Top 10 reasons joke fell flat

Re “The Dave and Sarah show,” Editorial, June 17

I was shocked at your editorial, which opined that David Letterman’s error was simply involving the wrong Palin daughter in his joke. His joke was an insult to the Palin family, the Rodriguez family and all families. Your editorial was an insult to readers, implying that they would think the only thing wrong was that he did not get the joke “right.”

It was of the same genre and on the same level as Don Imus’ joke about the college athletes, and it should be condemned for the same reason. A major problem with the public discourse today is its lack of civility and manners.

Clark Brown

Venice

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Letterman has apologized for his crass joke, and Gov. Sarah Palin has accepted it, so this should end the issue. But I am disappointed in the editorial’s use of the word “notorious” to describe 18-year-old Bristol Palin.

In spite of her moral failure, she is young and hardly deserves such a harsh and ugly description.

I wonder if The Times has ever used the word “notorious” to describe Sen. John Edwards, a man three times her age whose moral failures far outnumber Bristol’s? But Edwards is a liberal Democrat and gets soft treatment, right?

Deborah Mayhan

Winnetka

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The only disappointment I feel in the Letterman/Palin smackdown stems from the fact that we have to hear more from Sarah Palin, that unending fount of nonsense.

In last year’s election, Palin made the conscious, cynical decision to use both her pregnant daughter, Bristol, and her developmentally disabled infant son, Trig, as props in the culture war over abortion.

Her outrage over Letterman’s joke about her younger daughter, Willow, rings as hollow.

Branden Frankel

Los Angeles

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It took Letterman one week to apologize to Palin for the crude remarks he made about her 14-year-old daughter. He didn’t apologize, however, for insulting the governor’s dress and appearance.

The media would sure be demanding he be fired if he referred to Michelle Obama that way. Where is the outrage regarding Palin?

Paul Nolan

Santa Clarita