Tag: david letterman

Letterman blackmailer gets Emmy nomination.

I guess there’s no reason not to nominate him for it, but it’s still sort of weird:

The former CBS News producer jailed for trying to blackmail David Letterman is up for an Emmy award.

Robert “Joe” Halderman was nominated Thursday for a News and Documentary Emmy award for his participation in an April 2009 “48 Hours” story about an American exchange student charged with murder in Italy. He was one of four producers cited for the story.

Halderman began a six-month jail sentence in May for trying to extort money from Letterman in exchange for not revealing the late-night host’s office affairs.

Via Ed Driscoll, who is not precisely filled with the milk of human kindness when it comes to the journalism industry.  Not that I’m saying that he’s wrong, given that a lot of journalists pretty much hate New Media for a variety of reasons, and the ones who do hate us are rarely shy about making that hatred known.

Moe Lane

PS: Oddly, this is one of those businesses where getting an industry award nomination is sometimes a response to having been thrown in jail, rather than being largely irrelevant to it.

Letterman brought mistress along… on family vacation.

I got nothing, sorry.

And the No. 1 reason David Letterman is a cad: The “Late Show” host brought the assistant he was sleeping with on Caribbean vacations with his wife and their young son, sources told The Post.

Letterman’s wife, Regina Lasko, had no clue the comic was having an affair with his pretty, much younger assistant Stephanie Birkitt — a $200,000-a-year employee — when she was tagging along on the cozy, romantic trips, sources said.

Except… wait. The extortion attempt was apparently being scheduled around Cronkite’s memorial service. Now there’s some symbolism for you.

Via JammieWearingFool, via Hot Air Headlines.

Oh, so it’s *adultery*, then. [UPDATED]

[UPDATE] Deceiver has more. Quite a bit more.

As in, “Letterman was reportedly cheating on his wife last fall.”

Birkitt’s diary revealed that she and Letterman enjoyed romantic hikes last fall at his sprawling ranch in eastern Montana — where he was married in March — while her boyfriend Robert “Joe” Halderman stayed home in Connecticut, sources told The NY Post. While she tried to keep it a secret, Halderman eventually found Birkitt’s diary in December and learned she was still carrying on a steamy affair with Letterman.

And now you know the reason why the hypocrite felt it bright to apologize again to former Governor Palin. Because actual, honest-to-God adultery… yeah, that changes the narrative a little.

Crossposted to RedState.

The Ultimate ‘Top Ten Reasons…’

“…for having sex with David Letterman” list.  And what it represents is a point that has not yet been brought up nearly often enough yet, methinks: I was under the impression that general rules for behavior are supposed to be consistently applied.

Main post here, via @stoo11.

Crossposted to RedState.

Which will offend you more about the Letterman story?

That he used his position to sleep with staffers*?

Or that somebody tried to blackmail him over it?

Personally, I expect that we’re going to hear a lot more about the second part than we are about the first; it’s the sort of thing that you’d tend to gloss over at high speed if you’re trying to arouse sympathy for Letterman.  Which I might feel, if not the for both the first part, and the fact that Letterman’s never been shy about going after other people for this sort of thing.  And, yes, my respect for the man cratered with the Palin joke incident.  So I acknowledge that I’m not going to be favorable to his plight anyway.

That being said, blackmail is evil and unethical.  It’s also counter-productive: I can think of at least three media outlets who would have bought the evidence and exclusivity on a walk-in.

Moe Lane

PS: Jim Treacher acts as local karmic adjuster.  So does Jules Crittenden.  And I expect a great – nay, epic – response from Deceiver.com.

*Please note: I am not accusing him of adultery. There is no evidence that he carried on with other women after his marriage. But it is conceded from the start that he has engaged in sexual relations with people who worked for him.

Crossposted to RedState.

Letterman apology, take two.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Big Hollywood and Instapundit readers.  If you’d like some lighter fare after this, try this.

Compare this:

…to this:

A certain attitude adjustment can be detected there; amazing what a spot of actual activism will do, yes? Particularly when it’s directed at advertisers.  The general reaction elsewhere to this one is ‘kinda real‘; see also Cynthia Yockey, Michelle Malkin, Little Miss Attila, the Rhetorician, The Other McCain, Ace of Spades, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Big Hollywood, Wizbang, & Dan Collins.  Also, Governor Palin has already accepted the apology:

“Of course it’s accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who ‘joke’ about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve,” she said.

“Letterman certainly has the right to ‘joke’ about whatever he wants to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction,” Palin said. “This is all thanks to our U.S. Military women and men putting their lives on the line for us to secure America’s Right to Free Speech – in this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect.”

And I don’t think that these guys are going to stop.  Given that Letterman should have started with a “Sorry you were offended” last week, instead of smirking it off, well: I can see why they wouldn’t.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

I’m getting Letterman rape joke hate mail again.

Guess that means that they’re still worried about it.

Anyway, intentionally or not, Cynthia Yockley reminds me of this great piece of folk wisdom:

Don’t get mad.
Get even.

Probably intentionally: her post on bullying is likewise spot-on.

Crossposted to RedState.

I’m glad that you found that funny, Letterman.

As I promised here, I watched this throughout (via Michelle Malkin), and I’ve decided that I don’t believe you.  It’s because of the constant mugging for the camera, the frequent pausing for laugh lines, the phony forgetting of the husband and child’s name, the neglecting to mention that the first joke you recited – the one where you called a 14 year old a prostitute – was made the day after you called her mother a slut and cracked a joke about the 14 year old getting raped.  And there wasn’t even a “sorry that you were offended” – which is the standard fake-apology that your type usually resorts to when someone complains.  Instead, we got a “This is what I do.”

Yes.  I suppose that it is.

Moe Lane

PS: The hate apologetics that I’ve been getting from this episode have been fascinating: by all means, I invite people wanting to excuse this behavior to keep them coming..  So far I’m pretty sure that I’ve identified at least one impending divorce and two wrecked relationships from the subtext.

PPS: Dan Riehl has some more thoughts on the subject.

Crossposted to RedState.

Caleb covers the first step in the Letterman dance…

…so that I don’t have to.

I’m not even remotely surprised by the gambit; as I privately emailed somebody last night, he had no other options than to claim that he didn’t know the true situation (although that was before it came out that he came back and made a similar joke the day after).  I also promised that I’d give the response a fair hearing; which means that I’m going to hold off until I hear what he actually says, because right now the response that’s been leaked is both wholly inadequate and self-evidently incomplete.

But fair’s fair; maybe he’ll be believable when he says “I’m sorry.”  Which is a sentence completely missing from the response to date.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.