« Obama's job rating goes up; Politico says down | truthseeker77's Blog | Dan Froomkin fired from The Washington Post »
Did Sarah Palin really call David Letterman "pathetic"?
"for him to pick up on such as thing..a distortion...that..again..it's based on a slow news day..not having anything else to talk about...that's pretty pathetic, good old David Letterman!"
Sarah Palin, Tuesday, June 9, 2009 (audio, beginning at 5:48 spot)
From the news reports in sensationalist websites Politico and Huffington Post, I fail to see that Sarah Palin called David Letterman "pathetic," as these outlets claim.
What I understand by listening to Palin's words is that she referred to Letterman's Monday joke (that she looks like a "slutty flight attendant") as pathetic; not to the comedian as a person.
Is it not difficult to see that "that" means "his joke"?
What I understand by listening to Palin's words is that she referred to Letterman's Monday joke (that she looks like a "slutty flight attendant") as pathetic; not to the comedian as a person.
Is it not difficult to see that "that" means "his joke"?
I am not a woman, but I am going to go out on a limb and guess that they don't like to be portrayed as slutty, even by comedians.
Plus bear in mind, that Politico has gone as far as claiming that President Obama's job rating is down (when in fact it had gone up), with the intent to "shock" the reader into believing false, outrageous statements. "Palin vs. Letterman" is, after all, a more juicy storyline than "Palin vs. one joke that Letterman made."
Plus bear in mind, that Politico has gone as far as claiming that President Obama's job rating is down (when in fact it had gone up), with the intent to "shock" the reader into believing false, outrageous statements. "Palin vs. Letterman" is, after all, a more juicy storyline than "Palin vs. one joke that Letterman made."
Why is this important? Because we are being told that Sarah Palin is judging David Letterman's whole character on the basis of one botched joke. This would give the impression that Palin is over-reacting. If, on the other hand, we knew that Palin was simply upset at that one particular offensive joke, then the situation becomes much less controversial.
Also bear in mind that the Huffington Post is the Drudge of the left, in that it loves big bold misleading headlines, because it attracts many readers. In fact, the Huffington Post CHANGED THE WORDER OF THE WORDS uttered by Palin. They wrote:
"Pretty pathetic, good old David Letterman, that old David Letterman, what a commentary there ... very sad to not recognize what this trip was all about," she said.
No. Sarah Palin did not say that, and you can confirm this by listening to the audio. Of course, this arrangement of words may lead you to believe that Palin called Letterman pathetic, but that's the HuffPo's goal, as I stated above: To shock the reader into believing their crap.
We need to start taking everything the media tells us with a grain of salt. The journalism profession is rotten to the core.
Advertisement
Personally, I think Letterman is pathetic, but I agree -- that's not what Palin said.
June 10, 2009 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
HuffPost is supposed to be the left's attack dog, as if we need our own disreputable media.
June 11, 2009 2:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign.
June 11, 2009 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Audio at MSNBC has Palin saying, "That's Pretty Pathetic, Good Old David Letterman".
It looks like those "sensationalist websites" were reporting honestly. Here's the Top 10 List ion question:
Palin's story seems pretty lame to begin with. She responded to the Letterman top 10 list on John Ziegler's show broadcast from a LA Radio station, and said it was very sad that Letterman did "not recognize truth in what this trip was about...attending an Autism walk, and Helping The Independent Living Home in New York for those who have disabilities".
Why can't Palin tell the truth? This is utter BS. She was in DC June 8th, 2009, to attend a political GOP fundraiser that raised $14.5 million for Republican Senate and House members. Before that, on June 6th, 2009, she was riding in a parade in Audburn, NY, to celebrate their celebrate their inaugural Founder's Day and raise money for a museum honoring William Seward. It was paid for by SarahPAC. June 7th, 2009, she was honored at an anniversary celebration for the Long Island-based Independent Group Home Living Inc. at a $125-a-plate dinner, but that came after she'd gone to see a Yankee Game with her husband, daughter Willow and a sister.
Palin was politiking, East Coast to West Coast, plain and simple, even though the Alaska legislature is presently in session, and about to override her accepting stimulus bill money veto. She deserved everything Letterman said about her.
June 11, 2009 6:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Pseudo, linking to the audio was unnecessary, as I already posted a link to the same interview.
and I doubt that typing up Letterman's top 10 list somehow proved that Palin called Letterman "pathetic."
What she called "pretty pathetic" was his joke; what she called his "distortion" and "not having anything else" to talk about that particular day.
She did not say Letterman was a pathetic person.d
Politico says she said Letterman "is pathetic."
To say "Pseudo's comment was useless," and 'Pseudo is useless" are two different things, for example.
June 11, 2009 7:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for your post. The top ten seems almost tame to me, considering the skewering she deserves. She come out like an attack dog against her foes and then as the victim whenever anyone characterizes her as the empty dress she is.
June 11, 2009 7:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Empty dress?
LOL
That's a keeper.
June 11, 2009 7:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, she called him pathetic in that one instance.
No, she didn't call him pathetic generally, but she herself was pathetic and patronizing in calling him "Good old David..."
She of course added her distortion in, re "slow news day". The Top 10 List isn't dependent on "fast news" and it's comedy.
As for "slutty", that wasn't applied to Palin, but to a style of dress or "look" she arguably engages in.
Politico: “That’s pretty pathetic, good ole David Letterman.”
That's not what you represented. But you are correct that HuffPo rearranged part of the text. It's not clear how significant that rearrangement was in fact, since the missing "that" is clearly implicit in their version.
June 11, 2009 8:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good points. I wonder if she would welcome another discussion with a world leader. Getting "punked" by the Sarkozy aper wasn't the joke; her conversation when she thought she was talking to the president of France was the joke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGbtN92Mc14
It started like this: "This is Sarah. Helooooooooo!"
Later, "Senator McCain and I love you...."
Yeah. She is presidential material alright!
She is a joke.
June 11, 2009 7:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is really annoying that HuffPo gets all the attention that TPM deserves. We're better attack dogs that they are any day and we call each other out on our own errors.
June 11, 2009 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I tend to think that Palin, in her convoluted way of speaking, was trying to call David Letterman pathetic. Which explains why she threw in that Hollywood crowd comment.
Regardless, I’m still trying to get over the fact that she is miffed that someone called her names. Little Miss, Barack Obama is a socialist who pals around with terrorist?
June 11, 2009 9:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
The plainest thing about Palin is her thin skin, the second is her lack of any depth.
June 11, 2009 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
So it's OK for Letterman to make that joke about her daughter and A-Rod???
June 11, 2009 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Given the blatant hypocrisy of Sarah Palin, and her willingness to use her daughter as a political tool, yes, the joke was fair play:
Bristol is a poster-child for the miserable failure of abstinence-only sex education. Why is Sarah Palin hustling her daughter on National TV?June 11, 2009 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Two wrongs don't make a right. I don't think the kids actions justify Letterman taking potshots at her. Why couldn't he just stick with Madonna? The really sick thing is that people in the audience laughed at it.
June 11, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Bill is mixing up serious campaign talk from 2008 with post election comedy routines aimed at MRS Palin. It would have been atrocious if a leading Democratic Party mouthpiece had said something like that in Oct. 2008.
The one thing I will give the Palins is that assuming that Bristol wasn't in NYC at all on this trip, his joke really did in fact reference a daughter who was there even if he [erroneously] thought/meant Bristol. That makes his apology deceitful - he should have said he'd been misinformed about which daughters were there, or he should have said the joke was meant to violate space and time. I didn't catch him doing either. So I can see why the Palins didn't drop it. A deceitful apology is just adding insult to injury.
btw, I think it was clearly a shot at Palin as a less than perfect mother rather than a shot at her kids.
June 12, 2009 3:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is probably just a weird coincidence, but my neighbor, the very bad Republican, paid his illegal Guatemalan housekeeper $200 to change her name to Sarah Palin and dress like a slutty flight attendant while she cleans.
This worked out better than you might expect, because a few weeks later he was raided by La Migra and his housekeeper hid in the bathroom.
"Who's in there?" says La Migra, and my neighbor says "Sarah Palin."
La Migra immediately removed their propeller beanies and ran out of the house, meanwhile screaming at the bathroom door...
"Ave Sarah, bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres!"
June 11, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Harharharhar!!!
June 11, 2009 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of all the things people are calling each other these days, this is what's getting attention?
David Letterman is forced to explain and apologize for using the word "slutty" in the top ten list of a comedy show.
What about the pro-hate speech of Bill O'Reilly--Tiller Tiller the Baby Killer?
(Truthseeker, I know you didn't make that false equivalency, and that wasn't the intention of your post--it's just my take on the broader context of all this.)
June 11, 2009 4:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
No - I think Letterman is rightly being forced to explain why he's going after the 18-year old daughter and making jokes about her getting knocked up by A-Rod.
Alot of attention has also been placed on the O'Reilly incident as well.
June 11, 2009 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
She is eighteen, and has placed herself out into the public sphere, ludicrously attempting to pass herself off as a spokesperson for abstinence-only contraceptive. That's like appointing Cheney to be The USA's UN Representative for Human Rights.
Sarah Palin is pandering her daughter off to the public as a part of her political scheming. It's Tawdry Mother/Daughter Media Whoring. Given the circumstances, maybe ludicrous is an inapt adjective. Any of the following would properly convey the concept, while exposing methods for further satiric usage:
- asinine - - cockeyed - - immodest - - impetuous
- imprudent - - insouciant - - opprobrious - - perverse
- profligate - - seedy - - temerarious
Palin salaciously placed her daughter up on the spotlit catwalk in a compromising position, motivated out of an ignoble lusting for political gain, and now feigns sanctimonious outrage, when her bluff got called. Again, Bristol is Eighteen, and has obviously made herself a public figure. She's fair game.June 11, 2009 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fair game for what? I would say fair game for people to objectively criticize her positions. That's fine. But for Letterman to suggest that she is getting knocked up by A-Rod? You think she's fair game to be personally attacked? C'mon - that's very tasteless and shouldn't be allowed.
June 11, 2009 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
The question is: Did David Letterman really call Sarah Palin slutty? I have said it before and will say it again - This kind of ad hominem attack is unacceptable whether it comes from limbaugh or letterman and whether it's directed at Obama or Palin.
June 11, 2009 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who cares what he called Sarah. The bigger deal is that he went after her 18 yr old daughter and said she got knocked up by A-Rod.
June 11, 2009 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe I just said I care what he says about Sarah. And, yes, the same applies to her daughter. Feel free to proceed if you want to stoop to the limbaugh's level.
June 11, 2009 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
What does this have to do with limbaugh? Letterman made a really bonehead remark by going after her 18-yr old daughter. I was pointing out that the remark about the daughter was worse IMHO than the remark about the governor. It was disgusting that people in the audience actually laughed. He should have just apologized.
June 11, 2009 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Letterman proved just how out of touch he is from reality with his "makeup from Bloomingdale" quip. This remark came dangerously close to defaming Wasilla, Alaska, where everyone applies their make-up with tattoo needles.
June 11, 2009 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Heh! Slamming Wasila is good. Slamming Sarah and Bristol is bad.
June 12, 2009 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Letterman IS pathetic. He makes his living being mean to other people in public and then ducking by claiming he was just joking. In this case, about a child.
If you think his jokes about Palin's daughters are okay, just wait until the Obama kids hit their teens.
The tactic of making some women 'saints' and other women 'sluts' has long been a tradition and is enforced by demeaning those who have 'fallen.'
Bristol is indeed a poster child for the unworkability of abstinence but it is now not at all unsurprising that she realizes that the cost of unplanned pregnancy is too great.
As far as abstinence goes I offer the following:
God tried a just say no policy in the Garden of Eden. It didn't work there. What makes you think you are better than God?
June 11, 2009 7:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Comedy is comedy. There are no sacred cows and if Bristol wants to get up on stage as a single mother and preach abstinence, when we know from her earlier comments she believes it is unreasonable, then that's what happens. Comics will exploit any vulnerability there is and then create a few more. That is what they do.
If Bristol were not Sarah Palin's daughter, she never would have been given the role in the first place. An 18 year old from Wasilla, Alaska, is their national spokesperson?!?! It's just another way to give money to Sarah without actually giving Sarah money. Now THAT's pathetic.
June 11, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, of course the line was otta-line. But the Palin family has made a choice not to deal with the pregnancy of their daughter quietly.
Without looking for Bristol information I've seen it on the cover of "People" and on national TV on "Today." She may not be educated, but make no mistake Bristol is smart. She artfully dodged every single question Matt Lauer asked.
The Palins should have more carefully watched their daughter(s). What happened could have been prevented. I'm sorry they feel insulted but they have brought it on themselves and are now trying to make it work for them in their typical bizarre way.
June 11, 2009 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink