About Letterman: I don't care who you are, it takes guts to say what David Letterman said tonight

[CreekDog]

to just lay it out there and explain everything just like he did.

could you do that with an embarassing topic? would you have tried to pay it away?

it doesn't make him Mother Theresa, but i have to admire the courage to say what he said in the direct way that he did. it also looks like to do the right thing, he has allowed all of this to become public and Dave has more money than God and the means to make it go away.

but he didn't do that.

good luck to you Dave. you are good at what you do and what has happened is between you and those involved.

[Triana]

1. ? n/t

[CreekDog]

4. David Letterman announced on his show tonight that he was blackmailed

for 2 million to hide sexual relationships with members of his staff.

he went to law enforcement, told them and was part of a sting to catch the guy.

in the process, he testified to a grand jury today about it.

and on tonight's show (right now on the West Coast), he explained it all without equivocation and with as much dignity and candor as one can.

[Triana]

18. OK. Thanks. Someone finally posted a video. That had to be very uncomfortable for him...

...though I think he's a creep for his wandering dick, I also think the guy blackmailing him was a dick for blackmailing him about it.

The blackmailer/extortionist got what he deserved - and Letterman will too - in other ways - have to suffer the consequences of his infidelity.

HE ADMITTED IT though - no bullshit, no excuses. ON AIR. I give him credit for his honesty and integrity at at least in that regard.

He needs to have a mano a mano with his little wanderer though . . . ;)

[roguevalley]

22. some part of me agrees. he got it out his way but it takes more

guts to honor your vows and be a man to his family. he wasn't.

[saracat]

57. To be fair, he wasn't actually married until recently.

He was with his girlfriend for 23 years but he wasn't married and we don't know "when" this occurred.So "vows" may not enter into this.

[roguevalley]

59. he was in a committed relationship. cheating is low class and

frankly, I figured he was too much of a midwest
prude to do this. I never knew he had it in him.
I find it awesome that they cannot believe
that someone will find out. what a jerkoff
he is on that score.

[saracat]

61. Years ago I think his first marriage ended for similar reasons. I still like Dave

and this isn't my business. We also don't know how "committed" his relationship was. It took six years after the baby was born for him to get married.We don't even know if she wanted to get married.Lots of people don't.And we really have no idea when he did this. We don't know a lot about this entire situation , nor should we.

[Chulanowa]

24. A mano a mano?

He needs to go hand to hand with it?

Well, after this, i imagine that's what he WILL be doing for a while

[grantcart]

7. somebody was arrested today trying to blackmail Letterman

Letterman went on his show and explained it in a fairly straightforward way, explaining he had previously had sex with female staffers on his show.

As soon as he was threatened he went to the police rather than pay.

[FormerDittoHead]

37. Here's the link to save you the google...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ioGZ3Fj20&feature=player_embedded

[grantcart]

2. he did it well.

[Electric Monk]

3. yep, he did the right thing (after getting caught with his dick in the wrong hole *ok shoot me*)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6678885

[thunder rising]

23. screw you ... he's a comic, not the pope.

[aquart]

26. Self-righteous much?

[malaise]

31. As long as they were consenting adults

It's his dick and their business.

[marshall]

38. A pertinent question is whether there was favoritism involved

Courts have found that in a situation where a married supervisor conducts sexual relationships with a number of employees, a hostile work environment is created if it can be shown that favoritism was shown.

Assuming there were some employees that Letterman wasn't having a sexual relationshp with, those people could be looking at the promotions and other favors their colleagues who were schtuping the boss got. Perhaps that will even be a defense offered by the man who was arrested--he may claim that he was disgruntled because he didn't get the favors offered to the women.

[laughingliberal]

43. Without further information there is no way to know if he was married when these affairs happened

And I am not privy to details about his relationship with Regina with whom he lived for a number of years before marrying her in March.

[marshall]

47. I'm sure we'll be reading about it in the supermarket queue over the next months

As well as hearing about it from the other late night crowds' monologues.

Letterman was very shrewd to cast the first stone, with his "especially the women" comment (about them being embarassed). Inevitably he will be fodder for humor, but it'll be laughing WITH him and not AT him.

[GMA]

51. Some of these adults were his employees, right?

Doesn't that open the door for intimidation, or favoritism?

[Common Sense Party]

55. Yeah, he hasn't made a career cracking jokes about consenting

adults, their dicks, and their business.

[Selatius]

5. If only we had Democrats with that kind of fortitude in the face of such frightening challenges.

Alas, we only have the Democrats we have.

[GMA]

52. No--

What we need are men who have honor and integrity, and who know how to keep it in their pants. Then they wouldn't have any "frightening" challenges to face.

[mrdmk]

60. The guy was not married. Are you saying no pre-marital sex and no sex with co-workers

Welcome to DU. Enjoy your stay!

[saracat]

6. I agree but it did make me think that his endless harassment of Clinton now rings a bit hollow.

[Drunken Irishman]

9. Except every comedian has a double-standard.

It sucks, but if they couldn't have a double-standard, their careers would tank.

[saracat]

56. I agree and i also love Letterman and will continue to be a fan but

I always felt that the Clinton bit was overkill and now it looks worse.However, dave did the right thing and I hope he can just move on. It took guts to confess on live television..

[JI7]

10. he does comedy , but he has always been kind to Bill and Hillary on his show

[Captain Hilts]

30. Not in the monologues! nt

[JI7]

32. he isn't kind to anyone in monologues including himself, as i said, he does comedy

[saracat]

54. Not really. I didn't see last week but he has always had an edge.

As I said I can't comment on last week with Clinton but previously he has been respectful but not warm to them and just vicious in the monologues. And he continues to do Monica jokes and comment on the clinton marrige long after the others have stopped.He obviously really likes Obama though and he likes Mccain.That is my opinion anyway.

[appleannie1]

66. And has always treated them with respect and reverence.

[merh]

11. Why?

You don't know when the relationships occurred, if he was married at the time. You don't know if the women were the one's that pursued the relationship and you don't know how the relationships ended or how long they lasted. You just don't know all the facts.

I find it sad that so many judge Letterman without knowing the facts.

He was the victim of a crime and he did the right thing in going to the authorities.

When Clinton was on his program last week Letterman showed him nothing but respect.

I just don't understand your statement.

[HipChick]

12. happened a long time ago..

[merh]

13. That is the impression I got from his statement and the articles

I have read on this.

People around here are too quick to judge.

Welcome to DU, HipChick! :hi:

[saracat]

48. Actually, we don't know that.Letterman did not say or imply either way.

he did use the present tense whendescribing "staffers who work for him " as opposed to "worked for him" in the past tense.But there was no time indicated as to when this took place. He has been living with rehina for 23 years. I really doubt it was that long ago. nevertheless, I still admire Letterman and thing it took a lot of guts to amit this on TV. He got ahead of the story.

[CreekDog]

8. Thanks for the unrecommend there buddy, whomever you are

don't know what i did to you in writing this. :eyes:

[bullwinkle428]

44. Douchebags abound everywhere. I just offset his un-rec!

:thumbsup:

[Raine]

14. I agree

he showed courage and intelligence by doing the wise thing in just fessing up.

[EFerrari]

15. Grace under pressure.

:)

[cliffordu]

16. He did the adult thing and took responsibility.....

I get the feeling he'll be just fine.

All men are dogs. Did I mention that??

[Triana]

17. I agree. He'll have to live with his infidelities. But he did the right thing - owned up to it..

...and reported the creep trying to blackmail him over it (which is equally wrong).

[tavalon]

28. Oh, no they aren't.

Men are human, just like women. He handled this the right way. Now, it's between him and his wife. And let's just be thankful that we don't have a long, dragged out impeachment to go through because of it.

[cliffordu]

45. I forgot my sarcasm smiley about the dogs....

[NBachers]

19. Sarah Palin jibe

Also tonight, he did a segment about Sarah Palin's new book. Directly afterwords there was a commercial. The band played Rolling Stones' "Bitch" as the segue music to the commercial.

[brettdale]

20. I thought he was all class

With that speech tonight.

[troubledamerican]

65. He is.

He did the right thing, even when it was very hard to do.

[BlooInBloo]

21. And he told the story in the inimitable Letterman style to boot.

[thunder rising]

25. DU can be so disappointing: The only reason we jump on the Repugnants is because of their hypocrisy

He's not the asshole telling the world to act better than he does.

He's a late night comic. And, if you cannot imagine that guy screwing a LOT of women, because of his personality, your worse than that Phelps preacher shithead.

[tavalon]

27. The only reason you and I jump on the Repugs is hypocrisy

But there is a large contingent of ConservaDems (Thank you Rachel, for that magnificent word) here who have their puritan belt buckle just a wee bit tight, ya know?

[Stand and Fight]

29. Post like this are so bloody annoying.

Why do people assume that everyone knows what they're talking about? Good grief! Unrecommending.

[Dorian Gray]

33. Definitely not mother teresa

I feel for his wife and son.

But, it does take guts, and this is the best way for him to address the situation and be done with it as soon as possible.

[Libertas1776]

34. I feel for his wife and his son

However, that being said, what he did was the right thing and the appropriate thing. He immediately went to the authorities and admitted to what he had done, unlike other certain people who have been caught with their pants down and did their best to hide it. And like a poster said above, he does not spend his time lecturing people on morality and such like so many hypocrites who have gotten caught. He is just a late nite comic. Hence, I have no business stating an opinion on the affair.

[mainer]

35. His wife already knew about the women

But Dave's mom didn't.

from Time magazine:

"Apparently neither the extortion attempt, nor the fact that Letterman slept with women on his show, were news to Letterman's wife of seven months, Regina Laskoe, who had told Letterman's mother Dorothy Mengering about it earlier in the day. "I'm looking forward to seeing the show to see what he has to say," Mengering told the New York Daily News. "I really just found out today."

[rasputin1952]

36. The only thing I care about in all of this is I want to know what

all of those questioning the "morality" of Letterman have stashed away in their closets.

Earlier, this was the talk of the day on "news" programs...oh the outrage!. What is in the past w/all of these men and women, I want to know why this is such a big deal, when I can be relatively assured that none of these people are pristine...;)

Come on talking heads, let's hear about your sex lives!

[DavidDvorkin]

39. Bull. He confessed only to defuse the blackmail.

He's a cheating spouse and contemptible.

[DefenseLawyer]

49. He wasn't married at the time.

Sorry to burst your self-righteous bubble.

[tavalon]

62. Are you his spouse?

[Ron Green]

40. Meh. So what. He told the truth after all. No prize deserved for that.

[izzybeans]

41. Very few of us have had to confess to having sex prior to marriage.

Or had to face being blackmail for it.

Coworkers or not, I don't know the circumstances of his relationships and it is none of my business.

[Vidar]

42. Dave handled it right.

[gauguin57]

46. The fact that the "stinger" was a longtime CBS news producer makes me just as sick.

What in the hell? He's supposed to be part of a journalistic team and he uses info to try to blackmail someone (and a cash cow for his own network, to boot!)

Jeebus. a) As unethical as you can get. b) stoopid stoopid stoopid.

[TahitiNut]

53. CBS seems to have strange criteria for news producers.

Fire the one who told the truth and keep the blackmailer? Bizarre.

[havocmom]

50. Compare it to Ensign's run home to mom & dad for hush $$

Dave has more integrity than a boat load of GOP pols.

[Beetwasher]

58. I Predict That Letterman Will Never Again Have Howard Stern On His Show

Because Howard is going to have a field day w/ him over this and there's no way in hell Howard could be on Letterman now w/out bringing it up.

[Quantess]

63. Letterman isn't a politician, he's a celebrity.

And this is none of our business.

Edit to add: And it isn't all that scandalous. Now, if he had gone to the Dominican Republic to screw underage boys, then there might be a story.

[donheld]

64. Letterman was single he can sleep with any adult he wants to.

[autorank]

67. Dave holds no office, never claims to be an example

He did the right thing announcing this.

He's not a role model. He's been putting himself down for years.

It would have remained private had he not been blackmailed.

Now it's over.