Shortly after news of the Letterman scandal broke (you may recall that it was broken by intrepid reporter David Letterman), Nikki Finke theorized that CBS wouldn’t investigate Letterman’s “single man sex with staffers at his independent production company Worldwide Pants.” CBS boss Les Moonves and his boss, Sumner Redstone, had both had adulterous affairs, she argued, and so they wouldn’t be too keen on digging into Letterman.

But as the New York Observer‘s Felix Gilette reports, CBS will be looking into the sex-and-extortion saga the way they know best: with a crack investigative reporter. Armen Keteyian, who has won eight Emmys over the course of his career for a distinguished blend of sports and straight news reporting, is heading up the investigative team.

Gilette reports:

Whether the story ever makes it to the airwaves remains to be seen. But current and former CBS News staffers who spoke to The Observer said they’d be surprised if the news divisions pulls any punches. “From having talked to some friends there, who are pretty highly placed, they really want to hit this story hard, like any other journalistic story,” Dr. Bob Arnot, a former CBS news correspondent and friend of Mr. Halderman’s, recently told The Observer. “They want to be ahead of the pack because it’s in their own house.”

As a news network, CBS is in an unusual position when it comes time to investigate one of its own. Whereas a typical corporation might respond by launching an internal investigation, complete with outside auditors and a standardized procedure, CBS has a stable of its own auditors working in the newsroom. As such, the process by which they will handle this is murky: “Whether the story ever makes it to the airwaves remains to be seen.” Could a producer, in theory, axe Keteyian’s piece not because of the awkward internal element, but because she thought it was bad journalism? If that happened, would anyone believe that was the real reason?

The very news that this is happening represents a firm commitment by CBS. CBS Evening News executive EP Rick Kaplan went on the record saying that they would cover the story “as aggressively as we cover any story of this kind, trying to learn what we can and get the critical interviews.” If this was all behind-the-scenes, it would, a conspiracy theorist might say, be easier to kill if it wasn’t to someone’s liking. But if the exposé doesn’t air now, it would unleash a wave of horrible PR for the network. CBS’s integrity in following through with this and so boldly stating its intentions should be lauded — and could just lead to the scoop of the year.

(image via ABC News)

New York Times’ David Carr acknowledges that thus far Letterman has appeared to escape the worst repercussions of a sex scandal; namely loss of advertisers and viewers, but warns tougher days could be ahead:

There are two issues, the first having to do with media dynamics: will the drip, drip, drip of coverage of the legal case eventually erode his standing as someone suitable to tuck us in every night? And second, could his pratfall hurt his comedy?

Mr. Letterman’s hero Johnny Carson thrived in people’s living rooms at the same time that he worked his way through three divorces; his lack of skill in marital matters never seemed to diminish his appeal. But Mr. Carson lived in a very different media epoch, when there was no Gawker, the tabloids were far tamer and TMZ were just three letters of the alphabet.

Carr goes on to note that Gerald Shargel, the lawyer for Robert Halderman, is a pitbull who will stop at nothing to produce dirt on Dave. So far of course it seems like the excess in coverage, especially coming after Roman Polanski’s arrest and numerous political sex ‘scandals’, has only succeeded in highlighting the absurdity of the coverage Letterman has received. An irony that the Washington Post‘s Howie Kurtz touches on, and appears to sort of defend.

But what made Letterman think he could offer an open-ended admission about sleeping with subordinates without sending the media into a frenzy? [What indeed!] Perhaps he sees himself as occupying a different realm — an entertainer who pokes fun at politicians for sexual shenanigans, not a public figure whose own dalliances are deserving of such scrutiny.

The Ensign story is complicated and not very visual. Letterman is far more famous. So the comic is turned into media fodder and the officeholder largely stays under the radar…But Letterman left too many blanks in the picture — how many women, over what period of time? — and reporters rushed to fill them in.

One might argue reporters would have rushed to fill even minor fractures in Letterman’s story regardless of what Letterman had said. Also? At least the “realm” Letterman is occupying is not of the high horse variety, the same of which cannot be said of, for example, Howie Kurtz.

And it did not occur to me last week when I was discussing having had sex with women who worked on this show, that then what would happen is reporters and newspaper people and radio and TV would start hounding the staff and saying, ‘What do you say, are you, and this and that.’ It was very, very unpleasant and I would just like to set the record straight, no, I’m not having sex with these women, those episodes are in the past.

Really? Really it did not occur to him that the tabloids would have a field day with this story and do their best to dig up all parties involved? Come on. Did David Letterman just move to New York City? Was this past weekend his first encounter with the morning newsstand tabloids? I’ve never met David Letterman but I’m pretty confident that the answer to both questions is no. A big resounding no.

This story arrived straight out of central tabloid casting; no matter how upset or distracted Letterman was — and no doubt he was both — the man has too much media savvy not to know better. You don’t announce multi-million dollar extortion sex scandal on a national television program in the manner in which he did without some forethought. Anyway, the question now is how many more days can the papers stretch this story out as cover material (we’re currently on day five – gallery below) and how completely will Stephanie Birkitt’s life be ruined before a) this is over, or b) she pens a book deal to turn those infamous diaries into a proper book?

The Five Day Arc of a Tabloid Scandal – Day One

NEXT: The Five Day Arc of a Tabloid Scandal – Day Two

As Rachel Sklar asked earlier tonight, “Which Letterman should we believe?” Well here’s what they both had to say.

In addition to the jokes released in the monologue clip earlier tonight (video below), here were a few more from the monologue:

There’s a possibility that I’ll be the first talk show host impeached.

It’s Fall here in New York City, and I spent the whole weekend raking my hate mail.

It’s cold too. Chilly outside my house, chilly inside my house.

Normally when I’m shaken down for money, it’s my relatives.

This is only phase one. This is phase one of the scandal. Phase two, next week I go on Oprah and sob.

This was phase one of Letterman’s handling of the awkward situation. The funny, self-deprecating, somewhat surprising route. Then, after a commercial break, he got serious:

I wasn’t going to talk about it anymore, but it seems like people want to talk about it. And when you’re blackmailed, it’s a crime and you are a victim. It’s felony extortion is what it is. And it’s a nasty thing to do to people. Now being a victim, and if you happen to, your behavior is responsible for hurting people, that’s a separate part of the equation. And it did not occur to me last week when I was discussing having had sex with women who worked on this show, that then what would happen is reporters and newspaper people and radio and TV would start hounding the staff and saying, ‘What do you say, are you, and this and that.’ It was very, very unpleasant and I would just like to set the record straight, no, I’m not having sex with these women, those episodes are in the past. So my apologies to subjecting them to that vulnerability.

It’s equally surprising that Letterman didn’t think the press would look into who these women would be, since he decided to admit to this in such a public setting, and in such a vague way (considering the salacious subject matter). Then he moved to his wife. “She has been horribly hurt by my behavior. And when something happens like that, if you hurt a person, and it’s your responsibility, you try to fix it,” he said. “Let me tell you, folks, I got my work cut out for me.”

He did throw in a joke at the end: “Now because what can it hurt, I’d like to apologize to the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.”

He joked about being the “first talk show host impeached,” but while impeachment won’t happen, the legal entanglements are likely just getting started. The lawyer of the man arrested for Letterman’s extortion, Robert J. Halderman, was out over the past couple days dropping hints to what the defense of his client would be – and bashing Letterman in the process. Tonight he told the New York Times “he would put forward evidence that Mr. Letterman had engaged in sexual harassment of his staff members.”

So…jokes!

Seriously, more media coverage will come tomorrow and the rest of the week (and weeks and months ahead) about the story, the various legal issues as well as Letterman’s public handling of the situation. If anything comes out of this, Letterman will likely gain an even bigger nightly audience as he further cements his place as the top late night host. Cynics will say this is a ratings ploy, but there has to be more to it. Whether CBS and Letterman’s lawyers agree with the out-in-the-open, half-joking (literally and figuratively) route the CBS host has chosen to deal with these issues, we’ll find out soon. As long as Letterman keeps talking.

Here’s part of the monologue tonight:

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At least that’s what Robert J. Halderman‘s lawyer wants you to believe, as he made a few the first of likely to be many media appearances, dropping references to Letterman’s ‘manipulation’ and giving a vague defense argument preview.

Gerald Shargel was interviewed by Geraldo Rivera on Fox News last night, and Ann Curry on the Today show today. And the tale he’s beginning to weave is sounding like one fantastic 48 Hours Mystery episode – of which Halderman was a longtime, Emmy award winning producer.

“It’s not only a question of having sexual affairs – that might be a big yawn, this is 21st century America,” said Shargel to Rivera. “But that’s not the issue; I think the larger issue at the trial, will be, who did he have the affair with?” Wait, I thought we knew who he had the affair with? And how does who he had the affair with have anything to do with extortion? Stay tuned.

“Specific criminal intent, that’s an element to a crime,” he said in the FNC interview. “And, I’m saying that Joe Halderman did not have specific criminal intent. More on that later. I’m not identifying any defenses, but as time goes on, I may be back.”

I have no idea what that means, but I’ll stay tuned after the commercial break to see what the hell he’s talking about!

Curry, who billed the interview as Halderman’s “first chance to be heard” despite the fact that he was on FNC the night before, had a bit of a contentious exchange. But the best quote from Shargel was this – about Letterman’s “side” being public already. “David Letterman didn’t give his side of the story. David Letterman gave what he wanted the public to know,” said Shargel. We’ll have to run this by the boss, Dan Abrams, but wasn’t Letterman’s 10-minute speech his “side of the story?”

There was more though:

He wanted to get out ahead of the story and that’s exactly what he did. he’s a master at manipulating audiences. that’s what he does for a living. so to think that David Letterman gave the entire story and there’s nothing more to be said is simply wrong.

NEXT: See Curry and Rivera’s full interviews.

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.