Palin joke fallout

Re “From Punch Line to Battle Lines,” by Scott Collins, June 16: If Don Imus was forced off the air for insulting a women’s basketball team, “Dung-Mouth” David Letterman should certainly be fired for calling a woman governor a slut and setting up her 14-year-old daughter for lifetime ridicule as being “knocked up” during a ballgame.

Aaron L. Kolom

West Hollywood

--

The most egregious thing Letterman did was tell a bad joke -- even though the fact that it was based on the reality that one of Gov. Palin’s underage daughters had been “knocked up” seems to go unnoticed. Now the National Organization for Women has stepped in to give Letterman its “Hall of Shame.”

NOW should be pointing out the absurdity of this situation and educating people to Palin’s still ultra-conservative stance on women’s reproductive rights. Letterman’s joke was disrespectful but Palin is the one who really doesn’t respect women. If she had it her way, women would not have the choice to decide to carry a baby to full term, even in cases of rape, incest and saving the woman’s life.

Patty Shenker

Pacific Palisades