Just when you thought David Letterman was off the hook for his jokes about Sarah Palin’s kids, free speech rears its ugly head once again!
The other day Late Show advertiser Embassy Suites pulled their ads from the show, and now Olive Garden is exercising their right not to say what they don’t want to say during his commercial breaks. As Politico reports:
In an e-mail 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.
Silly protests aside, it sounds like the campaign to pressure his advertisers is working.
What do you think? On the one hand, he apologized and Palin accepted. Shouldn’t that be enough for the rest of the world? On the other hand, it’s Olive Garden’s money and they can spend it however they want. Are they interfering with his free speech by spending it elsewhere?
If Olive Garden really wants to punish Letterman, they should send him some coupons. Yuck!
Update: According to Hot Air, Olive Garden is being kinda wishy-washy about whether they’re really pulling their ads, but Hellman’s Mayonnaise isn’t.
Update: GardenGate?
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He never apologized for the “slutty flight attendant” crap, and he didn’t make even a halfhearted apology for ANYTHING until there was an uproar. If we’re all going to be held responsible for everything we say, well, he’s part of “we all”, isn’t he? What’s good for Imus is good for Alfred E. Neuman. Of course, it’s also good for Our Dear Leader, but for now, he’s untouchable.
Olive Garden is simply exercising its right as an advertiser who’s no doubt gotten a ration of shite from their customers over this. (Why else would they do it? You think they pulled their ads because one guy got weepy?)
This will be looked upon as the same kind of “censorship” that happened to the Dixie Chicks.
And it is – Natalie Maines opened her mouth and the record-buying public voted with their wallets. Letterman opened his yap, and the advertisers voted with their wallets.
But it’s not “censorship”, it’s free market. “Censorship” would be not letting Maines or Letterman open their mouths again.
If more conservatives voted with their wallets, we’d have less loudmouthed liberals.
Hit ‘em where it counts.
Imagine if we all quit going to movies. I would movies with over-the-edge liberals, but that seems terribly redundant.
I agree that didn’t appologize for what he did wrong — he appologized that we misunderstood and that we were too stupid to get it was about the older daughter (get it, ’cause jokes about knocking up 18-year-olds are better, hahahahahaha!) and that it was causing such a problem for him/CBS, but nothing that needed apologized for.
I have amazingly little problem with this.
How many time we saw the American leftists bashing some guy in the media for “insensible” comments? Anyone remembers the whole Imus affair? Why there’s entire segments of the population (Blacks, Gays, Muslims) who are now “Untouchable” by the media scrutiny? I don’t see why they should have the long end of the stick by themselves.
David Letterman made some distasteful joke about a child and her mother. Instead of settling the whole mess at the first possibility and showing some decency, he added insult to injury by saying “I am sorry you don’t have a sense of humor”. If it was anybody else than Hard-Core Republicans, he would have been fired on the spot.
Well, he had it coming. If he was unable to stand for common decency, I don’t see why Olive Garden and Embassy Suites should pay for his mistakes. This is capitalism; no-one is obliged to buy a defective product. The Firms who pays for ads airtime have the right to pull out of they find the content of the show too salacious for their tastes.
It is time for the Liberal media to remember that “Decency” is not a disposable value.
OK my two cents on free speech. Somewhere along the line people got the idea in their heads that free speech means freedom from consequences. You have the freedom to say anything you like. But everyone else has the right to feel any way they want about it, love it, hate it or total indifference. And they have their own free speech right to talk about it.
Now on a separate note, call me cynical but has anybody else noticed that Letterman’s “worst joke ever” just happened to be the same week that Conan took over the Tonight Show? I just heard the ratings, Dave got a bump in his ratings last week but Conan still beat him. What are the odds this was all just a contrived attempt to beat Conan in the ratings?
This is the free market at work – a completely appropriate reaction to what’s going on. Someday we’ll look back fondly on times like this when the free market punished irresponsible behavior rather than the government.
And as for the people saying that conservatives need to “lighten up” or “grow thicker skin” or “take a joke,” I have this to say to you: we have been thick-skinned against the vilest “jokes” possible for the last 8 years. Conservatives and Christians and white people are always the butt of ridicule and insults, and we just take it and take it, while everyone else is completely off-limits. It used to drive me crazy that nobody ever stood up to call foul or fight back. Now for the first time, conservatives are finally calling “comedians” out on their harassment and we’re being told to lighten up??
I almost think the overreaction to Letterman is the conservative’s own private joke, like: “Look, here’s my impression of what a liberal would do if someone insulted one of them…”
FYI:
A spokesman for the Olive Garden disputed a report from Politico that the restaurant chain pulled its advertising from the David Letterman show due to jokes about Sarah Palin’s daughter.
“Information reported today by Andy Barr of Politico regarding Olive Garden’s advertising on the Late Show with David Letterman was erroneous. No authorized spokesperson for the company confirmed the information in his report,” said Olive Garden spokesman Rich Jeffers in an email to The Vote.
“The Olive Garden media schedule is planned months in advance. The schedule for the Late Show with David Letterman was completed earlier this month. We take all guest concerns seriously. And, as always, we will factor those concerns in as we plan our advertising schedule in the future,” he continued.
Jeffers has not yet responded to an email asking if Olive Garden advertisements will continue on the David Letterman show.
(source: http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/06/18/olive-garden-disputes-report-that-ads-were-pulled-from-letterman/)
@Reaver: I very much doubt that Letterman (and his writing staff) anticipated the reaction to the joke considering Leno and Conan have made similar jokes about Palin’s daughters:
“Sarah Palin is going to drop the first puck at the Philadelphia Flyers’ hockey game. Then Palin will spend the rest of the game trying to keep the hockey players out of her daughter’s penalty box.” –Conan O’Brien
“Governor Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it.” ~ Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” – 9/2/08
ganzagwenie,
I’m sure they didn’t expect as strong a reaction as they got but I just put two and two together and couldn’t help wondering if they pushed the envelope in an attempt to generate controversy and garner ratings. I don’t think Dave ever got over loosing out to Leno to host the Tonight Show and I think he really wanted to show up Conan in the ratings.
Those two jokes are different than Letterman’s, ganzagwenie, mostly because his actually said something happened to her. O’Brien’s is closer to Dave’s, but is more joking about Sarah fighting for her and Leno’s is really different because Edwards is the butt of the joke (and who doesn’t like an Edwards joke). Would I prefer it didn’t go there, sure, but there’s a line you have to stay behind and they did. But to go out and say she was raped/can’t keep her pants on is just uncalled for.
And my earlier statement should have been, “I would have saidmovies with over-the-edge liberals…” uh hum.
So unless she speaks up about every single cruel thing people say about her kids, she’s not allowed to speak up about a single cruel thing people say about her kids?
Not to mention that Conan and Leno didn’t wage a war of words against the McCain/Palin campaign. McCain cancelled a Late Show appearance and Letterman threw a tantrum for weeks.
Honestly? I really don’t care one way or the other. Talk show hosts and comedians make a living making off color jokes and remarks about people. If you are in the public eye, you pretty much accept the fact that people will be saying stuff like this about you, your family, your friends, etc. Palin made it a point to bring her children into her campaign, and when you do that, you immediately make them fodder. I’m not saying that what he said was appropriate in the least, but I’m not surprised at it. And as for the liberal/conservative crap – it’s just that. Crap. The pendulum swings and when that happens the behavior that the left criticized the right for is the same behavior that the left doles out and vice versa. It’s all the same – business as usual. That’s why I don’t watch much late night tv. Just never got into it.
“People’s families are off-limits.” — Barack Obama
Wow that restores some of my faith in people’s consciences. Some people tend to forget freedom of speech is a double edged sword: you’re free to insult someone, and they’re free not to like it. No one but yourself to blame for the consequences of said insults.
And I really hate that old ‘ geez get a sense of humor’ excuse. I can’t remember how many times I’ve gotten angry at the ubiquitous ‘Catholic priests are perverts’ joke and tried to mention that that’s stereotyping and I’ve known many who were not, etc. only to be told to ‘get over it’ and ‘take a joke’. Same with people who call me ‘ho’ or worse in a joking manner. You don’t HAVE to find someone’s joke funny, even when being pressured to do so.
@Kristine: I disagree. I think Leno’s joke was nearly identical to Letterman’s: “One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game,” Letterman said, “during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.” To me, it seems the actual butt of Letterman’s joke was A-Rod.
@simon: I’m not saying she wasn’t right to try to defend her daughter– I would have done the same thing if I were in her shoes (although I like to think that I would have done the whole “shame on you” thing to Leno/Conan as well). I was responding to Reaver’s suggestion that Letterman made the joke in hopes of a maelstrom of publicity that would boost his ratings. I simply do not believe his contention is true since as I explained before (although apparently not very well) very similar jokes have been made in the past with little to no public outcry, demonstrations, corporations pulling advertisements, etc.
Also, as far as Letterman throwing a tantrum for weeks when McCain refused to come on his show, he did the same thing when Paris Hilton wouldn’t appear. I think he’s just a tantrum kind of guy.
Maybe he would throw less tantrums if he stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.
This is much better dialogue about something far more important than twit and twat. You guys work this out.
T’wat do we owe the pleasure?
Hooray for the free market!
david letterman’s joke wasn’t funny but this is getting old hearing about it. he shouldn’t have said it but yes, he said sorry and palin accepted. done.
Good, I can use my gift card at Olive Garden now. I know there is a big grassroots campaign going on with his advertisers. DL never apologized about the slutty talk. Imus was fired and Dave never was even mentioned about being innapropriate. I stand by my view that David knew full and well that Sarah was in town with her 14 y/o, not her 18 y/o. He blamed us for not having a sense of humor and I find that offensive. He is offensive, rude and crude. What ever happened to stars entertaining us instead they love to hear themselves talk and tell us how to think and vote.
I used to work at The Olive Garden 10 years ago, I still cant eat there.
/bravo to Olvie Garden for taking the consumers who buy their product into consideration.
Next step would be to hold the “news agencies” that trash non liberals on a daily basis with “commentators” and see how they hold those spreading vile and hate responsible for thier words and actions.
Hmm, while I agree that the free market says Olive Garden can do what it darn well pleases with its money, and I think Letterman’s comments were pretty awful, I think we should just get over it and not give any more press to this regrettable moment in humanity. Palin’s accepted his apology, and since she’s the wronged party, I’d consider it settled.
@TrojanPrincess – Being a Christian myself, I agree that the right have been bashed enough. But I still don’t think it makes us look any better if we decide to yell back louder. It would perhaps be a different matter if Palin still felt wronged and that Letterman’s apology sucked, but I think we ought to have a little forgiveness. Don’t get me wrong, I despise Letterman and I think his show sucks, and good for Olive Garden for expressing values, but I think the matter’s over and done with. Let’s move on to needling people who aren’t getting it and aren’t apologetic, like PeTA and its gang of doofus celebrity endorsers.
25 comments into a post about the Olive Garden, and we still haven’t heard from Pastafarian. COINCIDENCE???
Simon makes a good point… I smell a conspiracy. Maybe he’s too busy using that Olive Garden gift certificate from three Christmases ago from Gram-pasta??
@ganzagwenie: I would not call it identical, mostly because Letterman’s was much more crude and, quite honestly, ill-timed. If Letterman had said this back during the campaign, I don’t think it would have drawn this attention. Now it’s painfully obvious that he just enjoys smearing Palin and her family, instead of simply working the news of the day in. Like I said before, they’re all wrong, but Letterman’s bitter, liberal old man schtick is old. Also, if I were Rodriguez, I would be just as upset.
Sorry I was working on my abs. What’d I miss?
I’m still waiting for Dave to apologize to John Corozine for all his “Vince and Larry” jokes.