“It’s very interesting. Men and women think very differently about this story,” NBC News anchor Ann Curry said. “The men I’ve talked to think, `How could a person within your own company kind of betray you like this?’ But the reaction I’m hearing from women is completely on the other end. They’re saying, `How could you have affairs, multiple affairs, with members of your own staff and how does that create a fair and equal working environment?’”
Many women who work in television, and probably most other industries, can recall feeling pressured to do something with a man she works for, said Curry’s colleague, Kathie Lee Gifford.
“I’m not saying David did that, but the details are yet to be discovered,” she said. “They might have been very willing partners who initiated it. We don’t know, but the minute we hear stories like that we go, `Uh-huh.’”
Letterman’s prickly personality and sarcastic humor seem tailor-made for a young, male audience. But the facts tell a different story: Letterman’s typical audience was 58 percent female last season, with an average age of just under 55, according to the Nielsen Co.
In other words, he should care very much whether women are disgusted by his behavior and reject his comedy as a result.
