sense of humor or is attention-seeking. Letterman could have stood by his joke by saying that it was a joke and that he is moving on, instead he apologized multiple times in hopes of getting more attention. Palin could have ignored him, she could have been serious about her distain for humor about sexuality, but instead she extended her time in the spotlight by making a joke about Letterman and his sexual deviance and juvenile girls. Both of them need to stick to what they do best and leave the jokes and political pandering to their respective counterparts.

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