For those of you who love you some Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, Jon Oliver, and other political comedians, I think you’ll enjoy this article, with accompanying video, from Vox.
But beyond the jokes and sight gags, political satirists have done an excellent job of seriously covering the Trump administration — sometimes even better than major TV news networks. And that’s because while traditional journalists feel compelled to take President Trump’s often absurd statements and conspiracy theories seriously, political satirists have demonstrated an extremely low tolerance for bullshit.
Traditional journalism, on the other hand, doesn’t always know when to laugh at the absurd. “The news media sort of seems like it has to take it seriously in order to be taken seriously,” McClennen says.
That’s the key. You won’t see Oliver, Bee, Colbert, or Meyer entertaining willfully ignorant pundits, having faux “discussions” over whether climate change is real, whether Blacks have to face more obstacles in America than whites do, etc. Instead, they will call the fools out.
But the power of satire goes beyond effectively debunking specific falsehoods. Political satire only works when it’s able to describe the world as it actually is — to cut through talking points and spin and endless panel debates. And in the age of Trump, that’s an ability that traditional journalists should be mirroring.
“We think the journalist’s job is to show all sides of the story. But the journalist’s job is to show the truth,” McClennen argues. “And sometimes, in this case, going after the truth is going to be funny because the lies are so absurd that you can’t help but laugh.”
A fundamental flaw of the mainstream media’s approach to journalism is that they often support neutrality of opinions, not neutrality of facts. But these are mutually exclusive goals. If you understand that life on this planet evolved according to the principles of Charles Darwin, you must reject “creationism” as pseudoscientific bunk. Same with climate science denial. Or the claim that criminalizing abortions would reduce the number of abortions. Or that transgender people are predating on kids in public restrooms. On, and on, and on. The failure of the mainstream media is their enabling of these and many more lies by giving them the seat at the table which they do not deserve.
So, keep it up, political satirists. And if you’ll excuse me, I need to step out for a bit, because Full Frontal with Samantha Bee is about to start!