Thursday, June 18, 2009

Letterman Loses Another Sponsor


Opening your mouth has consequences...

The Olive Garden Restaurant chain has become the latest ex-sponsor of the David Letterman show:

Following a week of back and forth between CBS late night comic David Letterman and Sarah Palin over a crude joke he told about the Alaska Republican governor’s daughter, the Olive Garden restaurant says it is cancelling all of its scheduled ads on Letterman’s “Late Show” for the rest of the year.

In an email to a Letterman critic obtained by POLITICO, a spokeswoman for the Italian restaurant chain wrote that “there will be no more Olive Garden ads scheduled for ‘The Late Show’ with David Letterman in this year's broadcast schedule,” citing the talk show host’s “inappropriate comments.”

“We apologize that Mr. Letterman’s mistake, which was not consistent with our standards and values, left you with a bad impression of Olive Garden,” wrote Sherri Bruen, the company’s guest relations manager.


The 'mistake' they're talking about was a number of nasty, over the line jokes Letterman used on his show when Governor Palin and members of her family were in New York at a charity fundraiser for special needs kids.

Aside from comments about Governor Palin visiting Bloomindale's to "update her slutty flight attendant look" Letterman went after Palin's 14-year old daughter Willow, implying that she was a hooker by saying that Governor Palin should keep her daughter away from ex-New York Governor Elliot Spitzer and joking about her getting
“knocked up by Alex Rodriguez” during the governor and her family’s visit to a Yankees' baseball game as Rudy Giuliani's guests.

Letterman's first response to the reaction over this was essentially to say that the Palin's couldn't take a joke', but after several sponsors cancelled and a major demonstration was scheduled outside Letterman's show at the Ed Sullivan theater, CBS apparently leaned on Letterman and got an actual apology out of him, which Governor Palin tersely accepted.

But apparently a great many people still feel that a talk show host making cruel and abusive `jokes' about a young teenage girl shouldn't be acceptable, and CBS and Letterman are continuing to experience sponsor fallout and declining ratings.

Good.Keep writing the sponsors. And write the Olive Garden HERE to commend them on their stand for basic decency.

As for Letterman, he ought to consider himself fortunate.One hundred and fifty years ago he would have had to fight a duel over this kind of thing..and as it is, I'm sure Todd Palin would love an opportunity to explain to this creep up close and in person why it would be healthy for Letterman to avoid insulting his wife and daughters in the future. In a small room with only one exit, and no witnesses.


1 comment:

B.Poster said...

This is what can happen when someone is viciously attacked the way the Palins were and they fight back. I appreciate the Palins actually fighting back when they are viciously attacked in the media. This is in contrast to President Bush who could never be roused to defend himself when the media elite or leading celebrities viciously attacked him.

I admire the sponsors who had the courage to back out from running ads on the late show. For this decision, we should probably expect the media and others within the government bueracracy to look for ways to target these sponsors for their decisions.

After all, about the only thing Republican and Democrat elites can agree on is they hate Sarah Palin. For the Republicans this is stupid. For the Republicans to be viable, they need to find some way to include her and the people she represents in a meaningful way in the decision making process.