Palin and Letterman – Reflection of American Society?
Friday, June 12th, 2009
The controversy started, when David Letterman joked Monday of Palin’s recent New York visit that “during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.” Sarah Plain got furious on thee comments and said that show host David Letterman owes all young American women an apology for his joke about one of her daughters getting “knocked up” by baseball star Alex Rodriquez.
The above controversy has opened up various aspects of our society, our beliefs, our culture and our freedom of speech.
Does Letterman have freedom of speech to say anything he wants to say so that his show gets higher ratings because people like to poke into Palin’s family affairs? Or Palin is right in defending her family from any off-cored remarks from a stranger? How about Palin’s responsibility as a mother to keep her older daughter away from teen pregnancy?
We need to answer many questions here. Although freedom of speech is very important to share our ideas and communicate our feelings. But, if we extend it beyond its sprit and use it for our selfish purposes then this freedom starts hurting us as a society. We all should have responsibility to protect our family from remarks by the strangers. However, we also are responsible to make sure that our children make wise decision and do not end up becoming pregnant when they are teens. These kinds of behaviors provide fuel for others to make remarks and attack our family.
In order to have a balance between our freedom and our acceptance, we need to take more accountability and responsibility for our and our family behaviors.
Does this make Letterman right? No! He still does not have a right to make comments on other people children, especially young 14 years old which may not only impact them mentally but also harm their family socially. Although Letterman has apologized on his show, the harm has already been done. He said “We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter [Bristol]… and now they’re upset with me…” Letterman said “These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl…. Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was okay for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No.” Saying he hopes he’s “cleared part of this up,” Letterman extended an invitation to Palin to come on the show as a guest.
This controversy has sparked off lots of comments on twitter. Here are few comments:
-Just as he did with McCain last fall, Letterman is handling himself gracefully with Palin. Too politely, if you ask me. Such a professional.
-My Palin moment: Yes, Letterman was inappropriate. That doesn’t make Obama a liar or you a saint. Please run for POTUS in 2012
-Palin needs to get a grip; Letterman is a COMEDIAN; she just needs to quit with all the ranting and raving.
-Letterman should be drawn and quartered like they did Imus. But since Letterman is part of the national problem he will skate. If the un-funny Has Been would have called my wife a ****, or even mentioned anything about one of my daughters with the boy baseball player. The SOB would be missing teeth and digging a size 10 boot out of his worthless rear end.
- Letterman has gone unchecked for many years and now has reach a level of out-of-control. This must and has to stop!!! PLEASE CALL “CBS HEADQUARTERS” and ask to leave a recorded message regarding David Letterman. The phone number is: 212-975-4321. Please enter this number on other forums and pass it on to friends and relatives. We have an opportunities to have our voices heard,,,so please do it! Enough is enough!! Thank you,
-I believe that Letterman didn’t intend any of the worst that that Palin’s see in his joke. But I do agree that it’s NOT cool to make jokes like this about family members of public figures. Especially children. The children are NOT public figures. It wasn’t cool when SNL poked fun at Chelsea Clinton in the 90’s. It’s still uncool now. For that, Letterman could apologize in good faith to Mrs. Palin.
