You know, it's bad enough that a percentage of Americans admit to getting "the news" from Comedy Central's Daily Show and host Jon Stewart.
But when a legal affairs correspondent from National Public Radio starts citing highly-edited videos created by this comedy show to bash presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney while defending President Obama, citizens should be tremendously concerned about their tax dollars funding this media outlet (video follows with transcript and commentary, file photo):
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Because it captures the essence of Obama’s view of the economy and of society, and he’s very clear. He says we’re taken out of context. The context of this makes it worse. He basically says, he starts by saying that if you are wealthy and successful, you did not get there alone. And he says, “You think you are so smart? A lot of people are smart. You think you worked hard? A lot of people have worked hard.”
So he’s discounting the effort, the brains, the ingenuity, and the hard work of those who are successful, and he says, “What really put you where you are what government has done: schooling, roads, bridges, internet.” Now, that is a reasonable argument, it’s a very old argument of left and right, but it presents a government-centered view of what success and the economy and the American system is about. But that is a minority view in the United States, and that is why he had to cut the ad, because if that becomes the perception of what Obama believes, he loses this election in a center-right country.
NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: Can I interrupt the monologue for a minute? Let me say two things. First of all, Jon Stewart did an interesting thing. He took a Romney speech and he took little excerpts of it next to the ones that Obama from that speech, and they were almost word for word the same.
For those that missed it, what Stewart and his crew did last week, in an effort to defend Obama, was take snippets of the President's "You Didn't Build That" speech intermixed with snippets of Romney's address at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Olympics.
Despite the aggressive editing of both speeches, this was conclusive enough for Totenberg to cite on PBS's Inside Washington Friday.
Beyond the absurdity of using a comedy show's video in a discussion on a serious political talk show, shouldn't journalists look down on highly-edited presentations?
Remember all the outrage over the Shirley Sherrod video two years ago?
Apparently to folks like Totenberg, highly-edited videos are only verboten when they discredit a liberal.
When they hit a conservative right between the eyes, they're to be taken seriously.
What a disgrace!
