Late night talk show host David Letterman finally apologised to former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin for some tasteless jokes he made about her and her daughters on his show last Monday.
It marks the end of a bitter feud that feels like it has lasted a lot longer than a week – especially as it has meant that Sarah Palin – and Alaskan First Dude Todd – have been back on American TV screens every day since the row began.
It all started when the Palin family took a trip to New York and Letterman joked that while they were at a baseball game Mrs. Palin’s daughter was “knocked up by Alex Rodriguez” a Yankee player better known for dating Madonna.
Letterman says he was talking about Bristol Palin who is 18 and may be the most famous single mother in America. The problem is she wasn’t at the Yankee game. Only Willow Palin was – and she is only 14.
The Palin family were outraged. Todd complaining that “any jokes about raping my 14-year-daughter are despicable” Sarah called the gags ‘sexually perverted”.
It was the perfect issue to get her back in the headlines. Her base – the socially conservative Republicans who still love her – also love vitriolic attacks on the kind of celebrities they see as a liberal metropolitan elite who are intent on destroying America with their lax moral values.
No wonder Mrs. Palin refused to climb down off her high horse, even after Letterman explained he never meant to refer to anyone having sex with 14-year-old Willow. No wonder she refused point blank to go on Letterman’s show to accept his apology in person.
She was having far too good a time appearing on every other TV channel complaining “No wonder young girls especially have such low self-esteem in America when we think it’s funny for a so-called comedian to get away with such a remark as he did.”
So last night Letterman made a full and unequivocal apology. “It was a coarse joke, a bad joke,” Letterman confessed on last night’s edition of CBS’s Late Show. “The joke, really, in and of itself, can’t be defended.”
But apparently even that is not enough to stop the Fire Dave protest taking place at the taping of his show today
During the presidential election campaign Republican supporters of Palin liked to complain that she was the victim of a sexist press who were picking on her because she was a woman. As opposed to those who pick on her because they feel she was spectacularly under qualified to be vice president of the United States.
Most of the time this was a baseless complaint meant to distract from the dreadful answers she gave to – often female – interviewers who dared to ask her which news periodicals she reads.
But when David Letterman makes “jokes” saying that whilst in New York Sarah Palin “bought make up at Bloomingdales to update her slutty flight attendant look” it’s hard to say that there is no sexism involved.
It just plays into the hands of those who want to say that ALL criticism of her is because she is a woman. Something we might all hope we could move beyond in a mature democracy like America.
But Letterman is locked in a ratings battle with NBC where Conan O’Brien has just taken over as the host of the Tonight show. And all the controversy over Letterman’s Palin jokes hasn’t hurt his ratings or her profile.