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Palin: Letterman Should 'Apologize To Young Women'

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Palin: Letterman Should 'Apologize To Young Women'

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is insisting that comedian David Letterman "apologize to young women" for a joke he made on the air about one of her teen-age daughters.

Letterman admitted on his show that his wisecrack about a theoretical statutory rape of one of Palin's daughters was in bad taste, but didn't go further. Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate last year, said Friday that isn't good enough.

Letterman had joked that a Palin girl "was knocked up" by a player at a New York Yankees baseball game. He seemed to be referring to 18-year-old Bristol Palin, an unwed mother. But it was her 14-year-old sister Willow who was at the game with family members.

"These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter," Letterman stressed. "I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl."

Interviewed on NBC's "Today" show, Sarah Palin said she thought it was "a degrading comment about a young woman. And I would hope that people would start really rising up and not accepting this."

Palin said "it's no wonder girls have such low self-esteem in America when a comedian can make a remark like this."

Letterman deftly played it both ways on Wednesday's "Late Show" as he apologized for wisecracks aimed at Palin and one of her teenage daughters — even as he milked the situation for more laughs.

"Of course, we make mistakes left and right," the CBS host said as he began a lengthy discourse that blended flashes of contrition with moments of hilarity as he took more pokes at Palin and her family.

Letterman had made several jokes on Monday's monologue about the Palin family's visit to New York.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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