WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS ARGUMENT?

This is the new line - it makes sense until you realize that the number of people they reach dwarfs the number reached by anyone who has responsibilities.

"I don't have credibility, I'm a comedian," [Dennis Miller] said. "I'm not Ed Murrow up on the roof in a London fog reporting on the blitz."

And when someone noted that Stewart doesn't adhere to the standards he proposes for mainstream media, he said, "Guess what? My colleagues are Carrot Top and Robin Williams."


Reflecting on it I think politics and humor share two essential elements: delight in exaggeration, and a sense of the inevitability of the absurd. If you're a Freudian you can toss sadism in there, too. Maybe Michael Moore has the right take: “A lot of the best comedians are very angry people. They find a way to use their sense of humor sort of like a release valve on a pressure cooker. I’ve always been that way.”

[It's not that new a line. I can't Google up a cite, but I distinctly recall Limbaugh, years ago, saying that he was first and foremost an entertainer. I wonder if he'd feel the need to repeat that proviso under the current administration. -UttDC]

[There is nothing wrong with this argument, except the slight whiff that somehow,as comedians, Limbaugh or Dennis Miller is absolved of the responsibility for being a fetid colostomy bag; they are only absolved of being journalistic fetid colostomy bags -PWP]