Something interesting happened on television last night. It wasn’t that CBS’s Late Show host David Letterman told the story of numerous affairs he’s had with female employees and of the person who tried to extort him for $2 million dollars based on knowledge of that information — it was the manner in which the story was told and the reaction of the audience that were interesting.
What we saw was a masterful use of the medium of television. Suspending value judgments for the moment, I think it would have to be agreed that over the years, Letterman has used his forum to deal with some very tough subjects and has often done so with intelligence and wit. Offhand I can remember the Challenger disaster in 1986, his own recovery from bypass surgery in 2000 and certainly 9/11 among the particularly memorable instances in which he rose to the occasion in the face of personal or national tragedy.
But this was different. This was, like him or not, a television giant admitting very human foibles to his national audience. It was a shrewd move on his part, handling the situation with his characteristic, self-deprecating, caustic humor and telling his side of the story first, before it leaked to the media from other sources. In doing so, he maintained total control over the dissemination of the information, and seems to have defused (for the moment) on his own terms what could have been a much bigger scandal. It also illustrated just how dexterous Letterman is in his role.
Wisely, he skewered himself and his decision to have the affairs that he did, and — and this is the key — took responsibility up front for his actions. It’s the sort of thing we’re inclined to expect but never see from our elected officials who similarly get caught with their pants down. In that sense, Letterman’s on-camera admission seemed almost refreshing, and I suspect is at least part of the reason he received the applause and support from his live audience that he did.
But this is where it gets ugly. Many have been the guests on Letterman’s, Leno’s and other talk shows who have had to run the gauntlet, as it were, in the wake of an embarrassing sex scandal, and many have been the lashes and barbs that Letterman has administered over the years for just this sort of behavior. But it’s unlikely that he’ll have to undergo similar treatment, excepting possibly the odd stray allusion from one or another particularly brazen guest. As Letterman himself maintains control over distribution of his own work via his Worldwide Pants Inc. organization, and still has power in the late-night game, it’s unlikely that the professional repercussions will play out in the same way they would if you or I were in a similar situation in our respective workplaces.
In large measure, Letterman received the audience support that he did because someone tried to take advantage of this presence that so many of us have welcomed into our living rooms over the years, and the studio audience, like many of us, weren’t on board with that, regardless of what Letterman the man did. It’s an impulse I understand — it’s not as if this really could be described as a true “David and Goliath” situation; few really like to see some punk come along and take advantage of anyone’s misfortune and get away with it, and even though the behavior to which Letterman admitted was, at best, much more human than some would expect and at worst, thoroughly despicable, he can’t help but win a point or two for his forthright approach and candor. But it still doesn’t change the fact that we saw a man admitting betrayal of his family and receiving the public’s support in the face of it, which is undeniably disturbing.
In the end, I suspect it won’t matter too much, at least to the general public. This episode will become a punch line like so many others, and for a while, there may be some media sniffing around the dirty laundry of the Letterman household, but for myself, I’m left with the significant impression of an instance in which a television master wielded the medium with expert prowess and likely succeeded in saving himself a large portion of the embarrassment and shame that he’s foisted on others. It was fascinating, disconcerting and — albeit inappropriately — still occasionally funny. In this case, the laughs may have turned away the public’s wrath, but I suspect he won’t be so successful at home, away from his element.
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