Ahead of NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers bringing his late-night comedy show to Washington D.C. for the week, Monday’s Washington Post trumpeted Meyers for “breaking through the cluttered late-night landscape” to offer “stinging political commentary” minus any mentions of his far-left political leanings or consistent trashing of conservatives.
Reporter Emily Yahr compared Meyers emerging as a leader of the late-night comedy scene (despite only being host for two and a half years) to how Jon Stewart skyrocketed to fame with The Daily Show during and after the 2000 presidential election.
Referring to his show as drawing “critical praise” with his diatribes offering “incisive political takes” and “stinging political commentary,” Yahr praised Meyers for “skewering the debates or Donald Trump’s birther conspiracies” but she did nothing to spotlight more vulgar and hateful ones attacking pro-lifers, calling Ted Cruz a “lizard,” or applauding the Iranian foreign minister for attacking Republican Senator Tom Cotton (Ark.).
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Yahr went onto gush over Meyers’s decision to move from standing for his opening monologue to behind his desk in a nod to his previous job as host of Weekend Update during Saturday Night Live and then touted him for being “more overtly political” but, of course, skipped labeling him a lefty, liberal, or progressive:
In “A Closer Look,” Meyers dives into everything, including gun control, Black Lives Matter and the many controversies of the election. (“In any other year, [national security] could be a real weakness for Hillary Clinton, given her support for the war in Iraq. But of course her opponent is Donald Trump, who keeps finding ways to remind us he has no idea what he’s talking about.”)
Instead of using any of those labels, she spun his leanings as having “started to sound more in the vein of fiery cable hosts such as John Oliver and Samantha Bee, rather than other late-night broadcast shows that play it down the middle.”
Quoting an IndieWire piece that oozed praise for Late Night “navigat[ing] the fine balance of rational reasoning and rational indignation,” Yahr began winding down by properly crediting Meyers for winning his late-night ratings battle with CBS’s Late Late Show host James Corden and his past role emceing the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
Going back to all the anti-conservative commentaries that weren’t included in the post, here are a few that NewsBusters has been able to chronicle over the years (that I didn’t reference above):
- Suggested Catholics are “creepy perverts” and mocked the Eucharist
- Used Clinton talking points to discredit Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer and anti-Clinton books as no more than a “cottage industry”
- Months before his death, Meyers compared the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to Ku Klux Klan members of opposing affirmative action
- Trashed Jesus Chris in March for the menu at his last supper as reasons why “Judas dropped a dime on you”
- Complained that transgender bathroom laws are akin to Jim Crow and supporters are like Disney villains and segregationists
