Will Letterman Face the Fire He Threw Without Mercy?

by Tim Slagle

When felons were induced to talk, they were shown first the instruments of their torture. The King is shown the instrument of His… to induce Him NOT to talk.  - The Madness of King George

And with the full knowledge of what will happen next, the current King of Late Night. David Letterman announced to the world that he has been guilty of sexual indiscretions with some of his staff.

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 That had to be difficult. Over the past 27 years we’ve enjoyed watching Letterman take apart people who have fallen prey to simple human urges. From Gary Hart’s Monkey Business, through Woody Allen and Soon Yi, into the Clinton years, and right up to the Palin scandal that forced an apology; David Letterman has been right on top of others’ indiscretions.

So he knew what he is facing. In a stifled apology on his show last night that sounded like it was written by Garrison Keillor, he got remorseful with the audience:

Maybe this looks better to you at noon, but six in the morning all you can think about is every terrible thing you’ve ever done in your entire life.

I am motivated by guilt…I’m just a towering mass of Lutheran Midwestern guilt

But you have to give Dave credit. He did do the right thing. A person of Letterman’s wealth and power could have paid the guy off. He also could have gone across the hall and had the guy fired.

I’m sure that CBS News, and “48 Hours,” both still reeling from the Memo-Gate scandal of 2004, would Rather have swept the whole thing under the rug (capitalization intended). They could have quietly dispatched him, and with a few well-placed phone calls made certain the guy never worked in another news room ever again. (As it looks now, Robert Halderman might be editing a Prison Newsletter in the near future.)

Yet, as Greg Gutfeld observed, he did the Right thing (again, capitalization intended). Many similar scandals have been worsened with a botched cover-up. This takes more courage from someone like Letterman, who knows all too well, the implements of his impending torture.

So now we wait for the court of Late Night to pronounce verdict. Will the other hosts show a little professional courtesy, or will they attack with all the bluster that Dave has attacked others in this predicament?

There is too much here NOT to go after: Ironic that Halderman wrote the Letter, and Letterman did the Handling.

And  these women should have KNOWN  they were working inside Worldwide Pants.

The top-ten lists practically write themselves.

I’m predicting that almost all the Late Nights will go after it. There’s just too much competition between the shows to let it lay. It would be hard not to.

Most interesting will be Craig Ferguson’s response. Craig actually works for the Pants, so it will be interesting to see if Craig’s impish personality will trump his corporate loyalty (assuming he’s even free to even mention it).

On the other hand, I think Bill Maher won’t touch it. Something tells me that Bill has several skeletons in his OWN closet, and will avoid it like a real debate. No sense setting up your own inquisition.

And the biggest question of all, what will David do?

Stay tuned!


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Posted Oct 2nd 2009 at 2:59 pm in Culture, Featured Story, Politics, Television | 129 Comments