Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Digby is not amused.


Jon Stewart is on top of his game this week, skewering media coverage of the Madison Madness and offering some laugh-out-loud commentary:


For reasons that elude me, this bit was one step over the line for liberal blogger Digby at Hullabaloo who expends almost 800 words to explain why Jon Stewart is not funny and a traitor to the cause:
"I'm fairly sure that the only people who listen to Stewart are liberals who are getting the idea that it's wrong to get in the streets or call out the other side in rough language. Conservatives just think he's a useful idiot. I find this attitude very perplexing coming from a comedian, especially one who commonly does things which could be perceived as unfair, silly and undignified.

This is why Colbert's satire is so much more effective and, frankly, much braver. His satire is firmly aimed at the right, so he cannot take both sides. That's why it works --- it takes a position. By contrast, I'm increasingly not finding Jon's church-lady finger wagging all that funny, much less cool, and I fast forward though his opening segments more often than not."
While Digby was not amused, I found her pompous church-lady finger wagging at "Jon's church-lady finger wagging" to be vaguely bemusing in its own meta-bizzaro "you've-got-to-be-kidding" kind of way.

From the peanut gallery, Shakesvile, Bob Cesca, and Matt Christie sniff their approval at Digby's take-down.

James Joyner also took note of Digby's displeasure:
"The reason I watch Stewart (and Stephen Colbert, who I’ll turn to shortly) and not more vitriolic liberal comics like Bill Maher is precisely because of his civility. While his bits are aimed at people who generally agree with him, he’s not insulting to those who don’t. He’s welcoming and engaging conversation, treating his audience like intelligent, decent people. We tend not to agree on the issues but he rightly calls out the BS on both sides. Given his political leanings, he naturally sees more of it on the Right than the Left. But he at least tries to be intellectually honest and consistent in his principles."
I suppose I could take a cheap shot by noting the similarity of Digby's screed to Mao's dictum that "art must serve the interests of the workers, peasants and soldiers..." but I won't go there. Let's just say that if anyone ever needed an example of the stereotypical humorless liberal, I think we found Exhibit "A".


UPDATE: Replaced entire post with better version cross-posted at "Donklephant"

Divided and Balanced.™
Now that is fair.


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