By Brittny Ulate

Daily Titan Detour Editor

A self-described “creepy” old guy has sex with a few (much) younger females while dating the woman who would later become his wife and mother of his child, and he gets a round of applause.

Why? Because he is David Letterman, and in the public eye, he becomes infallible because he was able to turn his indiscretions into a punch line and made his alleged would-be extortionist the butt of his jokes.

This is the dilemma that the late-night host finds himself in now. Last Thursday, Letterman brought to light his past affairs and let his audience know that he had been allegedly blackmailed by another CBS employee, producer Joe Halderman, for $2 million, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Because he has a readily available media outlet, Letterman has been able to divert attention away from his indiscretions and has unfairly pointed it toward his alleged extortionist.

Using the tried and true song-and-dance routine, Letterman was able to divert attention from the fact that he cheated on his current wife and mother of his child, and instead mocked his alleged extortionist and turned the matter into one big joke.

Halderman does not seem to have any type of viable defense, or any defense for that matter. So who should the public hate more – the cheater or the extortionist? And going beyond public support, morals versus legality also comes into play.

Letterman has publicly apologized for his actions, like any good public figure caught with his hand in the cookie jar does, and it seems his adoring audience has accepted it and is now ready to feed the “evil” extortionist to the lions.

Yes, cheating is morally reprehensible, and the damage Letterman has done to his family will be more difficult for him to undo than canceling the $2 million check he cut for Halderman.

Halderman not only wanted to take Letterman’s money, he wanted to destroy his life. Halderman allegedly threatened to write a screenplay about Letterman’s affairs if he wasn’t paid off.

Either way, he has done irrevocable damage to not only the veteran TV show host, but to his family as well. Affairs are hard enough to deal with without them being in the public eye. The matter should have been one that was kept between Letterman and his wife.

With Letterman freely turning this incident into a media free-for-all, it seems that Halderman is not only guilty of extortion, he’s seemingly guilty of extorting a celebrity, maybe the worst offense of the two.

It’s hard to take sides when it comes to this case. On one hand, it’s hard to side with a cheater, no matter how popular he is with the American public – so it becomes easy to vilify the man who is threatening the lovable Letterman.

But it’s not fair that Halderman is becoming the only one with a tainted record. Letterman should not be turning this incident into part of his monologue, appealing to his crowd for support; he should have just apologized and then removed the subject from the spotlight.

By making his audience judge and jury in this case, he is trying to remove blame from himself and place it solely and firmly on Halderman.

This is not only wrong, it is repugnant. No one has the right to do this when they are in a country that has a judicial system strong and capable enough to resolve the matter, especially when that person is guilty as well.