Sebastian Gray at HillBuzz has been giving lessons this week on how to get David Letterman fired for his rape jokes about Gov. Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old daughter, Willow.
Today he has a post explaining that Republicans do not have the same tenacity as Democrats in working the system to get what they want — in this case, persuading CBS to fire David Letterman. He is correct. However, there is a bonanza of empowerment in it for Republicans if we make this a fight we are determined to win.
Sebastian says it will take 30 days of daily letter-writing to CBS and Letterman’s advertisers. That’s because for the first two or three weeks, they’ll just wait for the tempest to blow over. Not only do we have to keep it up, we have to make it build. This is our line in the sand. Letterman MUST BE FIRED NOW!!!
I hope you read Sebastian’s entire post because if you do, it will totally change how you advocate for yourself and your causes. In the following passage he describes how Republicans can benefit from getting Letterman fired:
So, I’m interested to see how long Republicans can keep the pressure up on The Olive Garden, Mars Candy, and Kelloggs in particular. Losing those three big accounts will make CBS apoplectic. I think it’s a valuable lesson to both CBS and Letterman personally to see how many advertisers drop him if we keep this pressure up for 30 days. To my knowledge, Republicans have never stayed focused on anything that long, losing interest in protesting after a day or two, and then probably going off to play golf.
Meanwhile, on the blue side of the aisle, we continue to be busy, busy, little letter-writing bees…with the busiest and buzziest being Sharpton, a man we personally find as repugnant as Letterman (but for different reasons), but a man no one here could ever claim was not effective.
The advertisers will all buckle in the end…but it will take a few weeks for them to stop listening to CBS’s line that “this will all blow over, just watch.”
If you take this opportunity to use Democrats’ favorite tricks against them and you don’t let this blow over, Republicans could very well be surprised to learn a whole new set of tools to get what they want from the MSM and liberal elite. Jessie sure was surprised to have a glimpse of how things are done on my side of the aisle – you can be pleasantly surprised like that too.
But first you have to work hard to get there.
To do this right, we need the lists of the contact info for the members of the Board of Directors for each company, and the “C” suite (chief executive officer, chief financial officer, etc.). This is more than I can take on for each one of the these companies. But if my readers will help with the research and share it here in the comments, I’ll update the post.
Here is the list of Letterman’s advertisers, which I received via e-mail from the “2012 Draft Sarah Committee”:
Mars Candy
Mars North America
100 International Drive
Mount Olive, NJ 07828
Tel: 1 973 691 3536 [Media],
1 800 627 7852 [Consumers]
Fax:1 973 691 3829
http://www.mars.com/global/News+and+Media/Media+Contacts.htm
email – form – http://www.mars.com/global/Contact+us/Media+contacts+North+America.htm
Best Western
Best Western International, Inc.
Customer Relations Department
Telephone: 1-800-528-1238
Fax: 623-780-6199
Email: customerservice@bestwestern.com
Regular Mail: PO Box 10203
Phoenix, AZ 85064
Attn: Customer Service
Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation 1
680 Capital One Drive McLean, VA 22102
1/703-720-1000
On The Border Restaurants
Brinker International
6820 LBJ Freeway
Dallas, TX 75240
(972) 980-9917
Contact at:
http://www.ontheborder.com/contact/contact.asp
Phone:1-800-983-4637
Intel – Website contact page: http://www.intel.com/feedback.htm?iid=ftr+contact
Corporate Mailing Address
2200 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95054-1549
USA
(408) 765-8080
JohnFreida.com – Contact page: http://www.johnfrieda.com/event.asp?action=entry&EventCode=jfcontact
Consumer Relations Dept
Kao Brands Company
2535 Spring Grove Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45214
Phone – 1-800-521-3189
DiTech – Not sure if this is Ditech financial , or Ditech networks and don’t know if they are one and the same.
Lexus
P.O. Box 2991 – Mail Drop L201
Torrance, CA 90509-2991
http://www.lexus.com/contact/ (Go to this page and click the “e-mail” button
Phone: 1-800-255-3987
TTY/TTD Users: 1-800-443-4999
Fax: 1-310-468-2992
Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 9 p.m., EST
Saturday, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., EST
Earn My Degree
WCS
157 Yesler Way Suite 200
Seattle WA
United States 98121
206-812-4653
information@worldclassstrategy.com
Bowflex -Nautilus, Inc.
Global Headquarters
16400 SE Nautilus Drive
Vancouver, WA 98683
1 360 859 2900
PublicRelations@nautilus.com
Contact page- http://www.bowflexrevolution.com/nautilus_incorporated/contactus.jsp?lid=Contact+Us+-+ContactUs
LasikPlus
7840 Montgomery Road
Cincinnati OH 45236
Telephone: 513-792-9292
Toll-Free: 800-688-4550
Fax: 513-792-5620
Email: bkise@lca.com
Contact page- http://www.lasikplus.com/ir/contacts.html
EBay
eBay Inc.
2145 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125
Media relations – (408) 376-7458
Contact page – http://news.ebay.com/about.cfm
True Credit
TrueCredit
100 Cross Street, Suite 202
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
866-212-2170 (only contact number 2012 Draft Sarah Committee could find)
CBSports.com – Contact page: http://www.cbssports.com/help/contactus/usersspeak
Headquarters
2200 West Cypress Creek Road
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
Phone: (954) 351-2120
Update: Welcome, Instapundit readers! I will be adding posts regularly with the contact info for the right people to write/e-mail to persuade CBS to fire Letterman, so please check back often AND let me know what you are doing to get Letterman fired!
Via Instapundit: An Austin, Texas, jeweler has filed an FCC complaint against David Letterman. Strangely, although both comments state their support for the jeweler, the story says commenters are threatening to boycott him.
P.S.
For notice of new posts on getting Letterman fired, please follow me on Twitter: @conservativelez. Let’s tag our tweets with “#Letterman.”
Update, 6/13: Michelle Malkin’s syndicated column yesterday did not call for Letterman to be fired, but made the case:
Face it: David Letterman, late-night entertainer-turned-partisan hack/hitman has a deranged obsession with Sarah Palin and her family that has crossed into rank bigotry and hatred. If the CBS network cares about basic standards of decency on public airwaves and if it cares at all about bolstering its shrinking audience, the network honchos will get Letterman a therapist pronto.
Over the past year, Letterman has displayed his sexist, elitist stripes in jibe after jibe aimed at Palin. Taken cumulatively, Letterman’s mockery is about much more than expressing contempt for the popular GOP governor. It’s a handy device to deride a broad class of working-class and middle-class women he holds in contempt ….
Update, June 13: Ace of Spades HQ, thanks for the link! Together we can show the liberal media that rape jokes are never funny and that we conservatives have the backs of our fellow conservatives. If we learn ’em now, it will save us a heap o’ hassle later — a stitch in time, saves nine, and all that.
Update, June 13: There’s a “Fire David Letterman” rally scheduled on Monday, June 15, at the time and location where “The Late Show with David Letterman” is taped:
Time of rally: 4:30 to 6:30 pm
Location:
The Ed Sullivan Theater (sidewalks in front)
1697 Broadway
Between West 53rd and West 54th Streets
New York, NY 10019-6119You may bring signs, but please keep them “G” or “PG” rated — after all, we are trying to make a point about the boundaries of good taste and good character.
Daily Kos has a post urging its readers to attend the rally — I gather they would come as Letterman supporters. If you are new to rallies like this, stay polite and don’t engage with them, no matter how provocative they get.
Update, 6/13: Letterman is co-owner of a race car and depends on sponsors who might be sensitive to the concerns of people who object to rape jokes. Hot Air has all the contact info.
Update, 6/13: Awesome tweet from Jim Treacher:
I’m going to keep judging David Letterman by a couple of bad jokes as long as you keep judging Sarah Palin by a couple of bad interviews.
Maybe longer. No, definitely longer.
Comments
92 responses to “More on how to get Letterman fired — and why Republicans need to do so”
I’m sympathetic to your idea, but I think perhaps the most sadistic thing we could do to Letterman would be to let him stay exactly where he is. If he does, he’ll have a very large sword hanging over his desk for the rest of the time he’s on TV. Indeed, Ol’ Gap-Tooth’s tap-dancing act will henceforth make Fred Astaire look like a rank amateur.
Regardless of what Letterman says in public, he knows he’s royally f***ed up and he’s only one more joke away from getting permanently canned by the network suits. Hell, the fact he knows that we’re now all on to his shtick may very well lead to his “unexpected retirement announcement” in the very near future.
Then again, I’ll tell you what Letterman really fears: the sound of nobody laughing.
Great article… so sad to admit that Repubs do get bored and run off to play golf after a few days. They are too wussy to get real results. They really do need to learn a few new tricks. How did they get Rather fired, but are not on fire against GapTooth?
Color me confused…
I agree. We have to stand up to leftists. They do the most underhanding things to the right over far smaller violations. Yet, leftists always retreat when confronted, due to their innate cowardice.
However, the right will always have a structural disadvantage over the left, since conservatives have j0bs, families, and friends that consume their time. Leftists have none of these three things, so can devote full-time efforts towards their religion of leftism. That is why it takes 20 conservatives (who volunteer their time) to muster the effort of one leftist (who is in a salaried ‘job’ to conduct such efforts).
Out of the list of advertisers, I would focus on the biggest companies, and the deepest pockets. They have more choices, and can quickly decide to cut off Letterman and put the same money in any of 20 other choices.
So focus first on :
Mars Candy
Best Western
Intel
Lexus
eBay
Nice compilation of actions. Thank you. However, you use the term “Republican” as if they somehow stand up for decency. Sorry, but “Republican politicians” are as much for sale as all the Democrats. It’s conservatives of all stripes that should take down the 62 year old pervert. “Republicans’ are just another bunch of goons out looking for buyers.
Better than firing Letterman is to fire CBS. I quit watching CBS in 1981. Dan Rather was busy interviewing the unemployed night after night during Reagan’s first couple months and asking them how Reagan’s policies were helping them before he could even get congress to pass a single bill. I vowed to never watch CBS again and I was not even a fan or Reagan. The bias was insufferable.
Just quit watching CBS television and turn off their radio stations. I never even look to see what they are broadcasting.
I am not a Republican, though I am decidedly no longer a Democrat, and I’m not a lesbian, so take this for what it’s worth.
I’m opposed to trying to get Letterman fired; I understand the motivation behind the effort and I’m certainly sympathetic to it, and we can rest assured that if someone had made a similar comment about Chelsea Clinton the cries for his scalp from the left would be earthshaking.
But this sort of thing can backfire, and it politicizes virtually everything, which I’d think would not be a conservative position. Besides, I like watching the feminists carefully tiptoe around the issue. I wonder when American women generally will figure out that the left does not respect women generally and has no trouble with scurrilous attacks on women as women if they don’t happen to share the prevailing political viewpoint.
Important note: This is not about politics. NOW made a big stink about Rush saying something long ago. So what? We didn’t like Rush saying that, either. Liberals care about women’s dignity less than their politics and their actions prove it. It’s time to absorb this and all human rights into the very fabric of libertarian conservatism under the umbrella of “don’t tread on me.”
Mars:
John Franklyn Mars – Chairman
President and CEO – Paul S. Michaels
VP and General Manager – Mars Direct Jim Cass
You can use Yahoo Finance to find information on the C-suite for any public company.
Kellogg’s:
Kellogg Co.
One Kellogg Square
Battle Creek, MI 49016
United States – Map
Phone: 269-961-2000
Fax: 269-961-2871
Mr. A. D. David MacKay , 53
Chief Exec. Officer, Pres, Director and Member of Exec. Committee
Mr. John A. Bryant , 44
Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Exec. VP
Mr. Timothy P. Mobsby , 54
Sr. VP, Pres of Kellogg Europe and Exec. VP of Kellogg International
Mr. Paul T. Norman , 45
Sr. VP and Pres Kellogg International
Mr. Bradford J. Davidson , 48
Sr. VP and Pres of Kellogg North America
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=K
This might be a good place to start:
http://consumerist.com/259713/how-to-launch-an-executive-email-carpet-bomb
http://consumerist.com/5073844/secret-phone-numbers-and-email-addresses-to-reach-executives-at-101%252B-companies
http://executivebomb.com/
But what if I don’t give a shit?
BM,
By using those initials, do you intend to say that you ARE the shit? 😉 (Sorry, dude, it’s the obvious comeback but it’s late and I couldn’t resist.)
Cynthia
“Today he has post explaining that Republicans do not have the same tenacity as Democrats in working the system”
Well, the real issue is the average Republican just has better things to do. The liberal fringe does not.
Mister Snitch,
This is worth doing because if we don’t, we’re going to keep getting rolled. Trust me, this will take much less energy and hassle than dealing with on-going attacks. Even very rich people do not like committing career suicide and being publicly and eternally disgraced.
Cynthia
[…] its because I’m looking for work… By datechguy …but even though it would be politically advantageous to push Letterman to the brink I’m not inclined to force him out, but I’ll tell you […]
Contacted those addresses above. I do stay at the Best Western in Wooster Ohio occasionally. But, not anymore.
Quick question – so should I focus instead on writing 30 letters or 30 e-mails, is one more effective than the other?
Also, do you tend to vary letters or keep sending in your regards? I would imagine this would be hard to do 30 days in a row. Apologies, one of those conservatives who tends to be in for a penny rather than a pound and am new to a lot of this.
Rob,
Choose between letters or e-mails by what you will actually do.
Tomorrow I will have suggested text for the e-mails and letters.
If you write letters, the easy way is to learn how to do a mail merge, which inserts data such as name, address and other text in places in letters and envelopes so you can easily create 30 different letters and envelopes. So all you are doing is creating your basic letter, making a table of the contact info, then you tell Word to merge them. It’s a blast!
Cynthia
Great stuff, thanks for the article. I patronize Mars, Intel, EBay and Best Western and just finished contacting each one. It’s time that conservatives — regardless of party affiliation, for I no longer consider myself a Republican — fight fire with fire.
Great piece. I’m glad I found your blog via Instapundit. I just submitted a story to Big Hollywood linking to your post. I hope it brings you more hits. They usually post them a day or two later.
James,
Thank you! The more, the merrier!
Cynthia
I wonder, why was George Allen, a prospective Presidential candidate, totally derailed simply for using the term ‘macaca’ – not even an English word – towards a mohawked punk who was making a nuisance of himself? His illustrious political career totally halted. Why?
David Letterman not only did something much worse, but doesn’t really think it is wrong, as evidenced by his non-apology.
Then again, if we can bring down Dan Rather, we can bring down David Letterman. Just cut is advertising dollars in half, and he is done.
Thanks, I look forward to checking back.
Glad I’m learning from a good teacher!
There’s a reason why conservatives don’t do things like this: This kind of squeaky wheel activism is fundamentally unconservative. It’s conservative to allow consensus to emerge; it’s not conservative to attempt to manufacture consensus. This is why there are very few activist conservatives, and why the ones that there are seem vaguely disquieting.
Surely we can all find something more constructive to do with our time, can’t we? If CBS wants to provide late-night air time to an old man who’s metaphorically gumming his food in the corner, I say let ’em–it’ll keep occupied.
the Left is mounting a campaign against Bill OReilly too with the Dr. Tiller case.
This is silly.
I’ve had enough of the misogyny and bigotry and woman-bashing. This is my line in the sand — enough is enough.
As blogged on Hillbuzz.org, I have contacted MARS, Olive Garden and Kellogg’s, as well as writing e-mails to the female execs at CBS. I also called our local CBS affiliate. They advised me that I am one of “thousands” calling. I explained I am that I am not interested in anything CBS produces or airs until Letterman is gone, and CBS cleans up their act. I also explained this politely to the three advertisers I contacted today.
I was very proud of my son for writing CBS and quoting their own mission statement to them that they don’t discriminate on the basis of gender. He has also contacted more advertisers than I have to express his disgust.
Now some idiot at Huff n Puff has a “humor post” about the “Slutty Flight Attendants Union”….. this.has.got.to.stop.
Not funny. Not now, not ever.
Letterman must go as an example that we’re doing being good girls and doing what we are told and shutting up while they call us cunts, whores, hos and sluts under the guise of “humor”.
I was sickened during the campaign at the way both Hillary and Sarah were treated, and I’m done with putting up with it now. It must stop.
LETS DO THIS!
You clueless donks are over-reacting to humor. Apparently, you would not know what’s funny if it jumped up and bit you on the tits.
I concur with Gary P. It is hard for me to get exercised over the abuse of media outlets I have not tapped regularly since the late 1960’s. The only way I know about this kerfluffle is because of postings on my favorite blogs. It sounds like Letterman is simply one more confirmation of the wisdom of spending my time doing something else than following network programming.
Advertisers who want to reach me are wasting their money if they spend it to get their message out through the MSM, either network TV or newspapers. Perhaps if enough customers simply abandon these media channels, the advertisers will finally figure out that they are wasting their money.
My Best Western e-mail just failed to deliver…..their box must be full.
Down with the gap-toothed fucker.
I don’t really see that this whole program is justified. True, Letterman is a dick. Also true, he’s an unfunny dick. Nobody whose head is attached properly and whose brain is getting a proper blood supply likes unfunny dicks. But trying to shut him up just because we don’t like him seems so, I don’t know … liberal.
Ditech is a part of GMAC. They’re owned by the government now, and they won’t pull their advertising.
How about a viral cartoon showing guys dragging an underage girl into a Best Western, with a caption saying “UNDERAGE RAPE-WE DON’T JUST CONDONE IT, WE PROMOTE IT!”
[…] have said it better myself. Related press release here; vid here. And (via Cynthia Yockey) Sebastian Grey puts forth an idea whose time has surely come: Don Imus was fired for much, much […]
My contribution to this effort will be to not watch Letterman and denounce him as the louse he is when the subject comes up. I agree with those above who say fulmination is more appropriate to the brats across the aisle.
I wrote to Hilton Hotels (Embassy Suites), Lexus and Mars Candy and have heard back from 2 of the 3. To Alex Bensky, the Left has already politicized everything. If we don’t fight fire with fire, they will win. All the time. I’m tired of rolling over and playing dead.
Frequent travelers; if you are a Hilton Honors member, best to comment that way. Give them your number and tell them there are other hotels chains that are just as nice. For the time being, when you are traveling to a city on business, call the Manager at a local Hilton and tell them you are not staying there because of the Letterman sponsorship and stay at a Marriott. If they can tell corporate they lost “X” amount of business, that will resonate.
I contacted CBS and all the advertisers to complain. Hopefully we can make a difference.
“Republicans have never stayed focused on anything that long, losing interest in protesting after a day or two, and then probably going off to play golf.”
White male conservative/Republican here, and I don’t even play golf. We’re not all country-club types. That’s an insidious lefty stereotype.
The real reason Republicans and/or conservatives don’t mount such campaigns is the same reason we don’t take to the streets and protest: We have lives. We have other things to do. We don’t want to be like the left, where everything is political and politics permeates every part and moment of their lives. That’s not healthy.
Is David Letterman worth 30 days or more of my time? Not likely, considering he hasn’t been worth even a few minutes of my time for 20 years (since he stopped, you know, being funny).
Anyway, welcome to the Dark Side, Cynthia!
bm: But what if I don’t give a shit?
Then you wouldn’t be reading this, nor commenting.
Q.E.D.
David Letterman – Mars new “Candy-man”
tsj017:
“The real reason Republicans and/or conservatives don’t mount such campaigns is the same reason we don’t take to the streets and protest: We have lives. We have other things to do. We don’t want to be like the left, where everything is political and politics permeates every part and moment of their lives. That’s not healthy.”
===
Well, I think the tea parties prove you wrong. Apathy has it’s limits, unless yours is unlimited.
Like she said: Do what you are going to do. An email takes just as long as tsj017 took to whine about how he has too much other things to do. If everybody who commented above also fired off an email, this would have an impact. I just did.
It’s amazing how you can’t say anything on the internet without some know-it-all popping up to tell you how wrong you are.
tsj017,
Later today I will have a post explaining how the skills each person who participates in this fight will gain will transform their lives for the better in ways that will amaze them and which are impossible to foresee. It really IS healthy to do this. Plus, the time we spend NOW making an example of Letterman will result in a HUGE savings of time and hassle because then we won’t have to deal with all the others on his side who just haven’t jumped on the pile yet (I’m going for a football metaphor). If we make it clear that it is career suicide to do the despicable things Letterman has done with such glee, others will be reluctant to ruin their careers. So budget 15 minutes a day for this until Letterman is fired. That will be enough. And I promise you, if you did your part, even a little bit, the day he resigns is going to be a joy for you and you will feel more empowered than you ever thought possible.
Cynthia
Here is a contact template for Intel’s corporate responsibility:
http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/social/contact_us.htm?iid=intel_corp+rhc_contactcr
Why I’m boycotting Letterman and his sponsors…
Another vote for getting Letterman fired!
Conservative lesbian Cynthia Yockey: More on how to get Letterman fired . and why Republicans need to do so. (h/t Instapundit)
Cynthia emphasizes this isn’t an easy process; it’ll take 30 days or more o…
This is a great thing you are doing. Conservatives are really not that good at this sort of thing. May I recommend you getting the word out to Palin supporters at some of their websites. They could increase your numbers exponentially.
[…] How to Get Letterman Fired June 13, 2009 Posted by Jehuda in Uncategorized. Tags: Entertainment, media bias, News, Politics, TV trackback Via Instapundit: Get your Alinsky on and make CBS uncomfortable about keeping Dave on the air. […]
I’m in for the long haul .Just like Andy Defrain in shawshank and his letter writing.I don’t care if it works or not.Its totally the right thing to do.There are some things so despicable that you better not let slide by unopposed. The absolute carelessness of using a 14 year old girl as a prop for his sick crap is a true sign of moral collapse.
David Wilson,
Great analogy! Enough people have seen The Shawshank Redemption and Andy Defrain’s letter writing campaign that you have created a clear picture in their minds of what to do and how well persistence can pay off!
Thank you!
Cynthia
Cynthia (and others): Seriously, best of luck. I mean that. Seeing Letterman go down over this would be a beautiful thing.
However . . . I really doubt that anyone in media/entertainment culture today is going to be fired for insulting Sarah Palin or any of her family.
Honestly, an unfunny, tasteless Letterman joke pales when compared to what was done to Palin during the campaign. And no one lost a job over that–not even Andrew Sullivan. Heck, they gave Katie Couric an award for it.
I knew the left was bad, but the anti-Palin campaign last fall was still surprising in its swiftness, viciousness and brutality.
I’m eagerly looking forward to the chance to vote for her next time around. Palin 2012–while there’s still something left to save!
I can, maybe, come up with 5 different ways of saying how wrong it is to make jokes about raping 14 year olds, while staying professional. After those 5 days I’m going to have to recycle my letters. Is this effective, or does it need to be 30 days worth of different letters?
Talking Mouse,
All you have to do is change the first sentence to keep it updated, like so: “It has been (change number of days here) days since David Letterman made his outrageous rape jokes about a 14-year-old girl and degrading jokes about a female governor. His conduct was despicable. His apology was insincere and insufficient. Fire David Letterman now!”
The most impressive thing to do is to send at least one letter by Express Mail to CBS and each sponsor, since that runs into money. I’ll supply the info for the top three in the next few hours. The next best thing is to send letters by regular mail or fax. Letters take more time and effort and cost more, so the networks and sponsors take them MUCH more seriously.
Decide to spend 15 minutes on this every day until Letterman is fired — then do what you can in that time. Calling and e-mailing are not as impressive as letters, but they do count, especially when they are still getting the calls and e-mails continuously, and even more so if they get MORE calls and e-mails as time goes on, instead of less.
So do what you can do, and keep doing it until Letterman is fired.
Once you master this skill, you will be able to use to help yourself and your loved ones for the rest of your life. And, I promise you, victory is sweet.
Cynthia
I work at a Lexus dealership, and frankly, I’m with you. I work hard to provide an outstanding experience for our guests, and I’m absolutely mortified that Lexus would have anything to do with Mr. Letterman’s comments. I can’t speak for Lexus or our dealership officially. But I stopped watching him years ago. My customers are asking questions, rightfully so, and I’m passing them along to our management and Lexus.
About this Cynthia….The cut of her jib? I like it.
-AoS moronite
Going Alinsky on Letterman (chad)…
Updated below the fold Answering the open blog call We all know that David Letterman stepped in it this week. Besides being an unfunny has been his jokes about the Palin family have lit up the dextrosphere and as near……
One question — why are you (and all the other right-wing bloggers) complaining about a “rape joke” when Letterman’s statement was that Palin’s daughter was (and I quote) “knocked up by Alex Rodriguez”? Maybe I’m just blind, but I don’t see the word “rape” anywhere in that phrase. Letterman was just knocking on the perception of the Palin daughters as being easy — which is reasonable enough in my mind, considering the eldest daughter.
James,
So does this mean we can start making jokes about Obama’s mother being a slut and his father a bigamist rapist? Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was 17 and not married to Obama’s father until about five months after she became pregnant. Obama, Sr., was already married. To me it looks like he just wanted to tap that and run, but Dunham was under-age and sex with her was statutory rape. It may have been pointed out to Obama, Sr., that his choices were between jail and marriage.
Did you think Obama was being noble when he forebade criticism of Bristol Palin, who was 17 and unmarried when she became pregnant? NO, BECAUSE IT WAS HIS OWN STORY!!!
Also, late term abortion is dear to Obama’s heart — are you OK with jokes about Michelle Obama, her daughters and late term abortion? Or how about jokes about born-alive-during-a-late-term-abortion-and-set-aside-without-care-to-die guaranteed-death abortion?
Do you have any boundaries at all? Or do you only have boundaries on behalf of your friends? ‘Cause that’s one of the points the “Fire Letterman” grassroots movement is making.
Letterman’s joke was about rape because Gov. Palin was at that baseball game with her 14-year-old daughter, Willow, and sex jokes about her are rape jokes because she is not of the age of consent.
Bristol Palin does NOT have a reputation as being easy. But, no matter what, the jokes are disgusting, degrading to all women and so utterly beyond the boundaries of acceptable humor that Letterman deserves to be fired for telling them. There are just no circumstances that redeem those jokes.
Cynthia
Cynthia, when it comes to attempts at humor, I’d say that I have no boundaries. Make whatever jokes about Obama’s parents you want to — I may or may not find them funny, but I won’t try to prohibit you from making them, or say that you should be fired from your job for doing so. And for what it’s worth, I didn’t think Letterman’s joke was all that great. What I do think, though, is that the hysteria that’s resulted from it is way out of proportion.
Leaving age out of it for the moment, there’s a clear difference between “Sarah Palin’s daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez” and “Sarah Palin’s daughter was raped by Alex Rodriguez.” In the second version, she obviously did not give consent, while in the first version, she very well could have. If you know the age of the daughter in question, then the argument of statutory rape becomes applicable (assuming that people under 18 can’t make reasonable decisions concerning their own bodies, but people over 18 magically can), but we don’t know that Letterman knew which daughter was at the game, or how old she was. So to say that he intentionally made a “rape joke” is stretching things more than just a bit.
All in all, this is the sort of overblown reaction I’d expect to see from the Left, not the Right.
James,
If you have no boundaries, then I can see why you are baffled by a discussion about behavior that it out-of-bounds.
Letterman’s intent was to hurt and degrade and intimidate under cover of humor. That is wrong. He must be fired. It’s not enough of a penalty, but it will have to do.
Cynthia
I’m sorry I don’t think it’s a firing offense. It’s despicable and he should apologize, but I don’t like to see entertainers hounded out of their jobs for crossing the line.
Molon,
Letterman was not doing his job as an entertainer, he was using his job AND the public airwaves to go after a female politician and her teen-age daughter as a self-appointed Left-wing hatchet man because he hates them. That’s a breach of his professional contract AND a breach of his social contract with his audience.
Cynthia
From Mark J Comment #1>>Then again, I’ll tell you what Letterman really fears: the sound of nobody laughing.<<
If you can stand watching the show for a few minutes, you’ll see that no one laughs at his “jokes”. It’s just statement then applause, statement then applause, statement then applause…
Cynthia, thanks for allowing my comments and for your responses to them. Personally, I don’t think Letterman’s intentions were so negative (he’s a TV personality; his main job is to keep people tuned to his channel so they can see the ads his networks has sold, and I don’t credit him with much beyond that) but us seeing things differently is just one of those things that keeps life interesting. It’s been fun discussing this with you.
James,
Thank you for your comments.
Cynthia
I am in complete agreement with Cynthia. Not having watched CBS for years, I was afraid I’d have to spend a night watching to see who the advertisers were. Something I wasnt looking forward to! Thanks all !
This man is a pig , simple as that. Sarah Palin and her Family will hold up just fine , because they are like so many of us, strong and resilient.
“Dave” Letterman, pfttttttttt
Cool blog Cynthia !
Dave himself implied, in his later non-apology, that it was a joke [sic] about rape. He used the word “rape” explicitly (in the non-apology, not in the original “joke”).
[…] Anyway, intentionally or not, Cynthia Yockley reminds me of this great piece of folk wisdom: Don’t get mad. Get even. […]
[…] Anyway, intentionally or not, Cynthia Yockley reminds me of this great piece of folk wisdom: Don’t get mad. Get even. […]
A Simple Rule of Decency (SRD) for Lettermans, Stewards, O’Brians, Lenos, etc.:
DO NOT SAY IN PUBLIC ANYTHING THAT YOU CANNOT SAY IN PRIVATE TO YOUR OWN CHILD.
(PS I’m afraid that if they follow this SRD, they’d be out of business in a couple of days…)
Peter Arvo,
I have to take a bit of exception to your Simple Rule of Decency (SRD) because I do think there should be material on television for adults that children won’t understand or shouldn’t watch. I believe it helps people mature. You can’t just live in a child’s world all the time, unless you are a child.
SRD-wise, I am still smarting from being excluded a few days ago from a grassroots blog network that requires blogs to meet certain standards to allow its blogs to display its badge in support of Sarah Palin. I was excluded over my post, “The blow job equivalency,” which I stand by. It was part of a conversation with The Bloggess, whom I have never met, but whom I love and who is a blog friend. I’ll be posting something about one of her recent posts that deeply affected me very soon. The rationale for excluding me was that people who support Sarah Palin MIGHT be holding a child on their laps as they surf the Internet AND that the child would be able to read AND that the child might see my racy post (go check, it was not all that racy). Somehow, Jeff, the guy making the decision, was not worried about the kid saying, “Daddy, what’s a lesbian?” so I count THAT as progress.
My raciness quotient is deliberately very low, although my steadiest supply of traffic now is coming from my tribute to Bea Arthur, which features a nude (from the waist up) portrait of her that hangs in the prestigious Tate Gallery in London. I have to admit I am weighing my values against my love of increased traffic. So far my values are winning, and their advantage comes from attracting a nicer kind of reader than the racy key phrases do. Although, since my site includes the word “lesbian,” I more or less reside in Google key phrase hell, with the irony that while “lesbian” regularly attracts over 22 or 23 million searches a month, the number of searches for “conservative lesbian” in a month is between 140 and 200. Sigh.
Cynthia
And here’s a post that was deleted from HuffPost:
That’s the real problem: that clowns (not comedians) like Letterman still have audience, and this audience finds his nasty jokes funny. Jokes about raping a young girl or suggesting that flight attendants are sluts. How much lower can one sink by regarding these examples as “just jokes”?
(What would your reaction be if those jokes were made against Michelle Obama and her daughters? Don’t tell me, I know the answer.)
Letterman Rally has been rescheduled for Tuesday–same place and time. (Ed Sullivan Theater: 4:30–6:30 PM)
It’s fine if people show up Monday and Tuesday, but Tuesday is the “official” rally.
See http://www.firedavidletterman.com/ for details.
___________________
For CBS and advertiser contact information and photoshopped images to include in complaints and post anywhere online:
PUMA PAC: http://pumapac.org/2009/06/14/brand-nightmares/
HillBuzz: http://hillbuzz.org/2009/06/14/sunday-open-thread-letterman-boycott-day-five/
__________________________
PASS THIS ON:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PeonyMoss/Public/felony.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/PeonyMoss/Public/Misogyny.jpg
(h/t Peony Moss)
It never fails the people who piss and moan the most about political correctness are always the people who get offended the most about what other people say.
If you want to help Princess Sarah and presidential hopes instead of going after Letterman I would suggest you teach her how to read.
Count Istvan,
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was far and away the best qualified candidate for president on both tickets in the 2008 presidential race, based on her accomplishments, her conservative economic philosophy and her megawatt charisma. Unlike Obama — who always gets other people to do his homework and pay his way — she is a self-made woman who not only has held full-time jobs, but also had executive experience running a state. Before becoming president, Obama’s last full-time job was as a copy editor in his early 20’s, a job he dressed up considerably in one of his memoirs, by which I mean he completely fabricated the job description, although several analyses of the style of the writing in his memoirs finds it to be as-good-as-identical to the style of his best friend, terrorist and “guilty as sin and free as a bird” murderer Bill Ayers, so Obama may simply have approved the deception, assuming he read a draft of his memoirs before they were published. Camille Paglia, who is an authority on these things, praises Palin’s eloquent colloquial extemporaneous speaking style. In contrast, Obama is an angry, flip-flopping, plodding bore who can’t be trusted to say the simplest statements without reading them from a teleprompter. George W. Bush was a thousand times a better extemporaneous speaker than Obama!
Lesbians freaking INVENTED political correctness and the issue of making rape jokes about under-age girls and calling a female governor a “slutty flight attendant” in a long-winded and increasingly deranged rant is NOT ONE OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS! It is about a has-been hack comedian abusing the public airwaves with vicious diatribes intended to harm a politician he hates. This is a violation of his contract with his employer and his social contract with his audience. Since it appears CBS’s executives have forgotten why they are in business and how they make money, we are going to take money away from them until they remember AND FIRE DAVID LETTERMAN. THEN, if he tries to launch a new career as a martyr, we are going to make sure he is so RADIOACTIVE that everywhere he goes to look for work, they will lock the door and pull down the shades when they see him coming.
Thank you for sharing.
Cynthia
I am a conservative guy and I watched as Letterman made the jokes and I thought he was referring to Bristol, because Bristol was the one in the news about being pregnant. I don’t believe for a second he meant the 14 year old. I am so sick of the extreme ways of taking these things. I don’t believe Obama was calling Palin a pig with his lipstick comment and I don’t believe McCain would have been a G.W. Bush 3rd term. If people jump on the extreme on either side, it makes them as unbelievable as those that started it. If you cannot see the reasoning of the other side and shut off to anything but the vile reason the extreme right or left has detailed, you are blind or a bully, just needing to be right. Everyone needs to take it down a notch. The partisan stuff is getting worst daily that each side is making up their own answers and insisting it is what the other side is doing. Disagreeing is one thing, what is going on now is over the top. Fire Letterman? He has reflected the news in his jokes for 30 years (I have watched him for all 30), not attacking untouched minors. He also has told more jokes at the expense of Bill and Hillary Clinton than at the expense of anyone else over the years. It is not like being a pedophile and it is not like making up something about other children. Bristol was in the news and the liberals attacked Palin’s platform with a pregnant child. Stop putting your hands over your ears and insisting that Letterman followed her itinerary and focused a premeditated attack on the 14 your old. The more you insist on it, doesn’t make it more true.
[…] MORE on how to get Letterman fired — and WHY we need to so so … […]
Hi Cynthia, The media has picked up on the “fire Letterman and boycott his sponsors” movement. I got linked by TVweek.com and the Baltimore Sun.
.-= Chris Wysocki´s last blog ..TVweek.com, Baltimore Sun: Letterman boycott having an effect =-.
[…] has caused at least one former-liberal turned conservative, Cynthia Yockey, to call for conservatives to get über-organized, and engage in an intense letter writing campaign […]
[…] at American Power. Also at Cynthia Yockey’s place. Oh, and here’s some important […]
I am never one for too much sensitivity, but I am sick of the left and the media bashing anyone on the right for a poorly chosen choice of words. It is time to turn the tables on them on a regular basis.
I’m on board.
One thing to remember is MARS, M&Ms, sponsors the #18 car of Kyle Busch in NASCAR. I know the NASCAR community; they would not like this at all. And Kyle is on Joe Gibbs team, Joe is a Christian and very religious. I think he would take great exception to their association with this loser Letterman.
http://www.joegibbsracing.com/
And yes, I am one of those who used to watch him in the 80s, when he was funny. He hasn’t been funny for years.
If anyone needed proof the Right has run out of ideas – this is it.
Get a life. Letterman is an intelligent, honorable man. You people have way too much time on your hands.
It was announced yesterday that Executive Suites was dropping their ads on CBS’s website over the Letterman controversy. That’s one.
After this we need to shift fire to the RNC and start holding their feet to the fire. Snowe and Collins need to be brought back into line. Drill Baby Drill needs to make a comeback as gas prices start climbing again and Pelosi needs to be a priority target.
.-= chad´s last blog ..Weird Dreams Last Night =-.
Cynthia:
Hi! I attacked your list of advertisers from the bottom up, because I am a contrarian, and because I figured most people would write to the top two or three advertisers, and then stop. Why do people do that? Advertisers in the Yellow Pages know that people usually start at the top of a category and GET TIRED OF LOOKING, and then choose a company that grabs their eyeballs or piques their interest.
I have written to two of Letterman’s advertisers so far: Ebay and faxed to LasikPlus.
I will continue to put the pressure on this hateful, relentless blowhard (Letterman) until he is fired. My goal is one or two letters, e-mails, or faxes daily until I go through the list of his advertisers.
Keep up the good work!
.-= DC Handgun Info´s last blog ..Personal: Kidney Needed STAT (medical term for "as soon as possible") =-.
DC Handgun Info,
If you receive replies, it would help if you are willing to forward copies of your letters/e-mails and the replies so others can see behind the scenes and get inspired to do their part.
Cynthia
You witch hunters have way too much time on your hands, emailing and phoning companies that advertise on CBS. You keep implying that Dave is condoning “underage rape.” Are you forgetting that when Letterman made the joke about Palin’s daughter, he thought he was making a joke about her 18 year old, not her 14 year old daughter. It still wasn’t funny, really, but I’m sure Dave is not a perv. I think you’re all just looking for something to complain about, or looking for a cause to be part of, even though neither is justified.
Gooch,
Counter-intuitive as this may be to you, a lot of people consider ALL rape jokes to be offensive and are equally offended by Letterman believing it mitigated his crime to say, “What I really meant to do was call Gov. Palin’s older daughter a slut.”
Letterman’s attacks on Gov. Palin and her daughters were intended to damage her politically. They also were intended as a warning to others he disagrees with that he can and will seek to destroy them, too, if they enter public life — even more so if they are successful. This is vicious and sexist and must be stopped. What Letterman said and did over the course of more than a week, again and again, is millions of times worse than what Don Imus said on the spur of the moment in a pathetic attempt to sound contemporary by emulating the misogyny of black rappers. If Letterman keeps his job, then it is open season on conservatives and Republicans and our best and brightest will not enter the political arena and we are giving tacit approval to political attacks on children. No. It stops with Letterman. It stops now.
Cynthia
Have you considred going after the NY Yankees, after all the joke was directed at A-Rod while Willow Palin was at their stadium. Also this month the Yankees have a ‘stand up for children’ day, lets ask them if they will REALLY stand up?
Scott Bennett,
This is not an A-Rod thing because he didn’t tell the joke. This is not a Yankees thing — no representative of the Yankees told the joke. You really are desperate to exculpate Letterman. THAT’S funny.
Cynthia
The practice of trying to discredit anyone that disagrees with your opinion has be practiced by left wing extremists for decades. They have no moral values or conscience, so there is nothing preventing them from digging deep to attack family members or what ever it takes. One of the main weapons of these people is comedy. They try to make their hateful attacts palatable by cloaking them in trendy comedy. There have been countless people that have polished this method to perfection over the decades. The latest group of talk show hosts have learned well from their predecessors. Letterman’s comments about Palin’s young family were no accident….. he has a team of experienced writers. Jon Stewart is good at it and I’m sure Conan must be. But it’s no just these professionals, it’s goes all the way up to people like Axelrod and Obama. I was a big Obama fan and still favor most of his policies but this kind of behavior is inexcusable. Don’t these people realize that there young daughters may one day reap what they sow.
I was a liberal all my life but I stopped watching Letterman a long time ago and now I no longer watch Jon Stewart or CNN.