Palin Forces America To Become Aware of Her Once Again

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/06/palin_forces_america_to_become.html

On June 8th, David Letterman came out and did his monologue just as he has for years. Then he moved into his top ten list focusing on Sarah Palin, and this is where everything went awry. David Letterman cracked a joke implying that Palin's daughter got "knocked up" by Alex Rodriguez at the Yankees game during the seventh inning stretch. Now, it is obvious that this joke is directed at Palin's 18 year old daughter, Bristol and well, she was kinda "knocked up" last year. So, it makes sense and it's funny. The crowd laughs, everyone enjoys the joke, and we move on to the guests. The next day is when the backlash begins. It seems one of Letterman's joke writer's had one small detail confused. The Palin daughter that was at the game was Palin's 14 year old daugther. Oops.

Now, to me this is an obvious mistake. And, it is the kind of thing that could be easily forgotten and we could all move on. Now, what we need to realize is that Sarah Palin is trying very hard to stay relevant, and not be forgotten. This is one of the most difficult tasks for a politician who has visions of being in the White House. How does a vice presidential candidate who created a lot of buzz during the campaign stay buzz worthy for four years, until the next campaign. Well, one tactic is to make something out of nothing and get some free PR from a prominent late night host's joke that was not thoroughly researched. Palin did exactly that and now she is back in the forefront of our minds and the political and entertainment worlds are talking about her once again. When you google "Letterman Palin", you see things like "Letterman vs Palin", likening this situation to a high profile boxing match. Palin and her team have engineered an ingenious PR move here. They have likened David Letterman to a pedophile who promotes the rape of children. Really? He doesn't right his jokes. This is clearly a situation where the proper research wasn't done, and David Letterman was obviously referring to the 18 year old daughter.

Sarah Palin released a statement on Wednesday, after going on a radio talk show and calling David Letterman "pathetic". That statement is as follows.

"Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands — that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others."

Her husband, Todd, relased the following statement.

"Any "jokes" about raping my 14-year-old are despicable. Alaskans know it and I believe the rest of the world knows it, too."

A few things to notice in the statements are that Sarah Palin made a point to state that David Letterman is a 62 year old male. She basically says that his comments are contributing to pedophilia. And then, Todd Palin takes it to another level by using the word "rape". They are taking the assumption that Letterman was talking about their 14 year old daughter, and taking an innocent joke to a whole different level. The Palin family has not even acknowledged the idea that it may be a mistake and that Letterman was referring to their 18 year old daughter. By doing this, the feud would lose a little steam, and the media would begin to forget about her, and they do not want this.

David Letterman has since apologized and also invited Palin onto his show, to which she has declined.

The other side of this that is being talked about is how Letterman's ratings are benefiting from the PR, during a time when the late night focus was on Conan O'Brien taking over the Tonight Show. This has taken the focus off of the Tonight Show and shifted it to The Late Show on CBS. Either way, it looks like we may have two winners here in the world of PR.