Insane Celebrity Sarah Palin
Amusing Celebrity David Letterman
Let’s keep this short, as not to give any more hot air to this sad media cyclone.
David Letterman’s “I was referring to older daughter” excuse when defending his Top 10 list about Sarah Palin’s trip to New York was an unsuccessful attempt to dodge a credible complaint. Palin wasn’t at the game with her older daughter, Bristol; she was there with her 14-year-old, Willow. The CBS host should have copped to the actual concern rather than make it sound as if no reasonable person could have possibly concluded he was joking about a young teen getting pregnant.
That said: The way Palin has managed to turn Letterman’s jokes into an increasingly dramatic media spectacle centered around her underage daughter’s sexual well being is so icky — an opportunistic overreaction that would seem more damaging to her teen’s self-esteem than the original joke.
In response to an invitation by Letterman to come on his show, Palin’s office replied: “It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman” — stunningly upping the ante by suggesting the veteran host should now be considered some kind of sex offender. Today Palin demanded Letterman apologize to all women, while John McCain, in a Constitution-shredding suggestion, said Palin deserves protection from the jokes of late-night hosts.
Palin is like some kind of fictional character. A real-life Dolores Umbridge or Nurse Ratched or Annie Wilkes.
She rallies a certain brand of conservative ideology, but her highly effective media manipulation tactics — a double-edged brand of playing the victim while throwing divisive, low-blow punches — are offensive in a way that ought to transcend ideology or gender. Her biggest impact always seems to be convincing Americans to start fighting with each other, a pied piper of online message board anger. So I’ve been reluctant to post this (even though I obviously did) because Palin seems like an entity that can only be dispelled by withdrawing your attention from her; criticizing Palin means she wins.
