As NewsBusters reported Wednesday, late night comedians make fun of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney more than twice as much as they do Barack Obama.
CNN's Howard Kurtz defended this on Sunday's Reliable Sources saying, "Obama is just not that easy to ridicule... Whereas jokes about a rich guy with a 1950s lingo -- well, gosh, golly, gee whiz, isn't that hard to make people laugh" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Finally, the favorite sport of late-night comics is mocking Mitt. The Center for Media and Public Affairs investigated the monologues of Jay Leno, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Fallon and found the shocking truth. Although there were 62 jokes about Barack Obama from the conventions to early October, Mitt Romney was the butt of 148.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LETTERMAN: They had a guy come in and appraise the White House and surrounding property. Guess how much it is worth? $1.5 million. $1.5 million. Mitt Romney said hell, I got that on me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Now, let me go out on a limb and say I don't think these hosts are politically biased -- well, I'd make an exception for Dave, he is leaning left these days. No wonder Romney won't go on his show. But as far as the others, Obama is just not that easy to ridicule. Saturday Night Live has tried two impersonators, and still hasn't nailed him. Whereas jokes about a rich guy with a 1950s lingo -- well, gosh, golly, gee whiz, isn't that hard to make people laugh. Keep this in mind, the fourth most joked about politician in the study, after all these years, is that man of outsized appetites, Bill Clinton.
What a bunch of nonsense.
As NewsBusters has been reporting, NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno has been finding it very easy to ridicule Obama.
The fact of the matter is that comedians and writers having a hard time doing so just don't want to because they're totally in the tank for the guy.
To think otherwise is the height of hypocrisy, especially for a so-called "media analyst" like Kurtz.
