David Letterman and Sarah Palin are feuding.
It started with Letterman when David Letterman crossed the lines of common decency. And he did cross the line in a big way.
What has not gotten enough ‘press’ so to speak is the usage of the word ‘slutty’ in reference to Sarah Palin’s makeup. He inferred that she was using comparably slutty makeup to flight attendants. This is insulting to both flight attendants and to the Governor.
A larger picture is at play here, however. Sarah Palin uses makeup as do many women. Actually, women who do not use makeup are held up for scrutiny as well as those who do. I would say that using makeup for professional women, even more so as they get older, is the norm. If one were comparing professional men to women, men do shave every day and often dress in a professional or business casual kind of way. Much in the way men shave each day, many professional women apply makeup. It is certainly out of bounds to refer to any professional woman as slutty. What Letterman did was sexist and totally inappropriate. Sarah Palin has every right to take offense at this.
But Letterman is a comedian who has always pushed the envelope and finds great humor in saying mean things. It is part of his routine. He went way over the top when he used overtly sexual humor in referring to Sarah Palin’s daughter.
In watching Letterman, I think that he and his staff made a huge mistake. Bristol and her younger sister Willow look a great deal alike. When they are not with each other, I cannot tell them apart. I suspect that Letterman was making jokes about Bristol who is 18, whereas the daughter who was actually with Sarah Palin was Willow who is 14. In knowing Letterman’s humor, he was mocking Bristol’s so-called abstinence tour while blindly missing that fact that it was not Bristol at Palin’s side, but Willow.
In reality Letterman was not funny at all. His semi-apology was an effective apologia to the premise that he was referring to Bristol and not Willow, which is very believable, but the painful reality of this is that he should not have been joking about either daughter. I do not buy that Bristol Palin is on ‘tour’ for her abstinence only education and that makes her fair game. Whether one agrees with Bristol or not, or whether it is wise for her to do this or not, does not make her fair game for comedians most especially with sexually charged comments like Letterman made.
Letterman was majorly offensive and the Palin family was a victim of his bad taste.
I am not a fan of Sarah Palin and I am not a fan for a variety of reasons. There are three, however, that are paramount.
First, Sarah Palin seems to have an only passing acquaintance with truth. This happened over and over again where things that she would say would not be grounded in reality. Her little ‘bridge to nowhere’ narrative turned out to be rather brutally dishonest but she would not relent in using it until it became painfully obvious that everyone knew her words were bogus. I found a person who said she was grounded in her faith who was so obviously shading the truth with falsehoods to be rather unseemly.
Secondly, Palin did not know what she was talking about much of the time and she blamed her ignorance on others. She reminded me of a high school student who would whine that tests were unfair because she did not know the material. The material the students did not know was out there the entire time----other students knew it. If Sarah Palin wants to be taken seriously by more than a few, then she needs to get over blaming the world for her ignorance, and actually study.
Thirdly, she plays a very cynical game of trying to demonstrate that there is a ‘real’ American and a ‘not real’ America. This kind of overt cynicism and divisiveness is crass and wrong.
I say this because her response to David Letterman and his truly offensive comments have been, in kind, offensive.
First, she is repeating that he was speaking about Willow. He obviously was not. Everyone, except perhaps a poorly trained chimpanzee in the Bronx Zoo knows this by now. His words about Bristol were and remain truly offensive, but he was not referring to a 14-year old, under-aged minor. Her repeating of this, over and over again is part of why I do not appreciate her. At least allow your outrage to be honest. His comments about Bristol, and they were about Bristol, are offensive in their own right. He was not making an inference to statutory rape and Sarah Palin knows this and will not even acknowledge this.
Secondly, her usage of the East Coast/West Coast versus ‘real’ America is blatantly offensive, most especially in light of her insistence that Letterman was referring to the sexual behavior of adults with minors. She was inferring that people on the two coasts would not be as offended by this kind of behavior as people would be in the middle of the country. I personally found this to be offensive----very offensive. People all across the nation are offended by this kind of talk and behavior. Do not use the offensive remarks of a comedian to conclude and to state that this is representative of how people are divided in the nation.
Thirdly, she is blaming the universe on there not being the same outrage for her children as there would be on the children of President Obama. The Obamas have been different in how their children have been seen in public than the Palins have been. I have no criticism of either approach in the least. I was offended by the early treatment of the press of the Bush daughters, I was offended by how Rush Limbaugh referred to Chelsea Clinton. I am offended by Letterman’s comments. The children are not fair game. Period. I think most people, even in the news media, will respect this.
This should end soon. I think that two things need to transpire.
The first thing is that David Letterman owes the Palin family a sincere apology. His explanation about which daughter he was referring to is helpful, but he needs to apologize sans further explanation. I am sorry. I was offensive to you and your family and I deeply regret this. No excuses, no further explanation, just a simple and sincere apology is in order.
And the Palin family, for their part, ought to accept the apology and move on. She appears to be attempting to make political hay out of this and this is the wrong thing to be doing right now. Accept the apology and move on.
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