The news story:
In remarks broadcast Monday night, Letterman directly apologized to the Palin family for the coarse jokes he made last Monday.
“I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I’m sorry about it and I’ll try to do better in the future,” Letterman told the studio audience.
He went on to explain how he had come to the realization that last week’s monologue, in which he joked about one of Governor Palin’s teenage daughters being “knocked up” by New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, could be interpreted as being in poor taste.
“I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There’s no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can’t be defended.
I can’t speak for Governor Palin and her family, but the matter is closed for me. The larger issue of our increasingly coarse popular culture remains a major issue.
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