One of the problems I think David Letterman had last Wednesday, in addressing to the Palins' patently absurd allegation that Letterman had intended his infamous Alex Rodriguez "knocked up" joke to have been directed at 14-year-old Willow (David Letterman's staff did not fact-check which daughter attended the game), was that he tried to explain what happened, although he never really apologized. (I felt that was the purpose in his extending a show invitation to the Palins, which they rejected, claiming it was motivated by the desire for ratings. Hmmm. Why would ratings have been a motivation unless somebody, say, Governor Palin, had escalated the situation?)
But the joke really, in and of itself, can't be defended...I had, honestly, no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ball game except the Governor and I was told at the time she was there with Rudy Giuliani ... So [14-year-old Willow was] now at the ball game and people think that I made the joke about her.I thought, 'Oh, boy, now I'm beginning to understand what the problem is here. It’s the perception rather than the intent.' It doesn't make any difference what my intent was, it's the perception. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it's not a very good joke...Well, my responsibility – I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault. That it was misunderstood.So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future.
Letterman took full responsibility for the joke; he didn't throw his staff under the bus. It wasn't one of those pseudo-apologies, i.e., "I'm sorry that you feel that way about the joke." He extended a full apology and promised to be more sensitive in vetting jokes in the future.
Governor Palin, to her credit, accepted the apology, but of course she is maintaining this pretenseful rationale that David Letterman was really attacking all women with this joke. She also didn't apologize for calling Letterman a pervert.
I really don't speak for comedians, but let me point something out that should be obvious to anyone out there, even Palin conservatives. These jokes are not about the target women. The joke is about the men. Who thinks that the John Edwards infidelity jokes were about Rielle Hunter? The jokes were more about promiscuous celebrity men, in this case Alex Rodriguez, a baseball player. There wasn't too much behind the joke: Sarah Palin went to a game which featured Alex Rodriguez. If Governor Schwarzenegger went to a Yankee game, there would probably be a steroid joke. Is Palin right that Letterman is attempting to target young women? Not really. Sarah was reading into the joke surface-level details of her NY visit rather than the concept behind the joke (not surprising). I haven't researched the statistics behind it, but I seriously doubt that there is an epidemic of 33-year-old men chasing 18-year-old women that Letterman is trying to tap into. The joke had nothing to do with age difference; it had more to do with Rodriguez having consensual sex with celebrity women. If it had to do with age difference, the joke would have focused on generational differences, e.g., tastes in music, dancing, changes in technology (e.g., being in Facebook), etc. I can't believe I'm writing posts on the art of writing a joke, but I think Sarah Palin has to be exposed for trying to rationalize her objections to the joke. It had to do with the fact David Letterman used her family in setting up a joke about Alex Rodriguez.
The pop conservatives just piled on with the same whiny complaint about comics being liberal and targeting only conservatives (especially Hannity). I can't remember whom it was (maybe Ann Coulter), but he or she overanalyzed the joke and argued against Letterman's Wednesday explanation because none of Alex Rodriguez' affairs had led to a pregnancy. Oh, give me a break! (If we're really going to that level of joke fact-checking, I'll point out he has children from his broken marriage.)
Hopefully, with the apology, the thread is closed. My final comment is to Letterman; you really need new joke writers. I would have probably written a different joke. Here's one I just made up: "At the seventh inning stretch, Sarah Palin got presented a key. No, it wasn't a key to the city; the mayor wasn't at the game. It was a hotel key, and it came with a note: 'I saw you give me a wink and a nod... Love, Alex Rodriguez'"
On a separate note, this morning I had already noticed that Sarah Palin had posted that she accepted Letterman's apology, but I noticed that the Fox News Channel anchors didn't seem to realize it. Megyn Kelly once again went on a one-sided rant with a female Republican; at 10:20AM, just after completing her segment, co-anchor Bill Hemmer announced that the Palin apology had just been posted to their website. Of course, that just shifted the Fox News attack to whether the apology was "too little, too late"...
June 12 Statement from Erik von Brunn
The 32-year-old son of the white supremacist James von Brunn, whom murdered Holocaust Museum guard Stephen Johns, released a statement, including the following excerpts:
I cannot express enough how deeply sorry I am it was Mr. Johns, and not my father who lost their life yesterday [Wednesday]. It was unjustified and unfair that he died, and while my condolences could never begin to offer appeasement, they, along with my remorse is all I have to give.He [James von Brunn] should not be remembered as a brave man or a hero, but a coward unable to come to grips with the fact he threw his and his families lives away for an ideology that fostered sadness and anguish.Again, my father's actions are unforgiveable. I do not expect, nor will I accept forgiveness for what he has done. I realize there is nothing positive to be taken from this incident. It is empowering, however, to know our country's resistance and intolerance for such acts of hatred has been bolstered in the face of this tragedy.
This is a powerful statement. Erik, who lived with his father in Annapolis, MD, said he knew that his father held racist and conspirational views (and that his father was disappointed that he couldn't convince his son) but never really believed that he would act violently upon them. Erik's mother said that she and Erik despised James' political views and she ended up divorcing him once she learned the extent of his extremism.
There is an interesting sidenote because a number of liberals chose to revisit that controversial withdrawn DHS report which singles out conservative groups like pro-life and military veterans as potential domestic terrorists. It turns out James von Brunn was a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and hated the neo-conservative Bush Administration.
