Should David Letterman be fired?

When I first wrote about the inexcusable comment that David Letterman made about the daughters of Gov. Sarah Palin, I was firmly entrenched in the thought that it was political. And an insult to all women. It was more than just a “bad joke”.

To say it was merely a bad joke is to say that inferring lewd sexual acts between a young woman and a man 2x her age is occasionally good natured. Which I do not agree with. To also have that joke be ambiguous such that it can be related to a 14 year old minor is even worse.

But that is part of my problem with this whole situation. Letterman continues to insist that the joke is about an 18 year old young woman. As if that excuses the whole thing. As if everyone had understood that he was directing the joke at this young woman, as he now claims, that it would have been ok. No, it does not become ok just because one daughter is of legal age and another is not.

But the people now calling for Letterman to be fired are solely focused on the 14 year old. Because it adds fire to the flame. Inferring that an 18 year old is fair game. Which I beg to differ on.

If the calls for Letterman to be fired were solely based on the repulsive nature of the comment, and the fact that it was driven by Letterman’s barely held back hate of Conservatives and Republicans, then I can see its merit. There is little difference in what Letterman said and Don Imus.

After Don Imus publicly insulted the Rutgers basketball team, I was among those calling for him to be fired. Because he attacked a group of young women, without cause, who were non-public entities. In addition the attack by Imus was the kind of racial commentary that led to lynchings in the (not very distant) past.

A public figure, lashing out at non-public figures in a manner that is solely meant to denigrate the attacked is always wrong. And I support the removal of that public figure for such actions. It doesn’t matter if that person is White, Black, Hispanic, Male, Female, or whatever. The public airwaves are a sacred ground with protections that only mean something if we enforce them.

The Palin daughters are not public figures. The Governor of Alaska is. So just in the same way that attacks against the Obama daughters are insanely wrong, or attacks on college teams, or against your family, to attack the Palin’s is the same thing. Something that I find extreme Liberals like Letterman, and much of the major news media, fail to comprehend.

So that reasoning is worthy of firing Letterman. It is the same reason that Embassy Suites pulled their advertising from his show. Insulting women, because of a political belief of the attacker, just to be cruel and vile is hardly worth defending, or supporting with advertising.

Thus the focus really should shift from the claim that this was about a minor. This was a political attack and an attack that covered ANY young woman in a manner we would like to believe does not exist in the 21st century.

So does Letterman deserve to be fired?

Well this was done on public airwaves. It took a week before enough pressure hit Letterman to force him to make a barely sincere apology. In fact in reading his apology it becomes clear that this is more of a tactic to preserve his job than remorse over what was said, or the motivation for what spurred it.

Given how well this lines up to the reasons that Don Imus was rightly fired, I would have to say yes. David Letterman deserves to be fired. It is a terrible way to end a 30 year career, but Letterman knew what he was doing, and he didn’t care as long as he got to grandstand his hate of Conservatives and Republicans – especially in the case of Gov. Sarah Palin.

Will Letterman be fired? I doubt it. He has a huge following. He is a huge political supporter. He has the general support of Hollywood and the media in this political climate. His contempt of Conservative views is lauded across the internet and major media. He will more than likely weather this storm.

But I say again, David Letterman is the same as Don Imus in this situation. Thus I support the same end result. CBS should fire him now.