We’ve all heard the saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don’t happen to agree with this pessimistic outlook. I have far more faith in humans to self regulate.
But it appears that David Letterman has a problem self regulating.
Anyone who owns a television knows that late night talk show host, David Letterman is currently embroiled in a, well, in a mess. First an extortion attempt against him, that spilled into public details of Dave’s complicated sex life, where it appears that for a few decades his primary hunting ground has been his workplace. Not good, Dave.
Is it illegal to have a workplace tryst? Absolutely not. People report that they fall in love at work all the time. Work is one of the best places to meet a potential spouse. Is it illegal to be having sex with two different people without their knowledge? Nope. Free country, after all. We are free to screw whomever we want (both definitions intended.) Is it illegal for bosses to screw subordinates? Now, here’s where it gets dicey Dave. If the boss creates an uncomfortable sexual environment or offers a quid pro quo for sex, then yes, the court calls this sexual harassment and it’s against the law. No one knows if boss-man Mr. Letterman, did any illegal thing and so far, no woman has complained. But just the fact that he is the boss and his sexual taste runs toward younger women whom he has some workplace power over, makes this not a rosy romantic picture.
It is indeed ironic that the external boundary that caused this flurry, was another man’s jealousy. It appears that one of Dave’s paramours was the girlfriend of an NBC news producer who is having hard economic times in this recession. And who isn’t? But this guy decided that David Letterman would be his prince with the glass shoe, or at least scared enough to write a check with plenty of zeros on it. He asked Dave for $2-million in exchange for keeping quiet about the now married Dave’s workplace sex life. That’s where the game stopped for these boys. Dave called in mommy to stop the mean bully. The rest is on your TV every night.
What’s happening here? Well, in simple caveman terms — an environment not far removed from NBC — Dave was the successful hunter who was bringing home the wooly mammoth to share with the tribe and that hunt gave him access to plenty of women who were hungry for their own kids food. Men have a strict pecking order and Dave, I mean the top dog hunter, could stay on top until he was really old and eventually a young buck would challenge him for all the women. Someone like A-Rod. You think it’s a coincidence that Letterman likes to make jokes about A-Rod? In the meantime, men in the pack still get some of Dave’s extra meat and extra women if they protect him. But that NBC news producer ran out of meat, was not such a great hunter himself, and even lost his babe to the big hunter. So he broke the male code, and challenged the top dog. And now the pack is still protecting Dave. The writers have rallied around him, writing jokes about other fallen sexual predators that amount to a, but-everybody-does-it defense.
And where are the women? Well, ex-girlfriend Merrill Markoe blogged that “Dave promised me many times that I was the only women he would ever cheat on.” A joke for sure, but the sub-text is this: Honey, if you’re going to eat the meat of a great hunter, you’d better be prepared to share. Ask any athlete’s wife about this rule.
What amazes me is that anyone is shocked. I mean, David Letterman is a famous guy. Most famous guys get lusty when they find power. (Pray that our president can suck on enough cigarettes to get through it without a scandle.) And, notice that none of Dave’s women have stepped forward with fingers pointed. Obviously he gave them enough meat that his short-term love was so worth it. I dunno. Somewhere in all this, my heart goes out to the sore loser who lost his money and his girl. Nice try for a last minutes save, buddy, but you lost. Take heart. It looks like you’ll get enough mystery-meat in jail.
Tags: David Letterman
[...] the rest here: Love Letterman Tags: a-problem-self, absolute-power, against-him, all-heard, corrupts-and, david, david-letterman, [...]
LOVE the way you put things in an interesting perspective.
Very smart.
[...] See the rest here: Love & Letterman [...]