Letterman has to admit it, because he needed to testify about an attempt to blackmail him over his secret sexual affairs with women who have worked with him. D’oh! And now it is revealed. How does that undermine his sweet, inept, self-mocking lecher he’s been on the show all these years.
Here’s video of the confession he did on the show last night. “I had to tell them how I was disturbed by this I was worried for myself, I was worried for my family, I felt menaced by this, and I had to tell them all of the creepy things that I have done that were going to be exposed. [Laughter.] Now why is that funny?”
He did a good job of damage control, I think. He made it sound as if it was just sex — which implies that you’re a prude if you don’t give him a pass. But sex with the women who work on his staff? This is the atmosphere of sexual harassment. What are the details that made the blackmailer think he could extort $2 million? Did some women get jobs and promotions because they were sexually available while men and other women lost out?
Troy Patterson at Slate:
Letterman is often best when, dying badly on stage, he turns his parched sarcasm back on himself. This was deadpan candor and ace crisis management. He had something to say, but this was not a confession. I notice that the first comment on Bill Carter’s NYTimes.com report on this story was blurted out by an entity calling itself “tomb”: “He did not even say he was sorry. Jerk.” Say sorry to whom? To his public? Why do we deserve an apology? What does he owe us beyond a bit of entertainment at bedtime and something to talk about in the morning?
Hanna Rosin in Double X:
We don’t, I guess. Do the women? Who knows; we don’t know anything about what actually happened. But we will hash over endless scenarios involving Letterman the sleazebag predator until he actually says something real. Which, if the comedian stereotype is true, he never will.
Very sorry to hear about the blackmail attempt. That’s a hellish and terrible thing for anyone to go through.
As for the affairs with staff members and the damage done to his family, though, you can’t be too surprised given Letterman’s contempt for women.
Hollyweird strikes again.
Yeah, he’s a leftist water-carrier and a sporadically nasty crank, but even so, my heart breaks for the guy for having his privacy violated so egregiously. Why acknowledge the extortion on the show, though? Even if the news broke in the papers, a studious silence would have led at least some people to believe that the accusations against him were bogus.
AllahPundit wonders, “Why acknowledge the extortion on the show, though? Even if the news broke in the papers, a studious silence would have led at least some people to believe that the accusations against him were bogus.” Presumably, going public gets the story behind him more quickly and garners some sympathy. Plus, he clearly doesn’t seem to be embarrassed by his own misdeeds here.
It’s going to be interesting to see what, if anything, this does to his reputation. I don’t think many people would have been much bothered by Letterman’s poking women on his staff, unless there was coercion involved (we don’t know that yet). But a married man (who has been with his wife for over 20 years) and a father doing that is something else, especially someone seen as basically an avuncular, if prickly, Midwesterner.
UPDATE: Tom Shales in WaPo
UPDATE #2: James Poulos at Pomo Con
