Thursday night — as I’m sure you know by now — he went on the air and told an extraordinary story, first about being blackmailed and then about what he’d been blackmailed for. “Creepy” things, that vague descriptor, was put into a little sharper focus like so: “I have had sex with women who work for me on this show.”

You know, you can’t un-hear that. And it’s not because Dave is no spring chicken — whatever, you can’t deny that he’s a guy with charisma — it’s because you feel you know him, watching him all these years, but suddenly that’s knowing him a little too well. And at first it’s a lot to take in — the blackmail; the $2 million demand; the screenplay weirdness; the revelations that the extortionist was a high-level Emmy-winning producer for CBS; the emergence of Stephanie Birkett, affable on-screen sidekick, as but one of the women; the surfacing of other names, too; claims of a Late Show love nest. Ew. Let’s stop there.

Over the weekend, this all had time to marinate, along with the questions — was there pressure? Was that the way to get a promotion? What about if you weren’t favored by Dave? Were there any legal issues brewing? Would CBS take disciplinary action? Meanwhile, they were removing YouTube clips of the host’s mea culpa in an eyebrow-raising, attention-calling move that ratcheted up the curiosity about what Dave would say tonight.

Maybe that was the point.

Actually, I can’t tell what the point was — because two narrative emerged from the taping of the Late Show this afternoon: (1) Dave apologized on air, to his staff — and his wife; and (2) Dave told jokes. About it.

As someone who writes about this for a living, this is the order in which I wrote up these stories: First, “David Letterman’s On-Air Apology: “Terribly Sorry” To Staff, Wife.” He said his wife had been “horribly hurt” by the revelations. I chose an accompanying image to match the tone of the apology — somber, rueful.

Then I figured I’d check CBS.com for clips, just in case. Lo and behold, there was a teaser for Dave’s monologue. So I clicked on it. Out he walked at the top of the show, to huge applause. He said “Thank you,” a few times; the applause got louder. Then he grinned, and the audience laughed in response. “Did your weekend just fly by?” he asked, tongue in cheek. So much contained in that sentence — the subtext of all of the above, the punchline present only in the unsaid. “I’ll be honest with you, folks, right now I’d give anything to be hiking on the Appalachian trail.” Ba-dum-bum. “I got into the car this morning and even the navigation lady wasn’t speaking to me.” Rimshot! To accompany this second post, I took a screengrab from the monologue — Letterman smiling impishly.

Now I don’t expect a morose, self-flagellating talk show host — that’s no fun — but the contrast between these two moments is confusing. Which one am I supposed to identify with? Which one am I supposed to forgive? Which one am I less likely to imagine having sex with an intern? The release of both of these images prior to the show sends a mixed message. On the one hand, the apology is what everyone was waiting for. On the other, posting a monologue clip means a return to business as usual…business as usual, that is, with jokes essentially about his wife not talking to him. That’s not to say he didn’t mean his apology, but it does feel a little…disconnected from it.

Which one should we believe? One? The other? Both? Can’t an apologetic Dave still be funny? Can’t a wisecracking Dave still be sincere? Can’t he address the giant elephant in the room and still get back to his routine, because if he’s still there, what else is he gonna do?

Maybe that was the point.

But otherwise, I mean, really: Does CBS think this toothpaste is going back in the tube? Obviously not, and Letterman production company Worldwide Pants, which made the request, should know that too. They should also know that (a) using “The Late Show” as the millions-of-viewers platform for getting this story out was sorta public and (b) the coverup is worse than the crime — or, at least, the Internet hates when you remove things. So I fail to see what removing these videos now accomplishes.

In any case, they’re not even “removed” per se — this being YouTube, there are a fair number of specimens available if you look (and you don’t have to look hard). I’ve got a couple of clips below, including the full 10-minute version. For now. In addition, Sean McCarthy at The Comic’s Comic actually has an official CBS clip from the segment embeded and still working away on his site. For what it’s worth, there are two clips of experts commenting on the matter at CBSNews.com, where a search for “Letterman” yielded mostly print news stories, but at least those two clips. Which is good, because CBS News is, you know, a news division. And as mentioned above, this is news.

News you can still watch on YouTube! For now. See below.

Halderman was, up until this mess broke wide open, an Emmy-winning producer for CBS’ 48 Hours. He was also a guy with a lot of friends at CBS, if his Facebook page is to be believed. They must all be stunned right now — this was their colleague, likely their friend, perhaps their boss or their mentor. And he tried to blackmail David Letterman. For $2 million dollars. What the hell was this guy thinking?

We don’t know that. But this is what we do know:

• Joe Halderman is 51, and lives in Norwalk, CT.
• Halderman has been a CBS News producer for decades, and worked on the old morning show, later “Evening News with Dan Rather,” and was shipped to London where he reported on various hotspots from around the world.
• He produced the Showtime documentary “Beslan: Three Days in September” about the school in the small Russian city of Beslan occupied by Chechen rebels (narrated by Julia Roberts.)
• He lists over 50 CBS staffers, plus friends from other networks including ABC and ESPN as Facebook friends, including many with high-level positions like 48 Hours Executive Producer Susan Zirinsky and former CBS News president Andy Heyward, Executive Editor at CBS News Al Briganti and legal analysts Andrew Cohen.
• He is divorced, some say it got messy (children invovled) and has been dating a woman who had worked at “48 Hours.”
• According to the NY Daily News, Halderman lived with CBS Late Show staffer Stephanie Birkitt citing public records out of New York (pictured below)

Read more:
NY Daily News: David Letterman reveals $2M sex affair

EW.com “David Letterman’s Girl Friday tells all”

Image of Stephanie Burkitt from EW.com

Image of Joe Halderman is from his Facebook page.