the court jester
Streamed the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear in my living room today. The court jester the most sane man in the castle? Sad, but also appropriate.
Reflected for a bit on the tagline: “a rally for the people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies.” I think the reason that fake news shows like The Daily Show and the Colbert Report have become so relevant is because real people are busy dealing with every day real life. They might tune in to the 24-hour news cycle for maybe 10 minutes to an hour a day before being pulled away by sleep or the kids or whatever. (Or worse, be constantly plugged into the 24-hour news cycle for a huge chunk of the day, like say, cranky old retirees or the unemployed or stay-at-home-whatevers). The staff at The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are -required- to scan every second of the 24 hour news cycle as their jobs, mining it for comedic material. Of all of us, they are able to see the whole circus in its entirety, and thus are able to illustrate best how ridiculous a monster is has become. No regular hardworking person has time to watch all of the news and see its inconsistencies and inaccuracies and distortions... but we can focus for an hour or so and watch the news... about the news.
I just wish I'd gotten on the Pundit bandwagon when it was unquestioned... lots of money to be made in selling books, selling ads on hate-filled websites, and just being a loud-mouthed bullying jerk.
Reflected for a bit on the tagline: “a rally for the people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies.” I think the reason that fake news shows like The Daily Show and the Colbert Report have become so relevant is because real people are busy dealing with every day real life. They might tune in to the 24-hour news cycle for maybe 10 minutes to an hour a day before being pulled away by sleep or the kids or whatever. (Or worse, be constantly plugged into the 24-hour news cycle for a huge chunk of the day, like say, cranky old retirees or the unemployed or stay-at-home-whatevers). The staff at The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are -required- to scan every second of the 24 hour news cycle as their jobs, mining it for comedic material. Of all of us, they are able to see the whole circus in its entirety, and thus are able to illustrate best how ridiculous a monster is has become. No regular hardworking person has time to watch all of the news and see its inconsistencies and inaccuracies and distortions... but we can focus for an hour or so and watch the news... about the news.
I just wish I'd gotten on the Pundit bandwagon when it was unquestioned... lots of money to be made in selling books, selling ads on hate-filled websites, and just being a loud-mouthed bullying jerk.
posted by Tora at 4:19 PM
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