Humor

Something odd happened to the liberal media after the first presidential debate on Wednesday. They couldn't for the life of them put any postive spin on the president's lackluster performance. There was nothing they could say that could take away from Mitt Romney's clear victory, but then came the excuses. Some blamed Jim Lehrer for his inability to moderate properly, others cited what must've been an incumbent debate curse, there was even some mention of Obama's reluctance to come across as an angry black man.

But the dopiest analysis by far was from former Vice President Al Gore, on his Current TV network -- think an even farther left version of MSNBC with fewer viewers -- who blamed altitude sickness on Obama's poor performance: [ video below after page break ]

The ridiculous media narrative continues, in spite of the mounting evidence that has proven otherwise. A movie clip posted on YouTube months ago is still being blamed for the unspeakable acts of violence that occurred over two weeks ago. The media has effectively demonized an amateur filmmaker for allegedly inciting more rage and violence in the Middle East. It's almost as if they are equating hate speech with murder, and absolving the angry mobs for what they did. They just couldn't help themselves.

One of the actresses from The Innocence of Muslims was invited on The View on Wednesday morning to share her side of the story. What ensued was a peculiar interview that dragged on for over 7 minutes. While the rest of the cast was said to be in hiding, Cindy Lee Garcia 'bravely' made an appearance on national television to set the record straight. (see video below, MP3 audio available here)

The liveliest speaker at the Democratic National Convention has been hosting her own show on Current TV for almost 8 months now. A relatively new cable network co-founded by Al Gore that goes out of its way to hire all of the unabashedly liberal pundits it can get. Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm has fit right in.

On Friday night’s episode of The War Room, the Canadian-born talk show host began her hour-long show with a factually-challenged diatribe that bordered on the same intensity level of her now infamous speech in Charlotte. Coincidentally, the topic of discussion was kind of about the same thing – jobs, the defense of Obama’s seemingly successful stimulus bill of 2009, and more Romney criticism of course.

Friday’s Wall Street Journal tackled the issue of joking about the candidates – especially how hard comedians have found it to mock President Obama. Four years ago, "you couldn't tell jokes about Obama," said the leftist political humorist Will Durst. "You couldn't even see him—the halo was too bright."

"Since I've been doing this, going back to the '70s, I don't remember two contenders for the presidency who had fewer handles for comedy between them," said Saturday Night Live writer Jim Downey, but even now, Obama is too perfect (?) for humorists:

It’s kind of sad, really – a novelty pop band with a lone hit 30 years ago trying to make political hay of an incident of about the same vintage. But Devo doesn’t have much else to do these days, and the left will welcome any help in its efforts to slam presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Famous for their 1980 hit single “Whip It,” Devo just revealed their plan to release an Anti-Romney song later this month to Rolling Stone.

He's compared Chick-fil-A to apartheid-era South Africa, News Corps chief Rupert Murdoch to an Arab dictator, and called Christianity a death cult. So naturally Time magazine humor writer Joel Stein is the perfect person to appoint himself write a "tongue-in-cheek" Democratic Party platform heavy on snark and equally heavy on hard-left positions on fiscal and social issues. Just as well, I suppose, as left-wing screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is too busy dreaming up fictional biased newscasting that embodies his dream of an even bolder, more transparently liberal media.

Stein noted that he "enlisted the help of Elaine Kamarck, a public policy lecturer at Harvard and former platform author," adding that her take on his seven-page draft was that he "mostly... [has] the tone right" although the actual platform wound doubtless be "a bit drier."

While filling in as the host of Dennis Miller's nationally syndicated radio show last week, Jon Levitz and his guest, fellow comic Dana Carvey, discussed why people get so upset at Obama jokes, noting that liberals label such material as. "hate speech" and, therefore, is unworthy of any further consideration.

Carvey criticized the “sensitivity” people have when jokes are told regarding President Barack Obama and that affect freedom of speech as “scary and dangerous.”

Wrapping up an interview with Mitt Romney in London on Wednesday, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams asked about a potential vice presidential pick in the most obnoxious way possible: "So here's a Republican official familiar with your campaign selection process, told the folks at Politico you are looking for a, quote, 'incredibly boring white guy' for your vice presidential nominee. Can you confirm or deny?" Romney quipped back: "You told me you were not available." Williams replied: "Touche, Governor." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

On today's edition of MSNBC Live, anchor Thomas Roberts talked with Michael Barbaro of the New York Times discussing the so-called Young Guns who are on the short list to be Mitt Romney's running mate: Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), Gov. Bobby Jindal (La.), and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.).

But when the MSNBC graphics team showed photos of the Young Guns, they accidentally used a photo of Rep. Ron Paul, the septuagenarian former Republican presidential candidate with strong libertarian convictions, in lieu of Paul Ryan. See our video below:

Appearing as a guest on Friday's The Tonight Show on NBC, former Saturday Night Live cast member Dana Carvey demonstrated the tendency of comedians to have fun with President Obama in a fashion that builds him up while poking fun at Republicans in a way that tears them down.

When asked by host Jay Leno about the presidential election, Carvey remarked that Obama is "like a Zen master of speaking" before mocking Mitt Romney's speaking ability:

David Carr of The New York Times wrote an unintentional laugh line for Monday's paper: "There is a growing worry that the falling value and failing business models of many American newspapers could lead to a situation where moneyed interests buy papers and use them to prosecute a political and commercial agenda."

No! Could you believe a newspaper would follow a political agenda based on what its owner wanted to do? Where have we ever heard of that before, say, with an owner who told Daddy he thought the Americans should be shot in Vietnam? But wait: in San Diego, it's that other, somehow less professional bias: Union-Tribune owner Douglas Manchester is "anti-big government, anti-tax and anti-gay marriage. And he’s in favor of a remade San Diego centered around a new downtown waterfront stadium and arena."

As the campaign season moves forward, the American people will see more "desperation" by the liberal media and President Obama as the case for his reelection grows harder to justify. "They're not seeing gravitas and they're not seeing presidential statesmanship," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity during last night's "Media Mash" segment.

Bozell was reacting to MSNBC's Ed Schultz, who took to his May 29 radio program The Ed Schultz Show to despondently whine that should Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) survive the union-backed recall effort and should Mitt Romney get elected, there would never be a Democratic president elected in his lifetime again. [watch video below page break]

“It's hard to make fun of Obama in general because he’s a cool character,” ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, the “headliner” for this Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, told Reuters, insisting that “outside of his ears, there’s not a whole lot” to joke about.

Kimmel, of course, had no trouble coming up with anti-Republican candidate zingers. Reuters reporter Mary Milliken, in a Tuesday dispatch, relayed Kimmel’s “hope is to have a ‘nice mixture of prepared and off-the-cuff comedy’ for the black tie gala.” She passed along “a few hints of the ammunition is in his joke holster,” starting with his take on the presumptive nominee: “Mitt Romney looks like a Sears catalog model.”

Possibly in response to NewsBusters readers who passed on our item on the string of Pope Benedict-mocking jokes on NPR's game show "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!" NPR ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos tells NewsBusters and other critics: lighten up, or be compared to radical Muslims. Isn't the ombudsman supposed to advocate for the listeners, not denounce them?

"If we keep jokes about the pope off-limits, we create a silencing effect that is far more damaging than the jokes themselves. We threaten to become like the intolerant extremists now most notoriously bedeviling the Muslim world, though other religions suffer from strains of fanaticism as well." Say what?

Let's stipulate up front that it might well have been an innocent mistake. Even so, until explained, it was shocking to say the least.  On today's Morning Joe, as Mika Brzezinski read a David Brooks op-ed about the shooting of civilians in Afghanistan in which he wrote of "monstrous acts that shock the soul and sear the brain," suddenly the screen cut--for an extended period--to three different photos of . . . Republican Paul Ryan.

Even Joe Scarborough couldn't resist joking about the incident revealing the show's liberal bias.  As it turns out, an op-ed by Ryan was up next, and the control room guys might simply have transitioned a bit too quickly--though some readers might not be willing to give Morning Joe the benefit of the doubt.  View the video after the jump.

Count comedian Chris Rock as yet another liberal who can't bear to take not just criticism but even an innocent question about his beliefs.

Under light questioning from conservative author Jason Mattera, Rock turned what was a regular friendly interaction with a fellow Brooklynite into a physical assault on a female camera operator when Mattera tried to get him to briefly explain remarks that he had made that the Tea Party movement was "insanely racist." Video below the break.