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Will Letterman Face the Fire He Threw Without Mercy?
Posted by Tim Slagle in Politics on October 2nd, 2009
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.
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!
Will Ferrell and Co. Answer the NEA Call, Shill for ObamaCare
Posted by Tim Slagle in Obama, Politics, health care on September 25th, 2009
A couple weeks ago I wondered aloud where Hollywood was in the health care debate. And almost on command, this video appeared. It looks like the NEA’s call for artists to promote health care initiatives has been heard by some comedy artists.
Hollywood superstar Will Ferrell is surrounded by eight “celebrities” in a satirical defense of the health insurance companies.
And I use the term “celebrities” loosely. One is the only recognizable character from the cult series “Heroes,” another is a star of a popular cable series that was recognized at Sunday’s Emmy Awards, another is a star of a cable series that nobody ever watches, one is from Comedy Central’s Reno 911, another is his best friend, one is the star of the hit movie franchise “Scooby-Doo,” and to give the clip credibility, two of the “celebrities” actually play doctors on TV. I will give a prize to anyone who can name all eight without using Google®.
Is this the best Hollywood can come up with? Other than Ferrell, most of these people don’t even have a Q score high enough to make it on “Dancing with the Stars,” or “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here!”
So where are the A-listers? It seems like most of them have been trying to rebuild their careers. People who were stars in the early part of this century saw their earnings take a nose dive as they learned that a lot of conservatives watch TV and buy movie tickets, CDs, and DVDs.
As for the video, it seems a little hypocritical that Will Ferrell is complaining about insurance company profits since he made scads of money just for wearing tights and doing pratfalls. Meanwhile, health insurance companies do a lot of good for people by providing life saving health care most people would never be able to afford otherwise. They also cite unfounded statistics like 80% of America supports a “public plan” and that insurance companies have denied claims based on spelling errors.
Oh yeah, and it’s supposed to be funny. The clip is posted on the site “Funny or Die”… In the immortal words of Patrick Henry, “Give Me Death!”
Dateline NBC: To Catch an ACORN Organizer
Posted by Tim Slagle in ACORN on September 18th, 2009
I’m not sure why I bothered to sign up for MySpace. My manager assured me that it would be good for my career, but that was a long time ago, way back when it was okay to call the President a liar. I signed up too late, because MySpace just isn’t cool anymore. The idea behind my page was to introduce a new generation to my stand-up comedy, and help me develop a fan base. Instead it’s making people think I’m a sexual predator.Â
I get friend requests all the time now, from shirtless teenage boys who are into skateboarding, and old dudes, and I can tell right away, that it’s a cop. (I’m beginning to think there isn’t anybody really on MySpace anymore, just pedpophiles and cops.) Every police force in America has at least one or two full-time officers pretending to be teenagers, and trolling through MySpace at all hours of the day. They’re looking for depraved lonely men, longing to do something despicable, and arranging meet-ups at the mall. The next thing you know, they’re starring on “NBC Dateline: To Catch A Predator.”
Over the four years the NBC series was on the air “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen made a lucrative career out of setting up old men with fictional teenagers. He also got a lot of those men arrested. Apparently, intent to contribute to the delinquency of a fictional teenager is a crime in many jurisdictions.
The show was cancelled in December 2008. I’m guessing the producers were finding it hard to trap perverts anymore. With so many cops on MySpace, and the teenagers moved on to other social networking sites, I would guess they were starting to get cops hooking up accidentally. I was always hoping to catch the episode where two cops at the mall suddenly realize they had spent the last month online, having cyber-sex with each other.
Yet, MSNBC, home of Keith Olbermann, cannot get enough of the Predator series.  A popular feature there is “Predator Raw: The Unseen Tapes.†This is a collection of previously recorded stings from the series, which never aired during its network run. In fact, on September 21, 2009 MSNBC will run another episode of the show.Â
Which leads me around to my point: If soliciting a fictional teenager for sex is a violation of the law, then CERTAINLY, aiding and abetting the importation of fictional teenagers into a US sex ring, is a crime at least as heinous.
So where is MSNBC on the ACORN scandal? Where is Chris Hansen? Where is Olbermann? Certainly “Predator Raw†viewers would be just as shocked and entertained watching ACORN employees being cuffed and led away, as they are watching fat old pedophiles. And if the ultimate reason behind the NBC series was to protect youth, certainly protecting the youth of El Salvador, kids who might have been kidnapped and brought into this country as slaves, is a mission equally noble.
Keith Olbermann has a very devoted fan base. People who watch him religiously, watch him exclusively. They also consider themselves well informed, despite only getting the news that Keith is willing to report. So why is he keeping them in the dark?
Come on Keith, you can’t hide it from them forever.