Should Letterman sue Palin???

[brettdale]

I say yes, he didnt make a joke about raping Palin's 14 year old daughter, he made a joke about her oldest daughter getting knocked up by a baseball player.

Surly he should sue her for this filthy accusation?

[MadBadger]

1. No he shouldnt sue her.

[nini]

2. No.. he'll do more damage by continuing to expose her as the fool she is

.

[kath]

66. yep, he was just brilliant on last night's show - taking full advantage of the fact that when moran

conservatives are in a hole, they just keep digging. You'd think that the Palin bunch would realize that Dave is not one to mess with, especially after seeing just how friggin' RELENTLESS he was after McLame cancelled his appearance on Dave's show. How long did that go on for - one week? Two? More?

I missed Dave's show tonight - bet I'd bet he brought up the Palin kerfluffle again...

[nini]

67. exactly Kath

She would be wise to shut the heck up!

[kath]

69. Dave does deadpan SOOOOOO well - he was friggin' hilarious talking about the Palin fuss on last

night's show, and the audience was just eating it up.
Sure wish I'd watched it tonight...

[JVS]

3. He needs to make jokes about the 14 year old then

[merh]

4. not if he was wrong about which daughter actually attended the game

with Palin, the one in the photo he was making fun of.

He thought it was Bristol, his research team let him down if they didn't verify the IDs of the folks in the photo.

And besides, suing just keeps the stupid story alive - he is a comedian, he belittles everyone.

the whole thing is just a bunch of nonsense.

[Lint Head]

5. Palin is using her 14 year old daughter. She is actually subjecting

her under aged child to something that was not intended to be about her 14 year old daughter. Bristol has paraded herself in front of the M$M as an unwed mother that had sex with an admitted reformed meth addict. She deserves any joke thrown at her. A-Rod would be a step up for her and that is no joke.
:dem:

[Hansel]

56. Seems fair. Why should she be any different than the rest?

She's pretty much used them all as little props in her quest for stardom. I feel sorry for them all.

[MrBig]

6. Easy Answer

NO...well unless he wants to make a complete joke of himself

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. No. It would be a waste of time and effort

and he'd lose. He's a public figure.

[Indydem]

8. Is this all DU is going to talk about tonight?

Simple facts, see if you can follow:

18 year old with kid - NOT at game with Palin. In Alaska, probably trying to sell girls on abstinance.
14 year old - AT GAME with Palin

Why in the hell would Dave make a joke about the daughter who wasn't even in the same state with A-Rod? If the writers didn't know the difference, then come out and admit it. At least it was in poor taste, at worst it was a stupid mistake. He screwed up and he should take the lumps.

The idea that the leap of intellect is a long one is a crazy position to take.

[MadBadger]

13. Do you think Dave intentionally made fun of a 14 year old, OR

thought Bristol was the one at the game and was making fun of her?

[Indydem]

18. I think someone thought it was Bristol.

Someone wasn't paying attention, wrote a joke and it made Dave and his writers look dumb.

My point, is that its not a big leap for anyone to look at that joke and think he is talking about the daughter who was actually AT the game.

Everyone saying "its crazy to think he was talking about willow" is applying bias and not looking at it from a neutral point of view. The logic leap is clear.

[stevietheman]

31. Actually, that is not logical in the least.

How is it logical to assume that David Letterman would be talking about a minor girl getting knocked up? It goes beyond reason to make that wild assumption.

[Indydem]

39. Silly me, you are correct.

It is far more logical that he was making the joke about the daughter who was in Alaska and not at the game.

Alex Rodriguez is so talented, he can knock up the daughter in Alaska from Yankee stadium. Very virile man. :eyes:

[stevietheman]

49. Actually, yes, my position is far more logical.

What you are suggesting is vile and counterintuitive. Shameful.

[stevietheman]

50. And Willow wasn't even at the game! n/t

n/t

[emilyg]

61. Actually she was.

[stevietheman]

28. And where's the evidence that Willow was at the game?

Nobody seems to be able to produce this evidence.

[Indydem]

37. Wow, there is this thing called GOOGLE...

"Accompanying Palin on the trip is her husband, Todd, and the couple's 14-year-old daughter, Willow, as well as Palin's sister, Heather Bruce and Bruce's son Karcher, also 14." - http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-sarahpalin0608,0,4432527.story

"after attending a New York Yankees game. She was joined by her husband, daughter Willow and a sister." http://www.adn.com/palin/story/822938.html

Not to mention the bevy of vidoe and picture footage that was on cable news.

[stevietheman]

48. None of those stories say Willow was at the game.

I'm starting to wonder if people are desperate to make Letterman look bad.

[EOTE]

73. The quote that you provide says she WASN'T at the game.

Unless you retract this quote: "after attending a New York Yankees game. She was joined by her husband, daughter Willow and a sister." You're admitting that this is all bullshit. How could she be joined by Willow if she was actually at the game? Did Palin hire you as an image consultant or something? Pretty damned pathetic, if you ask me.

[rwheeler31]

9. Are you kidding this is comedy gold.

Thanks Dave keep it up.

[grantcart]

10. He should send her a check

His ratings go up and he is making more money.

[Dramarama]

15. Conan has some competition

[tridim]

11. He should methodically destroy the Palins with humor.

[MiniMe]

12. Naw, he will just keep on making fun of her

I'll give them this, Bristol didn't go with them to NY, only Willow did. So it was a bad joke on Dave's part. It still would have been a bad joke even about Bristol. But he is going to have much more fun retelling the jokes and defending himself. And she is stupider than I thought if she gets into some pi**ing contest with a comedian.

[spanone]

14. i think he should let her yap on about it...it only shows what assholes they are

[stevietheman]

16. Only if she maintains the suggestion that Letterman is a pedophile...

If that happens, he would definitely need to sue for defamation.

[paulsby]

58. get real

"maintaing the suggestion" that a public figure who (apparently errantly) made a joke about her 14 yr old daughter having sex with a-rod (i agree this was not his intent) is a pedophile is not even remotely civilly actionable.

fwiw, even if he DID Joke about her 14 yr old bangin' a-rod, that would not make him a pedophile to make the joke.

not that i think he had that intent.

[WeDidIt]

17. No, he's got a far better weapon

He should ridicule her.

[brettdale]

20. so he got the daughters mixed up?

But it wasnt a rape joke?

I would sue her ass off, and rip into her for using her 14 year old daughter like this.

[WeDidIt]

35. Sueing is stupid

ridiculing is a ratings bonanza.

[timeforpeace]

19. Sure.

If he wants her to get even more sympathy from across the country. This isn't playing out the way he wanted. Last thing he should do is double down.

[Swamp Rat]

21. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[Vickers]

24. Bwahahahahaha!

:rofl:


Oh...you were serious.

Sorry.




:blush:

[WeDidIt]

34. Over under on the pizza delivery?

I say no more than ten more posts.

[robcon]

22. Letterman is an asshole.

A simple apology - "I made a mistake" - would have ended this.

edit:spell

[Statistical]

36. Exactly. A much ado about nothing on both parties n/t

[emilyg]

62. Bingo.

[notesdev]

23. Bizarre

Here I would have thought that Democrats would be first in line to condemn a malicious sex joke directed at a minor child. Are we back to the Clinton days where sexual predators are cool if they're on our side of the political aisle?

[timeforpeace]

26. Exactly.

[ProgressIn2008]

Agreed. nt

[stevietheman]

27. If that's what had happened, sure. n/t

n/t

[WeDidIt]

33. IF it had been directed at a minor child, I would condemn it

It was directed at her 18 year old daughter who is doing the abstinence tour.

She's fair game as far as I'm concerned.

[Indydem]

40. Bristol wasn't at the game, you understand that right?

She was in Alaska. I just want to understand the logic of how A-rod knocks up Bristol while he is in Yankee stadium and she is in Alaska.

[WeDidIt]

45. That doesn't matter.

IT doesn't matter one little bit where the fuck she was.

She got knocked up and the McCain Palin campaign made political hay out of it.

She dumped the babydaddy and she's making hay with the abstinence tour.

That you don't get the fucking joke says more about you than LEtterman.

[Indydem]

47. I guess I missed the humor in teen pregnancy and promisuous baseball players. n/t

[WeDidIt]

51. Your loss n/t

[emilyg]

63. You're not alone.

[stevietheman]

54. And Willow wasn't either. She was with Palin on the trip.

But nobody has produced evidence of her at the game.

[Shrek]

81. She was there

Letterman has said that the joke about a Palin daughter getting pregnant by a Yankee baseball player was in poor taste (probably not the first such bad joke Letterman has told and arguably not the most distasteful). Still, Palin contends that the target was her 14-year-old daughter, Willow, who was at Yankee Stadium with her that day. That makes the questionable quip a comment about statutory rape.

LA Times

[EOTE]

83. So says Sarah Palin, but I've seen nothing in terms of evidence.

In fact, I've seen quotes that say while Willow accompanied her mom to NYC, she didn't meet back up with her mom until after the game. Regardless, it's clear by the context of the joke which daughter he was referring to. Anyone that tries to argue otherwise is simply providing more fodder for manufactured poutrage.

[greyl]

68. Everybody who heard the joke before Palin's uproar thought the joke was bout Bristol.

It wasn't common knowledge that Bristol wasn't on the trip, so all rational audiences who have a sense of humor knew exactly who Dave was joking about.

[EOTE]

75. Neither was Willow. And quotes that YOU have provided say as much.

Or do you care to retract your own quotes?

[dem629]

82. Why should David Letterman (or anyone else) keep track of all of the Palin offspring?

Your position assumes he knows which one is Willow, which is Bristol, which is Track, Trig, Seabreeze, Mountainglow, Meadowbiscuit, etc.

[RaleighNCDUer]

44. But of course, this was NOT a malicious sex joke directed at a minor

child, but a tasteless joke aimed at the mother of an 18 year old girl who got knocked up out of wedlock, then went on to promote abstinence only sex ed.

[EOTE]

79. You might as well be talking to a wall.

All attempts to throw logic and reason at the poster have proven that she's simply incapable of recognizing facts.

[EOTE]

74. Are you for fucking real?

First of all, the joke was directed at an 18 year old. I shouldn't need to tell you this, but 18 does not a minor make. And you have the unmitigated gall to consider Bill Clinton to be a sexual predator because he got a consensual BJ from a 20 something girl? Pathetic. I really think you should be looking at other sites if you think that way.

[notesdev]

77. I should ask you the same

You see nothing wrong with a middle-aged man in a position of immense power using that power to take sexual advantage of a young woman who was his employee? Do you realize that Clinton himself condemned this very behavior, before he was caught at it? And then the kicker, holding a live national TV press conference for the sole purpose of lying about it?

There comes a point where you have to choose between being partisan and being coherent; I choose the latter.

[EOTE]

78. You called the man a SEXUAL PREDATOR.

Do you stand by those words? Do you think they could ever apply to an adult who receives a consensual blowjob from another adult? You denigrate real victims of sexual predators by suggesting that President Clinton is one. And regardless of the poor judgement shown by Clinton for not refusing her advances, it's clear without a doubt that she was intent on polishing his knob. Poor judgement is one thing, but you are incredibly off base and don't know what you're talking about.

[varelse]

25. No, as much as I abhor the hypocrisy of blasting him for a scripting error

Letterman did make a mistake and he is a public figure. I do resent the inflation of this apparent brain fart on the part of his writing staff. Apparently Palin (aka Queen Esther) and her brood are sacrosanct, yet somehow it was perfectly acceptable to make disgusting, crude jokes about Chelsea Clinton, a middle school student, while the Clintons were in the White House.

[Canuckistanian]

29. Anything to distract THEM

They've waved enough shiny objects in our face while screwing us - time to return the favor.

[cherokeeprogressive]

30. In Letterman's defense, he probably had nothing to do with the joke until he read it

on his teleprompter. He's neither funny nor unique enough to have come up with it on his own.

What's funniest for me is the absolute hatred for Sarah Palin that is so deeply felt that she's not being defended as a member of the "XX Club" (those would be chromosomes) after being called "slutty", by a man, on national television. Remind me why Imus got fired... was it the "nappy-headed" or was it the "ho"? Of course, in the strange world we Democrats live in, "nappy-headed" and "ho" are firing terms, but "slutty" is perfectly acceptable if we don't like the target of the remark.

In another thread in GD, there are people, women included, who are tap-dancing on the head of a pin trying to avoid that very thing. They're doing their very best to justify an insult to a member of the "XX Club" simply because they don't like who she is, or what she stands for. Misogyny rears it's ugly green head when you're a person who's been determined to be persona non grata.

On the subject of the "XX Club", I was first introduced to this concept by a former boss, an Administrator who came to my Adult School to replace a disgraced principal. During our VERY first staff meeting with her, she made referenced to us male teachers as "broken X's". When I raised my hand and asked what she meant, she replied that women have two X chromosomes, and men have one X and one Y. The Y chromosome, by her reckoning, was a "broken X".

Cue the "freeper talking points" comments in 3, 2, 1...

[stevietheman]

32. Letterman didn't call Palin slutty, so I'm lost on your point. n/t

n/t

[cherokeeprogressive]

42. You're right. He didn't say Palin was "slutty". He said she "updated her slutty flight-attendant

look".

I guess that's okay if you're a man, and you hate the woman you direct the joke toward.

[stevietheman]

53. A slutty look doesn't make one a slut. n/t

n/t

[Indydem]

43. Have you seen the top ten list?

If not, you should probably watch it before you omment anymore.

He said she was wearing a slutty outfit, which if said about any other woman in America would raise the heckles of the DU, but aparently dispariging Palin is ok cause she's the freeper fantasy.

[stevietheman]

55. My position is correct, then, by your account. n/t

n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

46. It might be noted, he did not call her slutty -

he said she was dressed like a slutty stewardess - a comment on bad taste and wardrobe, not on behavior.

You can save your outrage.

[Cleita]

38. No, but he shouldn't apologize anymore to those sleaze bags, nor should

he let them ever get near his show again. He extended the olive branch and they pissed on it. When Sara is looking for media exposure for her next run for President, he should just ignore her.

[ControlledDemolition]

65. He should have apologized to Rush instead!

Afterall, some people say, he likes 'em almost on the younger side of legality.

[aikoaiko]

41. FFS. No.

A couple of zingers were exchanged, what's the big deal?

[scarletwoman]

52. No, he should fire whichever one of his writers came up such a disgusting "joke".

I don't give a shit about the Palins, of course they're going to milk their outrage to the max. But that's beside the point. Making that kind of crude, disgusting remark about a politician's child is just way over the line no matter what.

Sorry, David blew it. Nobody's kids are fair game, period. I don't care how sleazy the parents are, leave their kids out of your mockery.

sw

[paulsby]

57. it's not even REMOTELY suable

i mean he could sue. but it would never fly.

anybody can try.

[Iggo]

59. Of course not.

He should just keep hammering her until she realizes she can't win...like what happened with McCain.

[emilyg]

60. Sue her for

what? His lame jokes?

[ControlledDemolition]

64. No. He should run a national competition to name 'the family's' next new born!

How about 'Pimple-puss' or, 'Anal-wind'?

[kath]

70. And today, Palin continues to dig the hole deeper...

see my post above.

Go Dave - this should go on even longer than the John-McCain-stood-me-up thing that Letterman did last fall...

[brettdale]

84. The right is having a field day

On some boards they think Letterman should be arrested for promoting child rape.

Heck it was a joke about an 18 year old being knocked up by a baseball player.

Palin and her supporters are sick, I really think that, they must be mentally ill to think Letterman would make a child rape joke.

[Blue Belle]

71. After reading this thread...

I'm wondering if this isn't the "bitch-slap" kerfluffle from the other day re-tooled in a different format (putting semantics in front of the actual point). Palin's response to this entire incident is an excellent example of how she uses "womens issue" and "feminism" when its convenient for her but sells women down the river every other time when it comes to their health and well being. If she is so concerned about pedophiles, then why would she make these children abused by them carry the result to full term? If she's so concerned about sensitivity about the issue of statutory rape, then why trot her 17 year old daughter out on the national stage to publicly humiliate her as an example of a "problem" in the family? If she's so concerned about rape, then why would she cut funding for rape kits for victims in a state with some of the highest statistics of rape? Once again, some people fail to grasp the bigger picture.

[kath]

80. EXACTAMUNDO!- "she uses "womens issue" and "feminism" when its convenient for her but sells women

down the river every other time."
Couldn't have said it any better myself. ;-) Her faux "feminism" that she trots out when it's convenient for her really makes me want to :puke: and/or :banghead: And it's *totally* faux - she's no friend to women.

And yes, it IS sad how few here grasp the big picture.

[AlexanderProgressive]

72. Palin's lawyers might argue that Letterman was not referring to the 18th year old

Since it was the 14th year old who was in attendance in the baseball game.

The jury would have a reasonable doubt to think Letterman referred to the 14th year old, and pretended he was talking about the 18th year old once the story became big news.

[hiphopnation]

76. it's amazing to me how obvious it is that so few DUers watch letterman

on a regular basis.

you have to be joking with this thread. anyone that knows letterman knows he doesn't get mad or petty, he's as cool as a cucumber and has one of the sharpest wits in television. SUE PALIN, are ya f-in kiddin' me with this?

no, he'll deal with this HIS way. by making comedy jokes. and he'll win...