Letterman Vs. Palin (the fight to stay relevant)

that's what McCain said!

Here's Letterman's joke, for those who didn't see it.



Pretty clear to me that the only way the joke even works is if he's referring to the daughter who was knocked up already. It's not that funny, and probably in poor taste but it's nothing worth starting a crusade over. Unless, of course, your goal is less about protecting the self-esteem of young women and more about keeping your name in the news.

Yawn!

Can we find a way to get television to ban her from TV and radio. Limbaugh may be an asshole, but he's no where near as stupid.

Palintards using logic? A-Rod sleeping w/women? We live in Topsy-Turvy World!

-TM

1) I'm not sure Girls hold themselves in as low self-esteem as they used to (as evidenced by the sucess of this, and the "sexting" phenomenon).

2)I do believe she's right about the political double standard. Look at Don Imus, and look at the outrage over some cartoon involving a monkey writing the stimulus a few months back. If it's acceptable for Don Imus to be fired for his comments, then it should be acceptable for David to be fired for his.

Except that Letterman used no derogatory racist slang when describing Palin, her daughter or ARod.

Hisa already covered the second point quite succinctly.

I would like to ask you how "the 'sexting' phenomenon" indicates an overall upward trend in girls' self-esteem.

On-topic: Letterman made a lame joke about Bristol givin' it up. She's not a minor, and she did have a child out of wedlock etc. etc. for whoever cares about that shit. But Letterman didn't cross any line here.

Poor A-rod though. He should sue! He'd never bang anyone that young or that brunette. And never during a game! This guy loves baseball, he'd never let his team down but doing that during the seventh inning stretch.

Yea, except for the fact that Bristol wasn't the daughter who went to the base ball game with Palin, it was 14 year old Willow. Which means the joke which already was in bad taste also had the context of statutory rape. I would like to think when some one (especially a public figure) makes a joke about rape of any kind they have crossed a line.

Did he know that? If not, then no, it's a friggin' mistake, and means little.

It doesn't matter, he has a staff of writers and people to fact check this sort of thing.

i just know that i (and probably most of america) immediately thought of bristol when he made that joke. (i, personally, forgot she had another daughter)

Oh please. This is one big game of partisan gotcha and conservatives fucking know it. That's why no one really cares outside of the hyper partisan base.

What do conservatives want here? Letterman to be fired? Okay, get Limbaugh to quit for calling Chelsey Clinton a dog first.

it astounds me that he can still rile up the idiots with such a low-brow, poorly written joke. i find palin's insane indignation even more entertaining.

That's a ridiculous assertion.

You're arguing that he somehow intended to refer to Willow, when he has asserted that he was referring to Bristol. Now, whether or not he knew that Willow was the one who accompanied Palin is very clearly relevant as to whether he intended to refer to Bristol or Willow. Simply because he has other people working with him that theoretically could check on something like that doesn't mean they did, and it DEFINITELY doesn't mean Letterman had that intent.

All this retending that he was clearly referring to Willow is just flat silly. Palin would've had plenty of room to take legitimate offense, but as usual she's inventing her own factual situation so she can play the victim card.

Well, I'm not a girl, but I'm calling it like I see it. During my adolescent years, I kept hearing about girls starving themselves and getting eating disorders and what not, and I don't about it anymore, so I assume the root cause of said self starving (low self esteem) has gone away or been reduced. Feel free to tell me how I'm wrong.

Girls have always felt pressured by boys into moving faster sexually than they would like. Sexting is the newest version of this classic tale. A sure sign that boys will be boys, just with modern technology. Morgan thought this was obvious. I did too, until you should otherwise.

This woman is an animal murderer, she is disgusting, she isn't too bright, she is just trying to stir up shit. We need to just have her put away where no one can see her or hear her crazy talk. The wildlife of Alaska would approve. We cannot take the chance she will run in 2012. I'm really so tired of hearing about her.. and her daughters. You know the chick who got knocked up, I saw her on some interview about how she is going around to schools to tell kids that they shouldn't have sex, and they aren't ready to be parents, and blah blah blah.. but in the same breath she'll say how much she loves her baby, her life is about the baby, it's the best thing shes ever done..blah blah blah. You can't tell everyone not to be teen parents and why it sucks- but be a teen parent and say how awesome your baby makes your life. Am I the only one confused by this?

I don't really feel Letterman crossed the line, a joke is a joke. If we review all the jokes made by late night hosts I'm sure we can all find things that would offend SOMEONE. The point is, it's a JOKE. I don't think Letterman or his writers are out raping women or thinking that's the cool thing to do.

You are wrong, by miles.

Let me be clear -- I think feminism at the time got this very wrong, taking a complex psychological problem and boiling it down to a one-dimensional issue of "low self esteem", as though all that was needed was fewer thin women on magazine covers and billboards and the problem would go away.

Fortunately, we have a more nuanced view of eating disorders now. It's also less of a "new problem" and its novelty has dissipated. That doesn't mean that eating disorders have disappeared, or that adolescent girls have moved from binging-and-purging en masse to sending naked pictures of themselves to potential boyfriends over their phones (indicating some alleged increase in the average self-esteem of teen girls). That's an incredibly uninformed presumption.

Please. Stop "calling it like you see it", because your lens is extremely foggy and you keep missing what you should be seeing.

It would alienate "the base" if Palin was seen to be associating with "feminist activists", who, by definition, are always angry.

That someone who is neither is getting angry just shows how angerfying this "joke" from so-called comedian Letterman is!

I am duly angerfied!