Okay. More b.s. on the David Letterman reporting watch. This is not a matter of taking him off the hook. I don't know the exact details, but having sex with subordinates is inherently problematic. But, let's not go here:
Mr. Letterman admitted "creepy" affairs with CBS employees in a tone so glib and deadpan that the audience couldn't be blamed for assuming that this stand-up comedian, now back at his desk after his monologue, was still joking.
Letterman's comments overall come off somewhat differently. He said things in a deadpan fashion, but the audience knows a bit or two about the guy, including him dealing with a stalker, someone conspiring to kidnap his son, and more. Also, something that involved both his attorney and the district attorney was clearly not overly light fare. And, the "creepy" comment came after talking about finding a letter early one morning in his car threatening something "embarrassing" and so forth. He himself didn't say the affairs were "creepy."
The article also notes:
Mr. Letterman noted that it would be embarrassing for his liaisons to be publicly known, then paused a beat. "Especially for the women."
Actually, he rhetorically asked if it would be, then said it "perhaps" would be and only then makes the self-effacing comment about the women. But, then he says it is up to the women to decide if they want to talk about it. And, that he did not want some person threatening to tell unless Letterman supplied two million dollars. Letterman was being serious among the jokes. This deep down clearly was no laughing matter, and we know he knew it, but again, you wouldn't quite know it from the article. Next:
On the air he had let his fans in on his infatuation with Stephanie Birkitt
To be honest, that is not how I read it, but in hindsight, his kidding has that feel about it. Some question Letterman joking about public officials having sexual embarrassments, suggesting he is being hypocritical or something. Not only does this account suggest he makes jokes at his own expense too, but some late night comedian is not the same thing as some politician. And, comics make jokes about some subjects that might affect them too, if we knew their life story.
Anyway, this stinks:
In his monologue on Thursday, delivered without any sign of stress or unease, Mr. Letterman made a mild joke about Roman Polanski and his arrest in Switzerland on decades-old charges of fleeing the United States after pleading guilty to having sex with a minor. By Friday morning some commentators were likening Mr. Letterman's behavior to that of Mr. Polanski, and they weren't joking.
Sure, consensual sex with adult members of the staff is akin to raping a thirteen-year-old girl, being convicted for it, but then jumping bail and going to live in comfort in France. Same thing, totally! The television columnist, who had some snarkiness that left a bad taste in the past too, ended thusly:
Thursday's admission looked a lot like calculation: Mr. Letterman made himself answerable to an audience that doesn't answer back. But it also had the feel of a Lettermanly compulsion: a talk-show host who can only speak openly on an open mike.
Is it really that strange for celebrities to make statements without submitting themselves to Q&A, especially in the middle of a criminal matter? The audience does also "answer back" in various respects, not limited to the reaction he himself sees, and how Letterman interacts with his audiences before the show as well. It also is not much to say that someone who makes a living being a talk show host that they have some sort of "compulsion" to speak to their audience, while keeping things private otherwise.
Lame stuff. The coverage has left something to be desired.