Brass ones

It has been interesting to watch the worlds of "real" news and "fake" news collide with the massive success of Comedy Central's political satire programs, "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report."

In 2004 Jon Stewart appeared on CNN's "Crossfire" and blasted hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala for what he described as "theater". The whole premise of the show was the two taking their respected sides on political issues, Begala, the middle left and Carlon, the middle right, while pretending to be hard-hitting with their guests. Stewart ragged the two for not holding politicians' feet to the fire and doing America a disservice. Soon after that broadcast, "Crossfire" was cancelled.

CNN chief Jonathan Klein said, "I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp."

Since that time, Carlson has switched networks, has new show on MSNBC called "The Situation" and he is now much more off-the-cuff and openly critical of both extreme sides of the political spectrum, much like Jon Stewart.

In one of the early promos for the show, a clip of Carlson is shown in an interview with Air America radio host, Rachel Maddow. MSNBC chose to promote "The Situation" with the following clip:

MADDOW: The face of conservatism to me is Dick Cheney. I
mean, not only coming after me at home and deciding what I can do in my bedroom and in my personal life, but also waging unjust wars.

CARLSON: It‘s “Hey, you kids, get off my lawn.”

If you can't beat 'em, and you definitely can't, join 'em Tucker -- this jab at Cheney seems very much inspired by "The Daily Show." Carlson has since gone on to slam Cheney for drinking on the afternoon of his hunting accident, has abandoned his dorky Orville Redenbacher bow tie (that Stewart made fun of) and has made many other statements on his new show to distance himself from the Bush camp.

Fellow MSNBC host Keith Oberman's show, "Countdown" was recently promoted as being "as edgy as The Daily Show". It's very interesting that a mainstream news channel wants to cozy up to what is described by its creators as "fake news."

The reality is that the lines between the two camps are blurred. Jon Stewart slammed "Crossfire" for "partisan hackery" and in truth, what the "The Daily Show" does brilliantly is just the opposite by pointing out ridiculous political behavior on both sides of the fence. The show has the luxury of never having to claim allegiance to any party because, after all, it's entertainment and to ignore one party would be material opportunity missed.

As Stewart said in his infamous "Crossfire" interview, "The absurdity of the system provides us the most material."

While trying to chide Stewart for not grilling Sen. John Kerry on his show before the 2004 election, Stewart told Carlson, "You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls." Point made. Game Stewart.

Oh yeah, Stewart also called Carlson a "dick" before it was all over.

The massive success of the show spawned the parody of all parodies last year, "The Colbert Report" with "Daily Show's" Stephen Colbert at the helm.

The show takes aim at Fox News and specifically Bill O'Rielly and has developed its own loyal fan base in short time. Colbert and his writers are smart enough to take a fictional character and run him up against reality at every occasion. This leads me to the next newsworthy clash of the two news worlds -- Colbert vs. Bush and the White House press corps -- a true David and Goliath story.

At the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington this past Saturday, Colbert spoke for 23 minutes and, with his trademark "I'm one of you guys" style, he deftly slammed the Bush administration and the media. They didn't even know what hit 'em until after the fact and one of the stories within the story is that the much of the mainstream media either didn't cover Colbert's portion of the dinner or called his performance a "failure". Both reactions smell sickeningly like sour grapes and make Colbert look like the man of the hour. Who else could slam Bush to his face without being hauled off and locked in a dark room for being "an enemy combatant"?

Whether Colbert was well received is beside the point. Beyond the entertainment factor, Colbert said to Bush's face what many American's have been thinking about the state of country, all under the guise of being an entertainer. Attacking him rings hollow because of this, but his clever careful dissection of the White House and press made many in the audience, including the prez, squirm in their seats.

The beauty of fake news teaming up against real political figures and commentators is their Teflon coating. You attack them, you look like an ass for treating an entertainment figure as a legitimate contender in the political realm. If you laugh along with him, you look like an ass for going along with someone who is carefully slicing you to shreds. The Catch 22 is that Colbert was able to mock an entire adminstration in from of their faces and get away with it. Beyond the entertainment factor, history was made last weekend that puts the Stewart/Colbert connection in the same league of the bold edgy artistry of Lenny Bruce and Andy Kaufman.

Quotes from Colbert's speech:

Speaking to the President: "Guy's like us ... we go straight from the gut ... I give people the truth unfiltered by rational argument ... I'm a simple man with a simple mind. "
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"I believe democracy is our greatest export, at least until China figures out how to stamp it out of plastic and ship it for three cents a unit."
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"I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least and by these standards we have set up an excellent government in Iraq."
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"We don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality and we all know reality has a liberal bias."
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Referring to Hurricane Katrina: "Whatever happen to America, she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world."
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"I've never been a fan of books. They're all fact no heart ... Who's Brittanica to say the Panama Canal was built in 1914? If I wasn’t to say it was built in 1941, that's my right as an American."
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"I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of the story, the president's side and the vice president's side."
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"This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg."
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Regarding an interview with Jesse Jackson, "He's going to say what he wants in the way that he wants. It's like boxing a glacier. Enjoy that metaphor, by the way, because your grandchildren will have no idea what a glacier is."
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"Mayor Nagin is here from the New Orleans the 'chocolate city'. Mayor Nagin, I would like to welcome you to Washington D.C., the chocolate city with a marshmallow center and a graham cracker crust of corruption. It's a malomar I guess is what I'm describing."
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Speaking to new White House press secretary, Tony Snow, "(You've) got some big shoes to fill Tony. Scott McClellan could say nothing like nobody else."
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Salon sums it up well in a recent article.

Mark Morford, writer for the San Francisco Chronicle's culture blog, also nails it:

"I've been of mixed feelings on 'The Colbert Report,' never quite sure Colbert could sustain that brilliant but slightly annoying persona for entire episodes and whole seasons, without needing to break character.

Almost too much of a good thing, a one-note joke without enough range. But this, this makes it all worthwhile. This changes everything. Colbert should get some kind of award. Sit back, click play, and be amazed. God bless America. Oh, and also YouTube.com."


UPDATE 5/11/06: YouTube has removed the videos due to copyright infridgement so their site says. The speech in its entirety is here.