For Those Awaiting Letterman's Apology to Palin: Don't Hold Your Breath

Letterman shouldn't apologize, if only to preserve the comedian's prerogative to satirize the powerful and to be offensive on occasion, says Erin Jackson, a rising local stand-up comic. "People read things into jokes that you never meant and never intended," she says. "If [Letterman] got into a cycle of apologizing for a joke or comment, you don't know where it would stop, or how far back you'd have to go to satisfy everyone. I don't think he can be who he is if he started doing that."

Adds Jackson: "When you give it to everyone equally, as Letterman does, as all the late-night people do, you kind of have to take it. It's like demanding an apology from the National Enquirer -- it's better to just get over it."

Maybe so. But Letterman strayed into dangerous territory when he decided to poke fun at a public figure's child. Sen. John McCain learned this lesson in 1998 when he made a crude joke about Chelsea Clinton, then 18. He apologized, both to the president and in the press.

On the other hand, Letterman wasn't talking about race, which has proved to be one of the most dangerous topics for comedy or commentary. Unlike racially charged comments that brought Imus, Gibson, Richards and Doug "Greaseman" Tracht low, Letterman's joke is milder and doesn't rise to a career-threatening level, says Ken Sunshine, a veteran New York public-relations executive. Which means, Sunshine says, that the pressure on Letterman to apologize publicly is low.

In fact, Sunshine says, the Letterman-Palin skirmish has been good for both sides: Letterman gets a booster shot of media-whipped "controversy" at a moment when he could finally be poised to surge past Conan O'Brien and "The Tonight Show" for late-night TV supremacy, while Palin seized an opportunity to appeal to her "base" of conservatives.

"Letterman is a master of this, and he's milking it for all it's worth," Sunshine said, citing similar ratings-boosting "feuds" that Letterman has engaged in with McCain and Oprah Winfrey. "But people often underestimate [Palin] and underestimate her following. She's exploiting this very smartly. She's speaking to her core base that feels maligned. She's playing the faux feminist . . . and the family-values representative. It's extraordinary that she can bring this off."

"Poor Mitt Romney," he adds. "He's probably wondering, 'Where do I get some of this?' "