David Letterman announced on his CBS TV show Thursday night that he has had sex with women who work for him on his show. He and some media are portraying him as a victim because someone tried to blackmail him about these exploits, threatening to go public if he did not pay the blackmailer an amount reported to be about $2 million.
Letterman is no victim; he is by his own admission a perpetrator and exploiter of his position of power over women who work for him. And, in going public with his announcement he has painted all women who have worked with him with the same “I wonder if she did” brush. Look for a slew of lawsuits by CBS women seeking damages for having their character tarnished in this one.
Training of people in a workforce on the subject of sexual harassment, whether supervisors, managers or workers, includes information that a boss-subordinate relationship makes the organization and the employees involved vulnerable. They are vulnerable to creating a hostile work environment in which sexual favors are the way to keep and advance in a job, and they are vulnerable personally as well as organizationally. Letterman’s admission seems to place him squarely in the hostile work environment bull’s eye.
Now that CBS, Letterman’s’ employer, knows this has been going on CBS would be wise from a legal and public relations standpoint to cut its losses by taking decisive action. That action needs to go beyond denouncing Letterman’s admitted behavior and that of the alleged blackmailer. It needs to take action that demonstrates this kind of on the job behavior by people in positions of power and authority will not be tolerated. Advertisers should also take action.
Letterman should be put on the bench along with John Edwards, Mike Duvall and the numerous others that have been found to have used their positions of power for personal sexual gratification.
Over,
Absolutely. Just another leftist hypocrite, portending to judge others. But when it comes time to stand up and be a man, “I’m a victim!”. There would have been no blackmail if his behavior had not been so atrocious.
Would anyone on the left say the same thing if Mike Duvall had been blackmailed?
Disgusting.
*Say what you will about Davey Letterman…..the boy does have “balls of brass”! He sets a pretty high standard for people like Senator Ensign and others that let their indecretions control their behavior….rather than the other way round.
$2 Million bucks or some momentary unresolved press?
Looks like Letterman’s son still will have his Education Fund left in tack!
hypocrit galore .rips on other people on the same thing he did . another lefty nothing will happen . if this was a conservative they would picket cbs to fire him . the guy cant stop talking of palin , palin is gone and he keeps going after her after he said he was sorry . my you know what .
If this was a conservative…..ever hear of Bob Livingston? Bob was our favorite in the Congress. He actually did the right thing and we are still upset he had to leave. On the other hand Dan Rostonkowski had to be dragged kicking and scratching out of the House of Representatives….but we are remiss………Dave Letterman is a talk show host…and has not been elected to represent any specific district….except maybe 30-40% of the United States.
We are Leno people by the way…..but sometimes..you have to give the Devil their due!
But then you probably think Larry Craig and Mark Sanford are fine fellows..just because they vote
CONSERVATIVE!
How would the Letterman supporters feel if the local school principal announced he was shaging the young female staff members at his school?
Since when has this sort of thing been the a leftist issue? Apparently Strom Thurmond got around and let’s not forget Mark Foley. To push this off on political affiliation is really curious.
Letterman is disgusting, and nothing he does or says is newsworthy. I don’t know why anyone would watch his show.
Letterman is fine; he never was the “Family Values” type. Yes, he probably cheated on his girlfriend now wife. But at least he does go around claiming he is Mr. “Family Values” like some of our politicians (can you just see the grin on all “Fake News” reporters/commentators). This has been a tough summer, for Dave, for our economy but at least he did not end up on the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC).
“How would the Letterman supporters feel if the local school principal announced he was shaging the young female staff members at his school?”
Letterman works for a private company, he doesn’t teach kids. All he’s hired to do is entertain and bring in sponsors. If he’s not bringing in sponsors then he should be fired. Your comparison is off base because he did nothing illegal.
While I can’t find my documentation, I believe that there are more porn shops in American than MacDonalds fast food restaurants.
Hasn’t anyone noticed? We are living in a new culture as evidenced by what we see and hear on network, cable and pay-per-view TV.
For that reason I think that David Letterman’s comments, on an evening program, will get a pass.
Here’s some data to consider:
“Hotel chains, including Marriott and Hilton, make more money from pay—per-view pornography—about $190 million a year–than from snack and drink sales in minibars.”
“Porn doesn’t have a demographic; it goes across all demographics,” says Paul Fishbein, the 42-year-old founder and editor of Adult Video News, the trade publication for the “adult” industry. “There were 11,000 adult titles last year versus 400 releases in Hollywood. There are so many outlets that even if you spend just $ 15,000 and two days-—and put in some plot and good-looking people and decent sex–you can get satellite and cable sales. There are so many companies, and they rarely go out of business. You have to be really stupid or greedy to fail.”
Larry. Don’t blame all this on one episode in the oval office by someone with great power. He wasn’t the first and won’t be the last.
What a stupid proposition: Fire Letterman because some extortionist was threatening him and Letterman went to the cops to stop the CRIME. No, OverButNotOut. Having sex with multiple partners is NOT a crime. Blackmail and extortion ARE CRIMES.
Letterman is going to have to fix his primary relationships because he had to come clean about his indescretions (which WERE discrete BEFORE the extortionist’s threats forced them out)and that’s going to be burden enough.
I thought he handled the whole thing as best as it could have been done. He’s been fired before in his career. I don’t think he has to worry about that this time around.
I am looking forward to that loser/extortionist doing hard time for the next 15 years for trying to capitalize on another’s success by using private information to steal from Letterman. Rv- –
Red – I did not say that Letterman committed a crime. What I said was that he is a person who used his on the job position of power and control over subordinates in an inappropriate way and that his employer should take the stance that such on the job behavior is unacceptable and fire him. You are right, the alleged extortionist is charged with criminal behavior, and if found guilty should be duly punished by the judicial process.
You know what those women he had sex with did it with consent and they’re adults. If it was a bad thing he did then you would have seen those women come out, but obviously they were fine with it. Maybe he was good and they wanted to have sex.
OBNO, T-rex sums it up.
Plus WHY would you want to see Letterman punished because an idiot extortionist “outted” him on a personal level?
IF his audience goes against him and he no longer has ratings, I could see where he could be terminated. However that is a little too SOON to judge, don’t you think? O’Reilly was successfully sued over sexual harassment and lookie…. he STILL is on the air. Rv- –
If he violated CBS policy he should be punished by CBS. CBS policy would dictate the punishment.
If he broke the law he may be open to civil and criminal action. The “they should fire him” thing is sort of silly.
I believe that the American people can see the distinction between a Late Night jokester and a Politician who preaches one thing and lives another. And I also believe that the American people will have more compassionate about this situation, but who knows what the court case will reveal.
There’s more to this story. Good defensive move by Letterman to tackle the story first.