Should David Letterman have admitted to having sexual relations with staff members after being the victim of an alleged extortion?

Yes

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by T McGiver

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Once David Letterman realized that news of an alleged blackmail attempt would be made public, what realistic choice did he have other than to admit to having had sexual relations with several of his staff members?

He knew that word would spread fast and that at some point questions and rumors would thrust him into an international limelight. A scandal involving extortion, sex, and a veteran celebrity known to millions is not the kind of drama that just fades away.

After decades working in television, with legions of friends, acquaintances, and contacts among the Hollywood and New York entertainment establishments, Letterman had gained an understanding of the imperatives of media stardom that few others had. Letterman knew that television, because it brings public personalities into private bedrooms night after night, confers an immediate - if virtual - intimacy on its entertainers that writers, politicians, and movie stars might covet but rarely enjoyed.

By contrast, building intimacy with viewers required that TV entertainers first establish a foundation of trust. Erode that foundation and the edifice would collapse in short order.

Letterman thus knew that denying the allegations - or merely refusing to comment on them - would very likely be felt as a violation of the trust millions of fans had put in him. And any violation that serious could easily spiral out of control and ultimately spell the end for both his show and his reputation. Sponsors would begin dropping him. A successor would be named.

Nothing commands a celebrity comedian's attention like the prospect of being remembered for how he flamed out rather than how he once owned the night.

Letterman was especially well placed to know how best to weather the storm that was only just closing in on him. He had, after all, dined out on jokes about Bill Clinton and Monica, about Jimmy Swaggart and his prostitutes, about Eliot Spitzer and his overpriced call girl, about the affair between John Edwards and his campaign worker. He had watched them all get found out, and he'd watched them all survive after taking the heat and candidly acknowledging their errors.

Coming clean was, Letterman knew, the shortest route through the pain.

Having grown up in the ultra-conservative state of Indiana, Letterman knew, too, that Americans, unlike worldly Europeans and holistic Asians, still put sexual behavior in a fishbowl and often turned a blind eye to far more serious transgressions. Politicians could send thousands of Americans to their deaths in wars that had no tangible benefit to the population as a whole, bankrupting the national treasury while domestic needs went crying. Yet repercussions would be minimal. Most of the voters who had supported them would remain in their corner.

But any American politician or celebrity who appeared to commit sexual improprieties or use power and position to take sexual advantage of employees - even during economic boom times - was an entirely different story. In America, pleasure-taking threatens decadence; waging wars and weakening financial safeguards to the point of public and private insolvency do not.

And so Letterman took decisive action. Rightly so. He confirmed, he acknowledged, he confessed to his audience, right on his show. (Of course, he also understood that sexual indiscretions exposed have seldom hurt ratings in the least.)

Had Letterman not been a television celebrity, would he have needed to subject his amorous life to public scrutiny? That is far less certain. After all, when the dalliances occurred, Letterman was not married; he violated no formal vows, as far as we know. Even if he had, is that not between Letterman and the woman who later became his spouse?

None of the staff with whom Letterman had sexual affairs have come forward to denounce him for abuse or cruelty. Several have called him the best boss they've ever worked for. Did anyone lose a job because of being bedded? If so, has anyone alleged that so far?

If the explosive mix of celebrity, power, money, and sex did disadvantage a Letterman employee, and if Letterman is held to account for it, how many thousands of other, less well liked entertainment bosses should fear similar inquisitions? Will human misbehavior ever be eradicated as a result?

Perhaps we should recognize the Letterman Affair for what it is: a tempest in a teapot. It might be wiser to focus instead on investigating the alleged extortionist and prosecuting those who have deprived the powerless of their livelihoods. We would do well to start looking for them on Wall Street, not in Rockefeller Center.

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