Lewis Black is irate. “The last year and a half is by far the toughest time I’ve ever spent as a comedian,” he confides to the audience in his HBO special, “Red, White and Screwed.” “It used to be easy—one or two things might happen in a week. And now, something will happen, and I’ll read about something and I… return to article
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Reader Comments (13)Page 1 of 1 pagesIt’s emblematic of the turbulent and Orwellian times we live in when you get more truth from the fake news on Comedy Central than from the actual established media outlets. Stewart and Colbert have the balls and the humor to call the Bush Administration on its b.s., unlike most of the mainstream journalists. We’ve gotten to the point in this country where even the few basic constructs of reality are completely spun by the Administration so that even science is debated.
Morning after pill made available given the FDA scientists approval? Nope, don’t think so. It’s more important to appease the religious right and ignore science. Civil War in Iraq? Nope, just extreme sectarian violence (isn’t that the exact same thing?) Doing something about Global Warming? Not so much, we still need to gather more facts to learn more (incidentally, this Administration’s attitude towards global warming -or the more benevolent phrase “climate change"- reminds me of those nature shows on sharks. Despite studying these freaking animals for several years, they always basically end up saying how little they know about them and then they just tag and release the fish. When are they going to get to the point when they’re like, “yeah, we know a bunch of stuff about sharks, this is how they reproduce, how they sleep, what color their pee is, etc...) I am glad that someone has the balls to call out the Bush Administration and its Republican chronies and can make me laugh at the same time.
How else can we survive the Bush years but with satire?
Posted by Caschunk on Aug 4, 2006 at 12:26 PM It’s emblematic of the turbulent and Orwellian times we live in that you choose to write about “comedy” while the US/Israeli Axis wipes Lebanon off the face of the earth.
It’s easy these days to see who is on the side of the AIPAC and who is on the side of humanity.
Posted by John Francis Lee on Aug 4, 2006 at 2:12 PM John Francis Lee:
I am disgusted and saddened by what’s going on in the Middle East, especially by the toll that Israel’s actions are taking on civilians. However, that does not mean that I should only comment about this situation. If that were the case, how about the thousands of people that die from hunger, malaria, or AIDS everyday? It’s idiots like you that give all of us on the left a bad name. Because I choose to write about satire all of the sudden you feel it necessary to associate me with AIPAC? You should think about what you do in your daily life to bring peace to the world. Accusing people you don’t know of things that aren’t true isn’t honorable.
Posted by Caschunk on Aug 4, 2006 at 7:53 PM Redhorse thinks these guys are funny....Satirical humor is a benefit in the struggle against an oppressive society...nothing wrong here....
Mr.Lee.....chill....as disturbing as the Lebanon situation is...being mad at other folks posting on the site makes little sense....chill....Look...all this nonsense is about a bunch of thugs ; argueing over the riches stolen from Afrika...Asia and the so-called Middle East.....
Apparently there is no honor among these thieves....the rest of us are but ...” a witness “....too world affairs....
If the Horse can get the straight dope from comedy central ...then thankya for the laughs and the logic
Posted by Redhorse on Aug 5, 2006 at 1:02 PM i respect very highly this publication - but i find this article laughable. and comedy is tragedy deferred.
a frequent insult thrown at liberals is that they dabble in irrelevance. one should be mindful of the judgments of others, no matter how foolish they may be, if only to keep from confirming their prejudices.
now, i understand the importance of investigating the sociological underpinnings of anti-liberal sentiment - especially when the neo-con apparatus is so subtle and ubiquitous that it escapes notice.
but to focus attention on this when lebanon is being ravaged and destroyed with american complicity and when the media is engaged in more immediate and relevant distortion - to subordinate discussion of THAT to this - is outrageous.
Posted by echecache on Aug 6, 2006 at 5:40 PM At the risk of giving too much the benefit of the doubt (which, actually, I believe is more civilized and reasonable than giving too much the detriment of the doubt), I would point out that the August issue of ITT was slated for distribution on July 16 (as per the cover image). It would have had to go to press well before that, hence well before the opening moments of the current violent episode in Israel and Lebanon when Hezbollah shot Katyusha rockets into Israel on July 12 (according to Wikipedia). The articles will have been finished and edited some time before publication, though specifically how long I don’t know. I would guess that ITT’s writers are in the midst of new articles, including those about this current horror, even as I post this. One supposes so, at least.
The civilian death toll brought about by Israel’s attacks on suspected Hezbollah targets, as well as roads, bridges, ports, air facilities, etc etc is not only the most tragic aspect of the story, it’s also the most predictable. Civilian deaths far outweigh the combatant death toll not only in Israel/Lebanon, but also in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in virtually every other armed conflict around the world. Was it ever different? That’s warfare, and always has been, which is exactly why human beings need to pull their f’n heads out and recognize that the military “solution” is so often the trigger for more bloodshed and societal disruption. Not to mention the hatred, fear, and determination to get revenge that can last for generations.
We never remember that the official “cessation of hostilities” does not negate the fury and appetite for paybacks that the victims of war feel, when their homes and loved ones are blasted in front of their eyes. Such an idiotic blindspot.
I believe Israel cannot escape responsibility for the Lebanese civilians who are suffering and dying as the result of Israeli barrages; no country that levies war upon another can avoid the fact that its collective hands are drenched in innocent blood (although all of them, without exception, try to justify themselves with tricky, selectively focused rhetoric).
But it would be ridiculous to stop there. Hezbollah receives millions of dollars worth of support and military hardware from their Syrian and Iranian sponsors. And any fortifications or weapons caches assembled in Lebanon by Hezbollah had to have been known to the Syrians, who only reluctantly left Lebanon about a year ago. I draw particular attention to any such assets that were built in civilian neighborhoods. It is inconceivable that Syria could not have known about these constructions.
So, while it’s correct for the world to get up in Israel’s symbolic face for the horrors the people of Lebanon are enduring, it is furthermore correct to throw down with Syria and Iran, whose cash and weaponry are the backbone of Hezbollah’s ability to deal out death, without even the token mitigation of a leaflet or a radio broadcast to warn Israeli civilians of coming attacks (because the civilians are considered equally good targets by Hezbollah, of course). If I were Lebanese myself, I’d have a hard time figuring out who to hate most.
Posted by Kuya on Aug 7, 2006 at 2:35 AM As for the article, which my post above doesn’t respond to (I’m mainly responding to y’all above), all I can say is Thank God there are satirists like Stewart and Colbert. They’re some of the few media personalities dealing with current events who try to promote something other than reflexively obedient thinking or mindless partisan-ism (and I include the reflexively partisan lefties in this criticism along with the mindless righties—but of course the righties are ascendant at this moment in American history and so deserve a greater share of scrutiny).
I’m just glad they can make me laugh along with encouraging me to think. When I look at the world today, I don’t often feel like laughing!
Posted by Kuya on Aug 7, 2006 at 2:43 AM To those that find this story, as one put it, outrageous:
I would argue that the work of Colbert and Stewart is a formidable weapon in progressive movement, and thus worthy of investigation by a progressive magazine.
If media analysis is a relevant study in the apparatus which largely determines popular will, which then shapes policy in a republic, than a branch of the media which actually acts to subvert that same media, it may behoove us to learn what effects this could have on popular will, and in turn on policy.
Many bloggers pointed to Colbert’s roast of GWB as an ‘emperor wears no clothes’ moment; whether or not this is true, Colbert’s performance certainly spread like wildfire throughout the internet, and even forced the MSM to take notice days after the event. Blogs like Think Progress and Crooks & Liars regularly have clips of TDS and TCR, usually when a piece cuts to the bone of reality. The fact is that they have become a force which works to break down the system of which they are a part. This is highly interesting.
Satire has a great tradition in political criticism, from Jonathan Swift to Mark Twain to H. L. Mencken to Will Rogers. Kierkegaard argued that the master of irony, that great force of perpetual negation, was the humorist. Perhaps there is a place for this in wartime as well.
Posted by rocco on Aug 7, 2006 at 3:08 AM Look , right now in the Congo...a civil war is in progress...the genocide is much greater than Lebanon at this point.....
You see any real coverage on the nightly corporate news media....
ITT is not the problem...if you want to know...ya gotta digg for the information......
Posted by Redhorse on Aug 7, 2006 at 3:48 PM Redhorse has a classic point that has been being made for years. I was 13 when I started asking why the Congo wasnt news, but the president’s affir garnered 24 hour news coverage. I’m 17 nearly 18 now and it just seems to have gone down hill. I’ve been digging for years, but being informed can drive a kid nuts, lol. I’m not sure if Jon Stewart will go down as the Jonathan Swift of our time, but he is doing a hell of a Job at what he does.
Posted by Vanella on Aug 18, 2006 at 8:43 AM What the author (as well as several others) miss is that Stewart and Colbert don’t just skewer the right, they also keep the left in check too. While it is obvious to see where the hosts’ politics lie, they also hold Democrat’s feet to the fire. Both programs have taken Joe LIeberman to task of late, and Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and other dems have also been fodder for ridiciule. During Colbert’s one-on-one interviews, he shreds the hypocrisy of the left just as effectively as the right. These programs are the most effective critics of the media and all politicians today, and that will continue should the leadership of the Congress change in November.
Posted by jggsf on Aug 18, 2006 at 12:25 PM What bothers me about These shows is that they get people’s trust by making fun of the Bush administration and then use it to push their own agenda.
At the end of the day it is just another public relations ploy and evidence that democracy will not work in a society of irrational people.
Posted by cerated on Nov 5, 2006 at 8:11 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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