The Imus Standard: Should Letterman Be Fired?

A friend of mine sent a link to a website that advocates CBS firing late-night host David Letterman for his over-the-top jokes about Sarah Palin and her children. The site tells readers what they can do to help make this firing happen.

But should Letterman be fired?

His so-called jokes were crass and tasteless. Not only did he refer to Palin herself as being “slutty,” but he used a crude sexual reference to Palin’s 14-year-old daughter Willow, whose only sins are the fact that she is a Palin and she attended a Yankees game with her mother in NYC.

Letterman’s first attempt at an apology was half-witted and half-hearted. His excuse that he mistook the 14-year-old Willow for 18-year-old Bristol was disingenuous at best. Does the fact that Bristol is now (barely) of age and an unwed mother make it OK to attack her thusly?

Now a new, lengthier apology is out, with Letterman saying that “if you have to explain the joke, it’s not a very good joke.” Hmmm…his audience that night guffawed right along with him. However, the Palin family has graciously accepted his apology.

Regardless of whether you agree that it’s OK to drag Sarah Palin’s children through the political mud (I have seen arguments for and against), again, I ask the question: should Letterman be fired?

I would say no. And here’s why:

No, I am not a David Letterman fan. I think he’s smarmy, smug, and seriously un-funny. But neither am I a Don Imus fan and I didn’t think he deserved to be fired for his “nappy haired ho’s” comment about the Rutgers ladies’ basketball team a couple of years back.

There are a few differences between the Letterman and Imus flaps. Letterman’s jokes were scripted and went through the stages of writing, rewriting, and final approval before the taping of the show. A lot of people saw them and thought they were just fine. Imus made an off the cuff comment during a live broadcast. Tasteless, yes, but not something he thought about previously. The apology process was a lot more different too. While Letterman first tried to justify his jokes about Willow by saying he was “confused” about which daughter really attended the game – and then asked Sarah Palin to “come on the show” – Imus not only apologized on air, but visited the Rutgers team to apologize in person and even sucked up to self-proclaimed spokesman for black people, Al Sharpton. Imus got fired anyway.

The reason, of course, is that an old white guy making any kind of slur against a protected minority group is verboten. But an old liberal white guy making crude sexual jokes about the young daughter of a conservative politician is fine, because who the hell cares what those knuckle-dragging conservatives think? Considering the relative paucity of criticism from like thinkers on the left, who would have been up in arms had a similar joke been made about Obama’s children (heaven forbid, I might add), is telling.

The double standard is astounding. However, both are examples of freedom of speech in America – not to mention examples of how low societal standards of humor have sunk. We all have the right to criticize what we don’t agree with – that’s also free speech – but to demand that Letterman be fired for exercising his rights, no matter how distasteful, smacks of totalitarianism.

If you’d like to see Letterman out on his rear, by all means vote with your remote and your wallet. Don’t watch the show and don’t patronize its sponsors. If Letterman’s ratings fall far enough, the suits at CBS will take appropriate action. And, with his most recent “mea culpa,” it’s possible that some pressure is being brought to bear – perhaps by network brass upset with the loss of some lucrative advertising sponsorship.

The same applies to Bill Maher, who took an even uglier shot at Palin and her family on his HBO weekly show Real Time with Bill Maher. Crass, vulgar, disgusting – all of those superlatives apply. But he broke no laws except those of common decency. Not that common decency often matters in the world of entertainment anymore.