Hope you're happy, Dave! "Small Town News" journalist dissed by Letterman was laid off last week

So, were you watching "Late Show with David Letterman" last night? Did you see him read an offbeat news item and then look at the camera and sarcastically address the reporter who wrote the story, saying, "Nice job, Alicia! Keep up the good work!"

Well, Alicia won't be keeping up the good work because she was laid off last week.

You remember last week, Dave -- you were enjoying a nice paid vacation.

Here's the video of last night's segment and my interview with the very nice but very unemployed small town news writer.

It was just another night on the "Small Town News" watch, which is possibly the oldest running desk bit Letterman has going. At about the 2:45 minute mark of the video, Dave held up a story and preceded it with this:

"This little item here, this is 'Small Town News' at its finest. We've been doing this for 30 years and I think this is really, this coalesces, 'Small Town News.' Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Cedar Rapids Gazette:

A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after police said he was found in a compromising position with an inflatable doll in a public restroom.

After the laughter and applause subsided, there was a closeup on the author's byline as Letterman said:

"Look at that! Let's see the byline on that. That's a proud byline. Happy to have your name above that story, I guess. Nice job, Alicia! Good work! Keep up the good work!"

As soon as the item ran, I flashed a congratulatory email to Alicia Ebaugh. My email bounced, informing me that she no longer was employed by Gazette Communications.

So I went to Facebook, where I found her (she's a 2005 graduate of Iowa State University in Ames) and she immediately replied to my inquiry. Our exchange:

Yeah, they laid me off last week. I didn't know my story was on the show. But that's awesome!

Me: I'm going to do an item about that. I can't get you hired but Letterman might at least send you some goodwill! He was a little mean to you ...

Mean?! Hey, I LOVED that story. LOL

Me: Our KC Crime Blog has never made Letterman or Leno! Nice score. Actually, he gave it a great buildup. Check out the video online tomorrow.

I will, definitely. I have been a big fan of the KC Crime Blog for a few years now. I was actually the first newspaper reporter to start a crime blog in Iowa ... at www.crcrime.wordpress.com. I haven't updated it since I got laid off, tho....

Isn't that just sad?

Dave, you owe a nice girl in Iowa an apology!

(Thanks to David Yoder of Manhattan, Kansas, keeper of the awesomest Dave fansite ever, for the clip)

Comments

[JTFloore]

i saw the letterman segment and did not think he trashed jorunalist Alicia Ebaugh at all. how the hell do you get THAT interpretation? it was a funny story. i'm glad ms. Abaugh didn't take it the way you did.

[CJ]

Amazing at what you can do with Facebook.

[Charles Stough]

Letterman owes Alicia an apology for what? Alicia did a good story with legs, she's famous, and the publicity may get her another newspaper job in an economy where lots of other reporters will never work at their profession again. Or, she finds another line of work but will always be That Reporter on Letterman.

[Well, I'm more of the "that and four bucks gets you Starbucks" school of thought, but I will not argue with the great Charley S. --AB]

[Nick]

I agree with the other comments here, Aaron. It was a funny moment, not mean-spirited. Mountain out of a molehill.

[Franklin Tucker]

If you think Letterman didn't insult Ebaugh, replace her byline with yours. Yeah, that was an insult. As for the overused small time news segment, at the same time Letterman was blasting Alicia, Jay Leno was doing his own take on small town news. "Nice job, Dave! Good work! Keep up the good work!"

[Dave]

Dave Letterman is like everbody else in the country. They take a journalist's work for free, use it to make money for themselves and then sneer at the journalist. Guys, this is not a workable business model. If Letterman is going to use our copy, and in this case the actual newsprint, he ought to pay for it. What a freeloading jerk.

[Another Tucker]

If *Alicia* were to make it known that she's genuinely upset about this, I imagine The Late Show would issue her an apology. He was willing to apologize to Paris Hilton, for God's sake.

However, since David Letterman had the audacity to mock Rush Limbaugh last night during his interview with Katie Couric, we all can expect a deluge of pseudo-outrage motivated by this blasphemy. So I'd take any manufactured controversy with a grain of salt.

As for Alicia, who knows? Maybe the publicity will get her a job at The Onion.