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"I am just a towering mass of Lutheran mid-western guilt."

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William Crawley | 20:48 UK time, Saturday, 3 October 2009

This may be the first time in television history that the host of a show used the format to admit to the audience that he had been having sex with female members of his production staff, and that he had just foiled a blackmail attempt. Some critics are already making comparisons with Bill Clinton's abuse of power in the Lewinsky Affair. Letterman is not the US president, on the other hand. How this all plays out in the next week will tell us a lot about American cultural politics.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    There are difference between what happened to President Clinton and Letterman. According to CNN, Leterman was not married at the time. It was sexual intercourse, nothing less. Letterman confessed to it openly, publicly. He did not say "I did not have sex with that woman." It doesn't appear to have had any impact on his performance of his job. He was being blackmailed for money, Clinton's enemies used his incidents to try to destroy him politically. It seems the blackmailer will likely go to jail for a very long time. The evidence against him according to CNN suggests an open and shut case. Letterman's ratings skyrocketed to 5 miillion from around 1 million.

  • Comment number 2.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 3.


    I think Dave was utterly classy, forthright, honest, smart, in how he dealt with this. I watched it on the night and instantly felt as though he had taken most of the heat out of it from the outset. The douchebag who extorted him should go down hard for this, and Letterman should celebrate a victory when it happens.


  • Comment number 4.

    His sleaze factor is the same as when he made jokes about Sarah Palin's young daughter. Democrats minimise, Republicans express horror etc. Much prefer Leno - genuine, warm and funny. Letterman has none of those characteristics.

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