In the world of liberals, only their personal anecdotes matter and can’t be challenged. On CNN’s New Day early Tuesday morning, liberal co-hosts Alisyn Camerota and Chris Cuomo invited colleagues Brian Stelter and Bill Carter to laud ABC comic Jimmy Kimmel for his health care position that “no one should be able to dispute.”
The CNN panel’s six-minute segment equated to a campaign commercial for Kimmel’s universal health care advocacy and began with Camerota swooning how he returned to “fir[e] back at critics of his emotional monologue last week about his newborn son's health scare.”
After two clips from Kimmel’s Trumpian rant against news outlets critical of his stance and a lame joke about Newt Gingrich, Camerota gushed to Stelter that “Jimmy Kimmel has become the voice of this health care battle somehow.”
Stelter observed that “Kimmel is a natural storyteller already, normal about lighter fare” but he’s now “using his platform, using personal experience...to ask some really basic questions about health care and I think that got glossed over and skipped over in a lot of this debate.”
The Reliable Sources host added how Kimmel should be further commended for asking “really worthwhile” questions, such as wondering to physician and GOP Senator Bill Cassidy (La.) “why are there even uninsured, working class Americans” (and not, you know, fully covered by you and me with our hard-earned money).
Chris Cuomo followed up in obvious agreement, further spinning on behalf of Democrats:
Kimmel is blessed that he has fallen into a talking point that is a particularly weak one on the side of people who are trying to abridge health care right now. Newt Gingrich is a smart man. We all know that. He knows if you don't have an emergency situation, the E.R. is going to send you back home and that’s now what a lot of pre-existing conditions are. He knows that, but this is a talking point.
Carter spoke next and was most unhinged, lashing out at those in disagreement with Kimmel and asserted that “it was illegitimate” and indefensible to suggest Kimmel “didn’t have a valid point.”
“And Kimmel has a talking point no one should be able to dispute. I mean, it's amazing that people were trying to dispute it as though he didn't have a valid point, it was illegitimate. I happen it to know Jimmy really well and he's an incredibly sincere guy. I mean, the idea of him being an elitist creep is so off base. I mean, he really is sort of a blue collar guy,” Carter exclaimed.
He also assured everyone that “he really is an honest guy” and Camerota interjected to tout how Kimmel’s “authenticity” has been so persuasive that Stephen Colbert has also achieved (albeit differently) by making despicably lewd and demeaning jokes about Republicans.
“When he began criticizing President Trump, his ratings spiked — and he, in fact, leap flogged Jimmy Fallon, who had taken over The Tonight Show and is there a feeling, Brian, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are being sort of their true, authentic selves and that’s what’s resonating,” the former Fox & Friends: Weekend co-host proclaimed.
For the left, they fail to understand what Jonah Goldberg laid out last week as the difference between empathy, sympathy, and compassion. On the issue of Kimmel, Goldberg explained:
His story about his son aroused a riot of empathy across the nation. And he used that response to make an argument about health-care policy that was largely devoid of any consideration of the facts, trade-offs, or costs of what is the best way to deal with people, including babies, who have pre-existing medical conditions. He was largely wrong on the facts: Babies with dire medical conditions are covered by their parents’ insurance, and when their parents are uninsured, doctors don’t just let the baby die on the table. That doesn’t mean there aren’t inequities in the system or that the current health-care regime is anywhere close to perfect.
But it is very difficult to have a rational discussion about the trade-offs inherent to any health-care system — including socialized medicine — when all anyone can think about is the ordeal of a newborn baby and his loving parents.
Fellow syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin also brought her family’s personal story into the fray to also make a similar point about emotions versus facts. It’s posted on NewsBusters here.
Back to CNN and on the large issue of comedy becoming more political, it’s certainly grown further disconnected from a large part of the country. However, Cuomo ignored all that and even went as far as to argue that the news media has given too much attention to Trump voters and thus the Resistance feels ignored until Colbert upped the ante.
Here’s the relevant portion of the transcript from CNN’s New Day on May 9:
CNN’s New Day
May 9, 2017
6:53 a.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trending Now; Kimmel Fires Back at Critics of Health Care Monologue]
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Jimmy Kimmel is back and he is firing back at critics of his emotional monologue last week about his newborn son's health scare.
(....)
CAMEROTA: Let's discuss with senior media correspondent and host of Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter, and CNN media analyst Bill Carter. So, one of the things that he was referring to — one of the critics was Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich was on a Sunday show saying in America no baby is turned away from an emergency room if you show up at an emergency room, doctors operate on that baby and they don't ask for a check first. Here is how Jimmy Kimmel responded to Newt Gingrich's claim.
(....)
CAMEROTA: Okay, so, Brian, Jimmy Kimmel has become the voice of this health care battle somehow.
BRIAN STELTER: And I think he's saying that sick care — emergency care is not the same as comprehensive health care. I think what’s striking about this is two things. One, Kimmel is a natural storyteller already, normal about lighter fare, but number two, he's using his platform, using personal experience and, by the way, his son — his newborn is doing very well. That's the best news out of this. He's using his personal experience to ask some really basic questions about health care and I think that got glossed over and skipped over in a lot of this debate. He had that Senator on — was it Bill Cassidy — who coined the term “Jimmy Kimmel test” here on CNN last week and Cassidy — he started many years ago a health care clinical in Louisiana for uninsured working class Americans. Kimmel is on air saying why are there even uninsured, working class Americans. I think those asking basic questions, especially from a comedian, who’s learning about this, it's really worthwhile.
CHRIS CUOMO: Ordinarily you want to be careful as a comedian in these situations because you don't have a handle on facts. Kimmel is blessed that he has fallen into a talking point that is a particularly weak one on the side of people who are trying to abridge health care right now. Newt Gingrich is a smart man. We all know that. He knows if you don't have an emergency situation, the E.R. is going to send you back home and that’s now what a lot of pre-existing conditions are. He knows that, but this is a talking point. Jimmy Kimmel also exposes a vacuum. Who is leading the charge to take care of people in this country now on the Democrats' side? I guess Bernie Sanders as a punitive head but they haven't filled in this moment with their own leadership, to be fair.
BILL CARTER: And Kimmel has a talking point no one should be able to dispute. I mean, it's amazing that people were trying to dispute it as though he didn't have a valid point, it was illegitimate. I happen it to know Jimmy really well and he's an incredibly sincere guy. I mean, the idea of him being an elitist creep is so off base. I mean, he really is sort of a blue collar guy.
CUOMO: That's a narrative, also.
CARTER: And he really is an honest guy. I mean, I think this hit him in a place that was so deep and emotional that he’s thrown himself into it and who can criticize that.
CAMEROTA: And I think you fastened in on something. It’s that authenticity that everybody loves and particularly on television, people who pop through the screen, seem to be authentic. That leads us to Stephen Colbert who had his, you know, obscene rant or whatever — crude rant — but it seems to have worked for his — when he began criticizing President Trump, his ratings spiked —
CARTER: He’s soared.
CAMEROTA: — and he, in fact, leap flogged Jimmy Fallon, who had taken over The Tonight Show and is there a feeling, Brian, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel are being sort of their true, authentic selves and that’s what’s resonating.
STELTER: Colbert is providing what his audience wants right now, which is hard-edged, no limits, no boundaries comedy against President Trump. In some ways, Fallon and Kimmel are trying to catch up. Kimmel, I think, is doing something different, though, right now. He certainly wasn't hoping for this experience, hoping that his son would end up in the NICU going through all of this. So, Kimmel is maybe finding something unique talking to his audience in a different way because he’s being as a authentic as he is.
CUOMO: But he’s going to have to decide. I mean, right now, his motivation is his personal pain and at some point, that’s — hopefully the situation stabilizes and that ends and he’ll have to make a decision about how to motive — Colbert is a different animal. When he first got into that business, I was wondering if he would fill that void of who is the political satirist, who’s to make the hard arguments —
CARTER: Jon Stewart.
CAMEROTA: Jon Stewart had excellent —
CUOMO: — because Fallon is a brilliant entertainer but he is comic relief. He is not going to come hard at somebody. That's not what he is.
(....)
CARTER: Their people are laughing big time at this. They're finding a lot of great humor in it, but it's interesting that's the response, that these comics, they’re just angry at the President. But actually, they’re creating some really political satire, in my opinion.
CUOMO: There's an opportunity. We talk about the 45 percent all the time. We have panels with them and Trump people and understanding Trump and why Trump won. You’ve got over half the country that isn’t happy about it. Stephen Colbert is speaking to them. His numbers are popping.
CARTER: And by the way, Kimmel is talking about an issue where this health care law is incredibly unpopular, so he’s bound to get response for it.
