Well it’s just embarrassing that this exaltation of David Letterman’s accessories remains on the page in light of recent events. It’s a bit late to join the commentary, but surely once the slow trickle of the scandal’s subsequent investigation and trial begins, it’ll become a fashionable meme to meme about once more.
If you’ve not heard about the whole deal with Letterman, he was about a month ago unsuccessfully extorted by a CBS news producer who had damning information about Letterman having sex with female staff members at his show in recent or distant years. It’s true, it turns out, and the newsosphere has, true to form, been respecting the privacy, past, and personal lives of the women involved. When they had sex doesn’t matter in terms of the public caring about the sanctity of marriage and family. I feel awful for the humiliation he visited upon his wife Regina Lasko, but if she wants to be left alone, then she should. This isn’t her fault.
As “the boss,” he is responsible for setting the tone for his entire workplace—and he did that with sex.
–Terry O’Neill, president of NOW
At this point, it seems that the sex was consensual and he did not coerce the relationship with promises or threats relating to their job. But how is that basis for the (sadly unsurprising) praise he’s received for “manning up” and controlling the spread of the news story by announcing the details on his show first? Good job for admitting this huge lapse of personal ethics and creating a hostile, uncomfortable workplace. His sticking it to the blackmailer and bringing this embarrassment on the women he knows only strengthens my resolve to continue watching the show. He called his behavior “creepy” so I forgive him.
It is beyond ridiculous that the response to the show is continuing as if it’s business as usual. The ratings are up 36% since his admission; 55% of viewers polled said their perception of Letterman hasn’t changed, and for 23%, it’s gone up. Gone up? There is no balanced situation in which a male millionaire boss can have sex with his female assistant. No matter how they feel about each other, that power structure is always going to be in his favor when he tells her to do something for him that she is bound by her occupation to carry out.
I have had sex with women who worked on this show. And would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would. Especially for the women.
–David Letterman
With the intent of getting a cheap laugh, Letterman demonstrated something else very clearly: men feel like they can get away with anything, and women ought to be ashamed of their sexuality. Rather than addressing the obvious issue of sexual harassment and that these women worked for him, he made it into a joke. You do this sort of thing, you shouldn’t be in charge of people.
