Letterman's ratings ultimately will suffer

Did David Letterman say the right things in his apology? Certainly. Are there reasons to doubt his sincerity? Most certainly.

I'll provide just two. First, his apology included personal sentiments to the effect that he too would be offended if he had misapprehended his joke, as he suggested the Palin family and half of America had. If that was an honest sentiment, however, why was his first reaction to compound his error on a subsequent broadcast by playing the controversy for laughs, adding injury to insult.

No, it was only the manifestly mounting threat to his professional survival that moved him to his sympathetic remarks-remarks which significantly ignored completely the "slutty flight attendant" reference.

Second, is a contradiction within his statement that demonstrates the dishonesty of Letterman's apology. He stated: "I thought I was telling [the joke] about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium... I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter." So, we are to believe that in his mind he made the crude joke about Governor Palin's 18-year-old daughter. But, oops, seconds later, Letterman said: "I had no idea that anybody was at the ballgame except the governor, and I was told at the time that she was there with Rudy Giuliani."

So, he either thought the older daughter was at the game, or he thought no daughters were at the game. It can't be both. One is necessarily untrue, and though I have my suspicions, it doesn't matter which. Whatever else may come to light, we've now confirmed two things about funnyman David Letterman: He is casually dishonest, and he is comfortable with misogyny as form of humor.

Whether or not he truly is funny anymore, I'm content to let his declining Nielsen ratings tell the tale.

Anthony Louis Troyke

Bartlett