Keith Olbermann and Lawrence O'Donnell: Letterman's Apology

UPDATE, June 16, 2009: Olbermann and O'Donnell are WRONG --again.

Sarah Palin accepts David Letterman's apology

Sarah Palin says she accepts David Letterman's apology for the joke about her daughter.

The Alaska governor, in a statement issued Tuesday, said the apology was accepted "on behalf of all young women, like my daughters, who hope men who `joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve."

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What a load!

Transcript

KEITH OLBERMANN: We're hearing tonight that David Letterman, on this topic that was so big last week, he's going to make a really, a lengthy apology to the Palin family on the show that is broadcast tonight. And I wanted to get your reaction to it. Let me just read a little part about this.

He said he saw something on TV, saw Mark Shields about the joke.

He said, 'Oh, boy, I'm beginning to understand what the problem is here. It's the perception rather than the intent. It doesn't make any difference what my intent was, it's the perception. I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed. My intent is completely meaningless compared to perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that they need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke.

'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's outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future.'

After something like that is broadcast tonight, is there anything left to this stuff?

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: I don't think there is. I think this should be, and sounds like, the final word on it.

And this is really David Letterman. I have a lot of friends of mine who've worked for him over the years. I don't know him personally, but this is my understanding of him. And I've heard that over the weekend he did have time to think about this. He's a father himself. He had some cool time to think about it, and he could have left it where he had left it. He could have left it, getting laughs at his original version of an apology and just leave it there. But I think both as a father and a responsible guy, having had a weekend to think about this, he decided he wanted to go to this extra point of clarification of a serious apology.

And you know, actually, Keith, in the last couple of days from a lot of professional comedy writers, I've heard more analysis of that particular joke than any that's ever been written. And there's a large group out there who say, 'Hey, it was a bad joke.It had a wrong concept in it. It was a bad joke.' And these are Letterman supporters and former Letterman writers, many of them.

And so, I think Dave reached a point that makes perfect sense. And I think he's making perfect sense in what he has to say tonight.

OLBERMANN: Any chance, briefly, that the Palins try to outclass him and just say, 'Accepted.'

O'DONNELL: Boy, if there's anyone in Alaska who can make them, you know, handle one of these things correctly, we haven't found that person yet. So, let's see what happens. That is the suspense here. If Dave Letterman does something completely reasonable like this, what is the Palin reaction? I have no ability to predict that.

It's disgraceful that Olbermann and O'Donnell are taking shots at Sarah Palin and her family.

They're dissing her lack of class and inability to handle a situation correctly.

The Palins did nothing wrong. Letterman and his apologists, like Olbermann and O'Donnell, are the jerks.

I don't know why O'Donnell is praising Letterman as a father and for taking a weekend to think about the matter.

Any decent human being would not have needed a weekend. A decent person would never attack Palin's kids to begin with.

O'Donnell's assessment that Letterman could have just left his original version of an apology stand and said nothing more is ridiculous.

Letterman's orginial remarks were woefully inadequate. He was defensive and continued to mock the Palins. He didn't make an apology. His comments were inappropriate.

Olbermann and O'Donnell and Letterman live in a different world. They feel justified in mistreating Sarah Palin and her family.

They are out of the mainstream.

Video.