Last night David Letterman apologized again for his bad jokes at the expense of Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old daughter Willow and 18-year-old daughter Bristol….

Letterman did not apologize for his sexist “slutty flight attendant” joke against Palin. And actually he only apologized for being misunderstood and incorrectly perceived. I have posted the transcript of his apology on page 2.
Nevertheless, Palin has magnanimously accepted Letterman’s apology…

In a statement to FoxNews.com early Tuesday, the AK governor said, “Of course it’s accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who ‘joke’ about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve.”
“Letterman certainly has the right to ‘joke’ about whatever he wants to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction,” Palin said. “This is all thanks to our US Military women and men putting their lives on the line for us to secure America’s Right to Free Speech – in this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect.”

letterman palin ap.jpgLetterman’s jokes have created an uproar, as I previously reported here, here, and here. THRfeed.com reported:

One CBS advertiser reportedly pulled its ads in response to the protests, some of which have demanded that CBS fire Letterman. The network is on the verge of giving Letterman a 2-year contract extension that will keep him on the air through 2012.

Reported Fox:

Letterman’s mea culpa comes on the heels of NY State Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb’s calls to the CEO of CBS to fire David Letterman. In the letter to CBS chief Les Moonves, Kolb said he took Letterman to task for the “shockingly inappropriate” jokes.
“As the proud father of a daughter, and as a husband, I wanted Mr. Moonves to hear from me directly about Mr. Letterman’s disparaging remarks,” Kolb said in a written statement.
“Firing Mr. Letterman would send a clear message that CBS will not tolerate any of its employees – even an established media figure like Mr. Letterman – making demeaning and degrading comments about women.”
The talk show host has also been blasted by women’s groups.
“There’s a saying that out of the heart, the mouth speaks, and Letterman’s statement reveals a pretty ugly reflection of who Letterman may be,” Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America….

[Photo attribution: Fox News]
Transcript of Letterman apology to Palin family, June 15, 2009:
“All right, here – I’ve been thinking about this situation with Governor Palin and her family now for about a week – it was a week ago tonight, and maybe you know about it, maybe you don’t know about it. But there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There’s no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can’t be defended. The next day, people are outraged. They’re angry at me because they said, ‘How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ball game?’ And 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 … and I really should have made the joke about Rudy …” (audience applauds) “But I didn’t, and now people are getting angry and they’re saying, ‘Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl, and does that make you feel good to make those horrible jokes about a kid who’s completely innocent, minding her own business,’ and, turns out, she was at the ball game. I had no idea she was there. So she’s now at the ball game, and people think that I made the joke about her. And, but still, I’m wondering, ‘Well, what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this?’ I’ve never made jokes like this as long as we’ve been on the air, 30 long years, and you can’t really be doing jokes like that. And I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself.
“And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer ‘Newshour’ – this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, was talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old girl, and 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. And I’m certainly – ” (audience applause) “- thank you. 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.” (audience applauds) “Thank you. 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. Thank you very much.” (audience applause).

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