Tonight Dave Letterman goes back on the air after one hell of a weekend. And I'm already confused. 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." (more...)

David Letterman returned to tape a live show today — his first after his on-air mea culpa on Thursday night wherein he revealed that he had been the victim of a $2 million extortion attempt over multiple affairs he'd had with female staff members. Letterman, who initially said he did not "plan to say much much more on this," came out tonight with an on-air apology to his staff members — many of whom were blindsided by his shocking announcement — and his wife, Regina Lasko. (more...)

The media world - and just about everyone else for that matter - is all abuzz this morning over David Letterman's revelation last night that he was being extorted for $2 million over the fact he'd had sex with women who'd worked for him. It is perhaps a measure of how well his viewers felt they knew him, and how successfully he portrays himself as an everyman that people were apparently shocked at this disclosure. Since at the end of the day (so far) all the story is is that Letterman -- who was only married last March...to a woman who had worked for him at one time -- had sex with women who worked for him. This is vastly different than, say, if Letterman was married and/or facing sexual harassment charges. As Donny Deutsch so aptly put it on Morning Joe this morning: "Do you think as you go around this newsroom there aren't people having productive personal relationships?" On the scale of the sex scandals that have been recently dominating the headlines -- Polanski, Ensign, Sanford -- this is pretty tame. (more...)