Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Anchors Playing the Blame Game
What anchors were playing the blame game following Hurricane Katrina? AP writer has written a good article detailing who did what. Here's an excert from the article:
But for tenacious reporting, David Gregory (and a heartening number of others, including ABC's Ted Koppel, CBS' John Roberts, CNN's Anderson Cooper, Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith, NBC's Brian Williams and more) all receive a special Blamey engraved with the inscription: "News is what those in power don't want you to know."
Have the media been roused from their torpor for good? Or is this just a temporary state of due diligence?
Time will tell. But either way, TV's best humorists can be relied upon, even when the news media can't, to continue the mission they all share: questioning authority.
Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," in particular, had never before let up on lampooning leaders, and sure wasn't going to when Katrina struck.
During one of its "reports" on hurricane relief last week, Bush was shown declaring, "We've got to solve problems. Because we're problem solvers."
Irrefutable logic, marveled "Senior Correspondent" Ed Helms, who went on to unlock the administration's formula for how it crafts its talking points: "We've got to A B, because we're B A-ers." As in: "We've got to eat zucchini, because we're zucchini eaters."
For anyone trying to understand politics today, this sort of shrewd analysis is fake news you can really use. It's not only crazy, it also makes sense. And it's richly deserving of a Blamey Award, which should feel right at home at "The Daily Show," a full and zany participant in the Blame Game.
No wonder. As host Jon Stewart archly cautioned his viewers, "When people don't want to play the Blame Game - THEY'RE to blame!"
But for tenacious reporting, David Gregory (and a heartening number of others, including ABC's Ted Koppel, CBS' John Roberts, CNN's Anderson Cooper, Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith, NBC's Brian Williams and more) all receive a special Blamey engraved with the inscription: "News is what those in power don't want you to know."
Have the media been roused from their torpor for good? Or is this just a temporary state of due diligence?
Time will tell. But either way, TV's best humorists can be relied upon, even when the news media can't, to continue the mission they all share: questioning authority.
Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," in particular, had never before let up on lampooning leaders, and sure wasn't going to when Katrina struck.
During one of its "reports" on hurricane relief last week, Bush was shown declaring, "We've got to solve problems. Because we're problem solvers."
Irrefutable logic, marveled "Senior Correspondent" Ed Helms, who went on to unlock the administration's formula for how it crafts its talking points: "We've got to A B, because we're B A-ers." As in: "We've got to eat zucchini, because we're zucchini eaters."
For anyone trying to understand politics today, this sort of shrewd analysis is fake news you can really use. It's not only crazy, it also makes sense. And it's richly deserving of a Blamey Award, which should feel right at home at "The Daily Show," a full and zany participant in the Blame Game.
No wonder. As host Jon Stewart archly cautioned his viewers, "When people don't want to play the Blame Game - THEY'RE to blame!"
# posted by ATN @ 3:02 PM 
