Letterman over the line on Palin daughter?

[Hot Mega]

Now we're equating jokes about a girl getting pregnant with someone being brutally murdered.

Nice.

No. Read the original response where I challenged the notion that jokes are just jokes and that while you are free to joke about what you want some jokes are clearly over the line.

 

[Neutron66]

No. Read the original response where I challenged the notion that jokes are just jokes and that while you are free to joke about what you want some jokes are clearly over the line.

But what's the point? Letterman did not make a joke about murder. He made a joke about a public figures daughter getting pregnant.

 

[Hot Mega]

But what's the point? Letterman did not make a joke about murder. He made a joke about a public figures daughter getting pregnant.

Again to understand the context, read my original response to "squallumz" (I think) in this thread...

 

[Stacey]

Letterman didn't go to far. Do we really need to freak out about what a comedic talk show host says? He tells jokes. Some are good, some are bad. Think of how much time is going to be spent when everyone thats ever been the punchline of a joke is required to get airtime on CNN to gripe about it.
And as an aside, please keep in mind that Palin is considering a run in 2012. Does that mean that if she wins, Conan, Dave and everyone else will not be allowed to do jokes about presidents anymore?
Someone slap the bitch and tell her to use the pair she took from her hubby.

 

[odnamra]

F Sarah Palin and all her kids (ALL OF THEM!). She should spend her time doing research on Russia than talking about late night jokes. IF she is serious of running this country get rid of the $200,000 clothes and focus on the people who cant afford to feed their kids.

 

[Mrs Jolly]

We can argue about it being funny/not funny or about he 14 year old or the 18 year old all night. More worrying should be the form and tone of the protest. Someone running for office is going to need thicker skin than that. The exchange with Matt Laurer was surreal. Could you imagine Maggie Thatcher getting bent out shape by a gag? They blew up half of her cabinet in a bombing raid and she got up the next morning and dusted herself off and went back to work.

 

[kalmak]

i would love that to be true, but currently that's impossible. at this point it almost seems like if you have children you should avoid public office. even the obamas can't avoid this - look at the hype surrounding those little girls.

i seriously wish palin's children well. she is a bimbo with a list of talking points, but she took an active role including those kids in her public life.

Are you serious? Tell me one mean thing anyone has said about Obama's kids and he takes them all over the place with him. Hell Hillary had Chelsea on the campaign trail and when someone asked her how she felt when her dad got VD from Lewinsky the press went bat shit about it. Yet we had weekly jokes about Palin's kids and does anyone forget the months and months we had to put up with the pictures of Bush's daughters running around.

And stop with the bimbo and talking points bullshit too. Obama was a senator for what 3 weeks before he started to run for office. He said himself when he was elected to the senate he would not run for president because he would have to start campaigning right away. Guess what, he ran for president. Go look at their political backgrounds during the campaign. He had vastly less executive experience than that dumb bimbo from Alaska did.

 

[max0rz]

lol, Fox and Palin are trying to turn this into the rights Imus moment.

Dave c*cked up though. While the joke may certainly have been over the line, his biggest mistake was bringing up Palin again. She was in town, relatively incognito, and then he just had to go and give her a buttload of attention.

 

[Hot Mega]

Are you serious? Tell me one mean thing anyone has said about Obama's kids and he takes them all over the place with him. Hell Hillary had Chelsea on the campaign trail and when someone asked her how she felt when her dad got VD from Lewinsky the press went bat shit about it. Yet we had weekly jokes about Palin's kids and does anyone forget the months and months we had to put up with the pictures of Bush's daughters running around.

And stop with the bimbo and talking points bullshit too. Obama was a senator for what 3 weeks before he started to run for office. He said himself when he was elected to the senate he would not run for president because he would have to start campaigning right away. Guess what, he ran for president. Go look at their political backgrounds during the campaign. He had vastly less executive experience than that dumb bimbo from Alaska did.

Palin is an imbecile and little more than a female Dan Quayle. She is a walking talking point and has proven time and time again she unravels around the simplest of questioning that deviates in the least from her mental Rolodex of preprogrammed responses.

Every two-bit mayor has so-called executive experience does that mean they now possess the statesmanship and judgement necessary to lead the world's greatest nation?

Your judgement and ideals are put on display for to all see when you campaign. The electorate is able to see you speak and represent yourself more than enough to come to a rational perception of your abilities. All this nonsense about the media this, the media that is just more childish bull and further evidence that she is no leader...but a whiner IMO.

With all the hit pieces and hatchet jobs Fox hurled at Obama...he didn't once whine about it. Because at the end of it, it's not about Fox or any other media outlet..It's about your ability (or inability) to represent yourself and convey your ideas.

Having said all that, I felt this joke about her daughter was out of line...I know people will disagree and have disagreed...that's why I posed the question. I don't even feel all jokes about these people's kids is out of bounds but IMO this one was.

 

[titsrock]

What training did Palin possess for her executive positions? Will Obama ever say something as stupid as "seeing Russia from my doorstep"?

Letterman's poor humor has tossed a bone to Palin. Her turning this into a media tour now smells of opportunism and, why not, it's not like the GOP has anything else going on.

I have changed my mind on this and I hope Letterman takes on Palin. All of this stuff might be useful in the next election cycle-- "Sarah Palin cares more about going on press tours in Manhattan than on running Alaska..."

Anything that makes Palin less and less of a "leader" and more of a celebrity works for me...

 

[nylo]

I'm getting really fucking sick and tired of this kind of BULLSHIT in the media. Uhhh, the last time I check Palin is a public figure..so her family and etc are open for satire. And if she doesn't like it, go fuck herself

The last time I checked, the law does not protect your feelings. I'm sick of all these people whining because someone's feelings got hurt and etc. Too fucking bad, get some guts for once in your life. I don't see a damn thing wrong with what Letterman said...it was a JOKE, you know a JOKE. If I was Dave, I would have been screw them. I'm sick of these whiny, pansy asses carrying on because someone made a joke about them or whathaveyou. Well guess what if you are a public figure, you are going to be open to that kind of satire and if you can't handle it then you need to find a different job.

Problem is people are getting way to fucking sensitive and then whine when someone has some fun at their expense. If I was a comedian and did a joke like that and then someone whined about it...it would be open season on the idiot for whining about it

:2 cents:

 

[titsrock]

^The issue involves whether or not children are *fair game* or off limits for public figures. In the past, the children of famous people would be off limits, no questions asked. It is only recently (some might say the Carter Administration--when their daughter had publicized problems) that the line between celebrities and their children has been "blurred"...

 

[lurkingdirk]

^The issue involves whether or not children are *fair game* or off limits for public figures. In the past, the children of famous people would be off limits, no questions asked. It is only recently (some might say the Carter Administration--when their daughter had publicized problems) that the line between celebrities and their children has been "blurred"...

it is all relative - letterman made a joke about an 18 year old, who was pregnant, getting pregnant. making a lewd joke about the obama girls would not be the same. letterman has made jokes about how the media talks about the obama girls as "impossibly cute" to great comedic effect. so...he has made jokes about the obama girls. appropriate jokes. seems to me that the joke about the legal adult getting knocked up (when she had recently been pregnant) is equally appropriate.

don't like it? she could have avoided putting her family in the public view. she didn't have to run for public office. it may not be good or right or fair or anything like that, but don't get into public office if your family is a mess.

just my opinion. it may be wrong. i seem to remember being wrong once before...

stay thirsty.

 

[DukeLaCrosse]

Yes, it was way over the line!

Could you imagine the liberal media outrage that would be happening right now if someone made a hateful comment about B.O.'s daughters.

rush limbaugh called 13-year old chelsea clinton the white house dog and there was very little media outrage. so much for your theory. it's the conservatives who are full of hate and anger

 

[mastagambit]

No I dont think Letterman crossed the line.
He's a comedian,he gets paid to make jokes.
Just like Jamie Foxx said about Mylie Cyrus, people take it too far.

 

[shayd]

Now we're equating jokes about a girl getting pregnant with someone being brutally murdered.

Nice.

It was hyperbolic, but apparently it wasn't about the murder

 

[Galactic]

I think Letterman was completely out of line joking about A-Rod knocking up Palin's daughter.

I think the issue here is that liberal bias has become a synonym for personal attacks, something of a trend that is occurring these days in rapid succession.....not sure when it became OK to viciously berate someone, but that does now seem to be par for the course.....anyhow......

.....that being said, where do we draw the line in freedom of speech? I don't know, I am honestly asking.....I respect the right of Letterman to be a moron and rip on a young girl, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. While I did not find Palin attractive in the campaign, either in politics or herself, I marvel at the unrelenting attacks this woman and her family have had to endure....I have NEVER seen this kind of assault on an individual to this extent, over this amount of time......

...personally, I think Letterman has NO room to talk.......I do think Palin's response was surprisingly well thought out and she ripped HIM a new one....I'll give her credit for that.....and I think her daughter is hot, and I would do her too. Six ways from Sunday....but that is neither here nor there......

....if this is how it's going to be for the next three and a hlaf years, all these attacks just to keep it in our minds how "horrible" she is.....fuck it dude, let's go bowling.......

 

[shayd]

^The issue involves whether or not children are *fair game* or off limits for public figures. In the past, the children of famous people would be off limits, no questions asked. It is only recently (some might say the Carter Administration--when their daughter had publicized problems) that the line between celebrities and their children has been "blurred"...

Eh, that's not entirely true. Although it obviously was a different time period, it wasn't at all uncommon in the 19th century for first ladies to be characterized in newspapers by opponents as harlots and their children bastards, which at that time was about as stinging a criticism as one could levy, and they were serious. The precedent is there.

 

[Mrs Jolly]

Look this is not about off limit "kids". These teenage parents got $300,000 for pictures of the baby. They are 18: old enough to die in a war. (For which they will get a lot less than three hundred big ones.) You can't have it both ways - they only got the money because of who they were, not what they did (Have a nice shag). Such blatant self promotion comes with both rewards and a price. Send the money back and I'll take the claims of trumped up outrage a little more seriously.

We can turn this around and put it in terms we all understand. Would you take $300,000 dollars to find yourself the butt of a joke that nobody remembered the next day until your mum decided to use it as a tool to up her national recognition?

 

[Hot Mega]

Eh, that's not entirely true. Although it obviously was a different time period, it wasn't at all uncommon in the 19th century for first ladies to be characterized in newspapers by opponents as harlots and their children bastards, which at that time was about as stinging a criticism as one could levy, and they were serious. The precedent is there.

Two different things IMO. Political, etc. opponents have said all kinds of awful, insulting things about one another. Even though that's a different subject, the question even with that isn't precedence but appropriateness.

It's a legitimate question to ask whether or not it's appropriate for a mainstream comedian to be making sexually provocative jokes about the teenage children of public figures.