Letterman: Apology to Staff and Wife (Video, Transcript)

Last Thursday, David Letterman said he wasn't going to make any more comments on his sex/extortion scandal.

On Monday, he talked about it again. I suspect he'll continue to make jokes and refer to it because it's likely boosting his ratings. It's that watching a train wreck thing.



Transcript

DAVID LETTERMAN: Last week on the show I told a little story about being blackmailed. And I wasn't going to talk about it anymore but, uh, it seems like people want to talk about it.

(Laughter)

And, and, and when you're blackmailed, it's, it's a crime and you're a victim. It's felony extortion is what it is, and it's a nasty thing to do to people. Now, being a victim, and if you happen to, your behavior is responsible for hurting people, that's a separate part of the equation. And it did not occur to me last week when I was discussing having had sex with women who worked on the show that then what would happen is reporters and newspaper people and radio and TV would start pounding the staff and saying, 'Well, what do you say? Are you and this and that?' It was very, very unpleasant.

And I would just like to set the record straight: No, I'm not having sex with these women. Those episodes are in the past. So my apologies to subjecting them to that vulnerability and being browbeaten and humiliated. It never occurred to me. And as a matter of fact, Alan Kalter kept wanting to know if we'd had sex. Do you remember that Alan?

ALAN KALTER, announcer: I did. I didn't remember.

(Applause)

LETTERMAN: So, I'll just say I'm terribly sorry that I put the staff in that position. Inadvertently, I just wasn't thinking ahead. And, moreover, the staff here has been wonderfully supportive to me, not just through this furor, but through all the years that we've been on television and especially all the years here at CBS, so, again, my thanks to the staff for, once again, putting up with something stupid I've gotten myself involved in.

Why didn't the consequences occur to Letterman?

He's incredibly selfish.

Now the other thing is my wife, Regina. She has been horribly hurt by my behavior. And when something happens like that, if you hurt a person and it's your responsibility, you try to fix it. And at that point, there's only two things that can happen: Either you're going to make some progress and get it fixed, or you're going to fall short and perhaps not get it fixed. So let me tell you folks, I got my work cut out for me.

(Applause)

At this point, some sincere concern showed on Letterman's face. Maybe he realizes that he's possibly wrecked his son's life, that the happy family isn't happy.

Rather than continuing to be remorseful, Letterman reverts back to playing the victim card. He acts like he did something courageous.

But through all of this, you have to say to yourself, 'What really happened?' And what really happened was you can't be victimized by criminals. So, you have to go ahead and push back if you're being pushed by, by something illegal like this. And through all of the heartache and the attention and the embarrassment, I still feel like I did the right thing.

And now, also -- because what can it hurt? -- Once again, I'd like to apologize to the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

(Applause, laughter)

I'm terribly, terribly sorry. So there we go.

Why would he end with a swipe at Sarah Palin?

Letterman is an odd mix of arrogance, cruelty, immaturity, and extreme selfishness.

While it's true that Letterman is a victim, he's also a victimizer.

Letterman isn't a hero for standing up to an alleged extortionist. That didn't take any courage.

It certainly doesn't take courage to repeatedly cheat on your common-law wife/wife/mother of your child with a number of women.
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Video.



I wonder if CBS will pull this video from YouTube, citing copyright claims, the way it pulled video of Letterman's remarks from the Thursday show.

Perhaps CBS thinks Letterman got it right this time.

I don't.

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Letterman's inappropriate workplace behavior and his unfaithfulness to Regina Lasko is translating into big ratings for him.

What an achievement!

Read more, USA Today.