Don’t you miss those days when political humorists kept the president honest through smartly observed jokes without stooping to mean-spirited assaults?
Me, too.
Today, we have a comedy community (save Jay Leno who remains an equal opportunity cutup) that either ignores President Barack Obama’s blunders or rushes in to protect the president against pointed criticism. It’s stunning, really. And it’s hard not to predict that in 10 or so years these very same comics will look back at their work from this era and say, “What was I thinking?”
Until then, we have The Onion, a humor publication which bends over backwards, Ashley Bell-style, to defend the president.
Consider this hot off the cyber-presses item describing journalist Bob Woodward as irrelevant for the past 40 years for simply calling into question Obama’s account of recent sequester history.
WASHINGTON–Investigative journalist Bob Woodward announced Thursday that he’s received credible information from an anonymous source confirming that Woodward hasn’t been a relevant force in American journalism in 40 years.
Of course, The Onion didn’t think of such a piece when Woodward was holding President George W. Bush’s feet to the fire a few years back.
And then there’s Jon Stewart, a comic who does occasionally challenge Obama but typically from the left and rarely in a direct, effective manner. Stewart also tried to minimize the Woodward imbroglio on last night’s installment of The Daily Show. Of course, Stewart ignores the White House’s follow-up Woodward bashing, or the fact that this is a pattern from the Most Transparent White House Ever. When it comes to selective editing, The Daily Show is second to none.
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