Filed away in the “should have seen this coming” file was this photo of David Letterman taken last year:
What’s my stance on the whole fiasco? Seems a little silly to me and more evidence that Sarah Palin doesn’t know how to choose her battles very well. The “joke” was in poor taste, as Letterman conceded, but there has been much worse on other shows. Here are some examples compiled by a commenter for the Baltimore Sun:
Last September, a skit on Saturday Night Live suggested incest in the Palin family. “What about the husband?” asked a mock Times reporter. “You know he’s doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It’s Alaska!” No outrage. Sarah Palin appeared on the show one month later in late October.
Days after the announcement of Bristol’s pregnancy, Conan O’Brien joked, “It’s true, John McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has revealed that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Palin said, ‘We should never have introduced her to John Edwards.’” Where was the outrage? Was Conan promoting infidelity with an underage girl?
From two different Tonight Shows: “Governor Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. Oh, boy, you thought John Edwards was in trouble before, now he’s really done it!” AND…”All the Republicans are heaping praise on Governor Palin. Fred Thompson said, as an actor, he could see them making a movie about Sarah Palin and her family. Didn’t they already make that movie? I think it was called ‘Knocked Up!’”–Jay Leno
Craig Ferguson’s skit of “Larry King vs Levi Johnston” asks about “kinky sex” with the drapes open. Craig Ferguson’s honorary Alaska citizenship, granted by Governor Palin wasn’t rescinded.
“According to expense reports, Sarah Palin charged the state of Alaska over $21,000 for her children to travel with her on official business. In fairness to Gov. Palin, when she leaves them home alone they get pregnant.” –Seth Meyers (SNL). Sarah Palin was in a sketch with Meyers a week earlier.
October 8, 2008, Sarah Palin walked out on the ice with six year old Piper and 13 year old Willow, before the game, Conan O’Brien said, “Saturday night, Sarah Palin is going to drop the first puck at the Philadelphia Flyers’ hockey game. Then Palin will spend the rest of the game trying to keep the hockey players out of her daughter’s penalty box.”
Oh, yes he did. You get the outrage…but not a peep then. According to the new “logic”, O’Brien was advocating for some really sick stuff.
Talk show hosts, Family Guy writers and bloggers do seem to have free reign when it comes to insults and libel, so if this is an issue, then it needs to be bigger than Letterman and bigger than masogyny.
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Ms. Palin would throw her entire family under the bus to stay in the public eye.
hundreds of one liners are thrown out on late night shows. All are forgotten before they are out of the speakers mouth.
To broadcast this silly complaint so that those of us who never would have even heard about it now voice opinions one way of another. Can only be for attention To hell with how all this hurts the child, For goodness sake woman. Think before you speak. As a Mother I would not have given this much publicity to such a remark. If I felt the need to address it as Ms. Palin appears to have done. I would have never done it in the public eye.
This womans ambition is beyond the pale.
Thanks for reprinting the Sun article–I’d forgotten all the jokes that were made. Some were even funny.
Sarah Palin is the Speidi of politics. Maybe if we stop paying attention, she’ll go away.
Letterman’s joke was certainly sexist…as have been many other jokes he and the other late night hosts have made about Sarah Palin and other women…but, obviously, the issue here is that Sarah and her supporters see that she’s sinking from the public eye and any with it any chance of reclaiming her dominant position in the Republican party and, hence, being a front runner in 2012…though if complaining about Letterman is the best they can do, it’s already over…