Below is video of Stephen Colbert responding to a couple of posts we ran late last week that were critical of his ad hominem attack on Sarah Palin, which we found wildly hypocritical, especially when you consider that this is the same Stephen Colbert who co-hosted a Rally For Sanity that ended with a desperately self-serious plea to the media to tone down the political rhetoric. Enjoy:
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What’s interesting are the quotes Colbert chose to air that refer back to the segment we criticized. Interesting as far as what he left out. What you won’t hear is the worst of it, the outright name-calling and profanity: “self-promoting ignoramus,” “media troll,” and my personal favorite: “shut up for just ten fucking minutes.”
Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because we were wrong. Colbert wasn’t saying it, Mika’s eyes were saying it. Well, thank you for clearing that up, Mr. Colbert. Coincidentally, I happen to be looking in Mika’s eyes right now and what they’re telling me is that all the defensive snark in the world doesn’t wash away the stain of hypocrisy. For whatever that’s worth.
Well, the timing is perfect. If it hadn’t been for the Oscar nominations, I had actually intended to write something not-entirely negative about Jon Stewart yesterday. Because the day had a “y” in it, during his Monday show, Stewart went after Fox News. Now, as we learned during his recent attack on Sarah Palin, when it comes to the Daily Show’s enemies on the right, Stewart isn’t the most intellectually honest guy in the world, so I’m not taking the criticism of Fox News at face value. But his point was a good one.
According to Stewart, after widely condemning Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen for comparing Republicans to Nazis, there were moments on Fox News when Democrats were compared to Nazis. Again, based on recent history, I’m not accepting Stewart’s word for it. You can watch his Fox News attack here and decide if there’s enough context to justify all that sanctimonious mugging, but his point really is a good one.
One of the best reasons not to run around condemning any kind of political speech is that you might get busted on the grounds of hypocrisy. I don’t really care if someone calls me a Nazi, but I have an even better reason for not telling Congressman Cohen to lay off the Nazi references: First off, I’ve been writing a couple of thousand words most everyday for four years and probably dropped a brownshirt reference now and again. More importantly, if I haven’t, some day I might like to. But Stewart and Colbert have also stepped into the trap they themselves laid out at the tail-end of that anti-Beck rally.
If you remember, after all the high-larious hi-jinks ended, we were treated to a long professorial lecture from Jon Stewart about media incivility, about how if we would all just stop arguing and talk to one another on Fox and MSNBC, there would be chocolate rivers and rainbows made of gumdrops. For whatever bizarre reason, Stewart and Colbert desperately need the political hyperbole to end, the political rhetoric to stop, and the partisan name-calling to cease. And if we don’t speak the way Stewart wants us to, he will use his show to enforce his speech rules with the weapons of hectoring and humiliation.
Fair enough. This is America and Stewart’s worked hard to achieve his influence and he has every right to use that influence to bully the rest of us into his Brave Newspeakian World. But both he and Colbert have a major hypocrisy problem.
How is it that the same two individuals who Church-Lady the rest of us about improving the tone of our political debate then turn around and regularly coarsen our political culture? On almost a daily basis, both men target and isolate individuals for the worst kind of ridicule and humiliation they’re able to summon. How does this bring us together? How does this get us talking to one another and working through our differences? Of course it doesn’t, and Stewart and Colbert are as guilty of vitriol and dumbing down the debate as someone who yells Nazi.
Politics aside, as a human being, would you rather some idiot called you a Nazi or have Stewart and Colbert isolate you for humiliation for four minutes on nationwide television just before the video goes viral? Honestly, on what planet are Stewart and Colbert honoring their own rules for a civil and respectful political debate?
Their excuse, of course, is what it always is: the clown nose. They’re just a couple of innocent satirists, donchaknow. But they’re also the first satirists I know of who have ever lectured the rest of us on what we should and shouldn’t say when it comes to they way we discuss politics in this country. But I say let’s have that debate, and let’s have it on the very foundation Stewart and Colbert have laid down.
Personally, and I don’t think I’m alone, I put a higher value on political speech than entertainment speech. So if anyone would like to have a discussion on the grounds of improving the tone of our politics through media-enforced rules regarding speech, I’ll be standing with the guy who called me a Nazi and telling Comedy Central that they need to stop with the mean-spirited ridicule and humiliation.
Fair enough?
I’m looking in Mika’s eyes Stephen, and she’s with me.
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