The news media needs to follow the more “rational” and “reasonable” journalism of late night comedians, says Vox writer Carlos Maza, in a video posted Monday afternoon to the left-leaning website.
“Late night comedians have become rock stars in the Trump era,” Maza began.“These comedians are doing a really good job of covering Trump, sometimes better than serious news networks. That’s because political satire has something that TV news lacks: a really low tolerance for bullshit,” he stated.
Maza, a former writer for Media Matters, teamed up with Salon writer and self-described “progressive” politics professor Sophia McClennen to explain how late-night comedy hosts call out Trump’s “bullshit” better than the news networks do, and that they should follow this example in their reporting.
“The news media sort of seems like it has to take it seriously in order to be taken seriously,” McClennen stated.
Comedians are doing a better job of covering Trump than serious news networks, because satire has a really low tolerance for bullshit. pic.twitter.com/MdW3aZtL7P
— Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) April 3, 2017
Citing Trump’s wiretapping claims, Maza argued that the news networks shouldn’t have even entertained the thought that Trump’s claims could be true, and shouldn’t have had pro-Trump people appear on cable news. Vox emphasized the “paid” Trump supporters” on CNN, while conveniently omitting that anti-Trump paid analysts are also on CNN.
“That kind of coverage can spread misinformation by repeating rumors and falsehoods ad nauseam,” he stated. By contrast, “political satire makes us smarter news consumers,” he added.
Not only that, but McClennen notes it’s not journalism’s job to be unbiased, or show all sides of a story. “The journalist’s job is to show the truth,” McClennen argued, echoing a refrain from CNN’s Christiane Amanpour made last year.
She added:
“People think of satirists as very partisan. But the point is, satirists are after good rational thinking. What you would see that the satirists have that would be lovely to see in the basic news media is this sort of defense of reason.”
Defense of reason? Like those “rational” “jokes” about killing Trump advisors? Or the ones about cancer-stricken conservative conference attendees have “nazi hair?” Or the president being a “sex toy?” Or the Secretary of Education being a stupid dog? Or how about the “jokes” alleging the Vice President was a sex maniac?
