Community Chat

[Pearlee]

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@wonderfulworld wrote:

What I recall is that the woman tried to blackmail him into giving her money and he came clean and spoke out against her rather than give her the money.

Is that right?

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@wonderfulworld  No, it wasn't a woman (and there was no "the" woman - there were many) who tried to extort money from David about his affairs. It was a man, Joe Halderman, a producer at CBS, who pled guilty to grand larceny  and he served jail time. Google David Letterman Blackmail and you'll read about it. 

[Cakers3]

DL could have been charged with violating Title VII's section which deals with Sexual Favoritism if it could be proven that the affairs resulted in a hostile work environment for the women who did not consent to sexual realtions with him.

The trick to that section is whether the women who had relations with him felt they had no choice to receive a raise or promotion or whatever vs. did any of them willingly engage in relations with him in return for work favors.

Whether we know if all his affairs were consensual or not will not be made public at this point in time.

[Carmie]

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@Trinity11 wrote:

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@Carmie wrote:

Consensual sexual behavior is not illegal between adults.  As long a David Letterman did not force himself on women, he is not in the same boat with men who force themselves on women or who harassed or abuse.

There will always be flirting between coworkers.  If one does not want to participate, that person needs to tell the other person to stop and that they are not interested.

Telling a woman that she looks sexy in “that” dress is not harassment either.  It only becomes harassment if it is said often and makes the women feel uncomfortable.  If so, she must tell the man to stop commenting on her clothing, etc. If he refuses to stop, then it is harassment.

i have been reading many opinions about this since appropriate behavior that is all over the news, and it is clear to me that there are many women who do not know the difference between, harassment, sexual abuse or consensual behavior.

If you are being harassed or abused, you will 100% know it immediately.  You will not have to go home and think about it.  You will know.   That uncomfortable feeling and loss of dignity will be felt right away.  You only have to think about how you are going to handle what just happened.

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I highly disagree that all of his encounters were consensual. Just the fact that these women were his subordinates puts an entirely different light on the entire subject.

Does anyone really believe that these women just happened to jump into bed with Dave because they adored the man? Somehow, I don't believe that to be the case and he even apologized for his behavior.

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Read my comments again.  I NEVER wrote that all of his encounters were consensual, so why you disagreeing?  I have worked with plenty of women who willingly jumped into bed with the boss over the years.

In one office, the secretary and boss would take at least two hours for lunch together.  When they came back, she always had a brown bag with food that she ate at her desk.  I wonder what they did at lunch time...ha.

I have a SIL who slept with her boss and she got promoted to an important position.  She was flying high with a six figure salary until couple of years later, when she was let go because she couldn’t do the job and her minions got tired of covering for her. I know this is true  because I helped her get a job at the same place I worked.  

So yes, I do believe some women jumped into bed with Dave willingly, but they probably thought they would see some future perks in doing that.

[cherry]

I never understood how people could listen to him. He was so insulting to people in his audience, making fun of them and laughing at them

A Canadian friend pointed this out to me. I had never watched the man. After him telling me this I watched, and sure enough, he was so mean and nasty.

I turned him off and never watched him again

[RainCityWoman]

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@Trinity11 wrote:

Why didn't his transgressions bring out these allegations from women regarding Lauer and others? He continued to host his show and all was forgiven. 

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Letterman's infidelities were consensual. He was blackmailed by someone who had worked there, and instead of paying the guy off, he went public on his show, not leaving out one detail. HIs wife stayed with him. As far as I know none of the women complained, nor were any of them described as anything but complicit in their dalliances with him.

[RainCityWoman]

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@wonderfulworld wrote:

What I recall is that the woman tried to blackmail him into giving her money and he came clean and spoke out against her rather than give her the money.

Is that right?

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The blackmailer was a man.

[GraceCO]

Letterman had "good timing" when he was found out and he wasn't a predator, from what I remember. Philandering is far different IMO.

Lauer was outted because there was a sea change underway...once the powerful Weinstein went down, the floodgates opened. Lauer's behavior was in the same category.

It's not over, and it's about time!

[Tinkrbl44]

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@Trinity11 wrote:

Why didn't his transgressions bring out these allegations from women regarding Lauer and others? He continued to host his show and all was forgiven. 

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@Trinity11

They were consensual ....   BIG difference.

[Trinity11]

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@Tinkrbl44 wrote:

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@Trinity11 wrote:

Why didn't his transgressions bring out these allegations from women regarding Lauer and others? He continued to host his show and all was forgiven. 

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@Trinity11

They were consensual ....   BIG difference.

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It's dubious that it was consensual when a subordinate had their job hanging by a string dependent upon whether their boss expected favors. It was an unhealthy work environment and since back then few spoke up, I think Mr. Letterman got away with his transgressions with a slap on the wrist.