I have been fascinated by this Letterman/Palin thing since the beginning because I'm still not entirely sure what it all means. In my heart, as a cynic, having watched Palin's pathetic attempt to turn herself into a media darling, I believe the outrage to be mostly political in nature. Palin saw an opportunity and has exploited it. But having been on the Letterman end of that outrage before, I can't ascribe to that position completely.
When I was in High School, a female friend of mine and teammate on the swimming team suddenly started giving me the cold shoulder. I was completely perplexed. Using the High School grapevine, I tried to find out why she was behaving this way, only to discover that all the women that talked to her also started giving me the cold shoulder.
"How could you say that to her?" They would ask me.
"What?"
"You know what you said!" They would reply.
Now, I knew these people and knew that they weren't trying to gain an upper hand or anything in some sort of strange High School Politics game. They were genuinely outraged by some comment or comments I had made about this female friend of mine. I racked my brain and racked my brain, but for the life of me, I had no idea what I'd said. And no amount of pleading my innocence gave me any inroads. No amount of trying to pass it off, or letting it lie, made it go away.
Finally, I did the only thing I could think of, I apologized to the girl and begged her forgiveness. "I don't know what I said to offend you, but I never meant to hurt you. Please forgive me."
We eventually went back to being friends, and to tell you the truth, to this day I have NO idea what I said - but apparently it was received the wrong way.
Letterman got it right last night on his show when he said that he realized it was all about perception. A joke is only funny when both parties think its funny. If the other party perceives it as an insult, no amount of saying, "It was only a joke," will ever work to mollify that party. The only thing to do at that point, no matter what your intention was in the first place, is to take ownership of the comment and apologize for having said it.
Still, I have to say, this rabid "protest" that has been going on with people organizing protests and calling for Letterman's head, strikes me as a somewhat civil version of organizing the masses for post-election violence. Our side was offended, our side was hurt, therefore let's get the rabble-rousers out there to stir up trouble. We have got to get past this witch hunt mentality in this country. There are too many more important things to worry about.
P.S. I did just have the thought that Palin's camp was in trouble earlier for demanding the firing of a former ex-husband of someone in the family. And when that firing didn't occur immediately, allegedly, newly appointed Governor Palin had that person fired. So, perhaps the calls for the head of David Letterman fall into this camp. I don't know. Just a thought...
4 comments:
I don't think the flap was about jokes directed at Sarah Palin but at her 14 year old daughter, which jokes involved statutory rape of by A-Rod. Speaking as a father with a daughter, those things aren't funny.
As for Sarah Palin, how much of her image is an attempted self-creation versus competing caricatures of her, one on the right (smart, conservative, savior of GOP) versus the left (stupid, fascist, etc.) remains to be seen. In my view she's neither, but the caricature is more fun for the media and public to embrace.
Cheers.
The problem is that Palin has insisted the jokes were about Willow (14). Letterman insists the jokes were about Bristol (19). Palin is also upset about a joke Letterman made about her.
The jokes were actually not really about the Palins - - they were about current events. One joked about A-Rod getting Bristol pregnant. I don't find it funny anyhow, but how can someone object to that? A-Rod is somewhat prodigious and Bristol did get pregnant before marriage.
People can be upset, but when people put themselves on a band wagon, they open themselves up to scrutiny and ridicule. Not saying its necessarily right - but when you come out and say abstinence is the only way to live and everyone else is going to hell and your teenage daughter is pregnant.... your opinions on the subject become fodder.
Anon, I assume you're responding to me, and if so, thanks. Alas, these words, "but when you come out and say abstinence is the only way to live and everyone else is going to hell and your teenage daughter is pregnant.... your opinions on the subject become fodder," have never been uttered by Ms. Palin. Indeed, she preaches abstinence, but the second part, i.e. "everyone else is going to hell," I'd love to see sourced. It's the caricature I mentioned earlier.
And BTW, I still think kids are off limits, no matter the political views or affiliation of their parents. I felt that about Chelsea Clinton; I feel that about Cheney's daughter; I feel that about the Obama girls.
Regards, and
Cheers.
Wow, the comments here are a microcosm of the debate. For my part, I didn't question whatsoever that the comments were directed at Bristol Palin. They don't make sense about Willow Palin... and indeed, I don't think I even knew Sarah Palin had a second younger daughter before this flap. So, the caricature that these comments were directed to her seem... well, maybe not false, but certainly suspect. Since Sarah was the one who went to the game and knew which daughter she was with, she certainly might have taken the joke that way and is entitled to that misrepresentation. But to anyone else, again, I'm not sure they could have heard the joke and not thought Bristol.
But, I have to agree with Randall about Anon. position vis a vis Sarah's comments. I've never heard her say that. And considering her daughter would be implicated by such a statement, I doubt she would even think that. But I'm betting that there are a lot of people who do think she'd say that.
End result, however, is that it was just a stupid joke gone wrong. Any more credibility than that, and people have way too much time on their hands.
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