David Letterman has a history of telling child rape jokes

A PUMA blog has reposted from a Team Sarah blog the history of child rape "jokes" Letterman has told over the years.

Reposting the background of the dispute from a Fire David Letterman Facebook group discussion (where you need to be registered in order to read):

Dave's "joke" was about a 14 year old

While Letterman CLAIMS he was talking about her Sarah Palin's OTHER daughter, the 18 year old and not the 14 year old, only an extremely naive person would take Dave at his word.

Dave's monologue is not ad libbed, it is scripted by a staff of paid, union writers. They had the time & ability to research & fact check their story before recording the show. All the stories that listed Palin's entourage included the name & age of the daughter accompanying her to New York

A story published 7 June:

"Accompanying Palin on the trip is her husband, Todd, and the couple's 14-year-old daughter, Willow"

A story published 6 June:

"She's traveling with her husband, Todd, and her 14-year old daughter, Willow"

Dave & his staff of writers knew that he was attacking Willow, the implication being that Palin is a bad mother & that all of her daughters are promiscuous. Dave somewhat miscalculated in thinking that no one would call him on it & that his leftists friends in the media would have his back. He certainly appears to have guessed correctly on the latter assumption.

Countering the defenders of Letterman

Letterman defenders seem to make two general points:

1) GOP talk show hosts, specifically Limbaugh, have said mean things about Democratic politicians' children, aka implying Chelsea Clinton is a dog. Ergo, complaining about Dave is hypocritical.

Counterpoints

Whilst being rude, Limbaugh never advocated raping Chelsea Clinton. Limbaugh clearly apologized in a timely manner, aka immediately afterwards versus waiting an entire week. Limbaugh clearly apologized on his accord versus waiting for sponsors & lawyers to compel him to pretend to be contrite. One can quibble over Limbaugh's & Letterman's level of sincerity but one can't refute the ultimate outcome: LIMBAUGH NO LONGER HAS A TV SHOW & ONLY WORKS ON AM RADIO. I wouldn't have a problem if the same fate befell Letterman.

2) Democratic talk show hosts have a history of telling child rape "jokes". Ergo, everybody does it, so it's OK.

Counterpoint

Has anyone tried using that rationalization to weasel out of a speeding ticket? "Golly, officer, everybody else is speeding, so you are forbidden from giving me a ticket." It's not an all or nothing proposition. The traffic cop isn't obligated to hand out tickets to everyone who is speeding. Similarly, critics are focusing on Letterman now. We reserve the right to go after other perverts who tell child rape "jokes" in the future. I thank the Letterman defenders for doing the grunt work & turning up ammunition to potentially use against O'Brien & Leno for any future boycott against them once we're done punishing Letterman. However, perhaps Letterman's treatment will serve as a cautionary tale to others & they'll eschew from ever telling child rape jokes again.

Hillbuzz has great advice for writing boycott letters, plus points of contact & address information for people who want to write hard copy letters. Hillbuzz is using the strategy of targeting Dave's biggest sponsors with a family friendly brand image. They are now focusing on Mars, Kelloggs, Johnson & Johnson.

& PUMA PAC have great boilerplate letters that you can tweak before sending.

A sample business letter to use as a format guide.