Comedians are becoming more and more important when it comes to talking about politics. It's not just because of the jokes, it's because they are good at actually calling people out. And when dealing with someone like President Trump that's exactly what they need to do.
The news media and traditional journalists seem to think that they have to take current events seriously to be taken seriously. Don't take this the wrong way, there is truth to that, but sometimes calling someone out when they bring up obviously bogus phrases like "alternative facts" is just as important.
The current media takes a lie like Trumps inauguration crowd was bigger than Obama's or Obama wiretapped the White House and talks about them for hours and hours. They have all sorts of panels and expert guests on their shows which all seem to say the same thing: President Trump lied. Sometimes they will have someone with the opposite opinion on the show who might have some shred of evidence and usually the whole thing dissolves into a shouting match.
While having different points of view on today's media is crucial, especially because each outlet seems to have its own political bias, in this case, it is just not productive. Not only that but it leads to debating, not opinions or ideologies, facts. Debating actual facts and figures. Putting up with that kind of behavior is what brought us gems like "alternative facts."
While Anderson Cooper mediates an argument that might as well be happening in a kindergarten classroom and Jake Tapper ask Kellyanne questions that she'll never answer Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, and Seth Myers are presenting their arguments with evidence. The fact of the matter is you will never be able to prove someone wrong when they refuse to use facts because they'll just make up something that backs up they're belief. This just leads to circular conversations where they debate 'ifs' and basic reality. This gets us nowhere.
The biggest difference between daytime news and late night news is daytime reports don't know when to call nonsense. They are used to dealing with a brand politicians who weren't spewing deceit every other day. Don't get me wrong many of these reporters are good at their jobs, they've won awards for their work, and deserve respect but they spend way too long letting these tangents that lead to nowhere dominate their air time. For example, how long did it take Jake Tapper to corner Kellyanne in a lie by repeatedly asking her the same question instead of letting her talking about the votes statistics in Michigan when the question was about something else entirely?
Why let people continue to come on news shows if they do not answer the question or are not even able to give credible reliable sources to back up what they say. Entertaining this kind of behavior is a waste of time. Day times news shows spend hours upon hours discussing whatever Sean Spicer said this time and at the end of the day, they haven't really told people anything they didn't know already. However, shorter late night shows like Full Frontal with Samantha Bee or Last Week Tonight with John Oliver explain why it's baseless and then turn to other important things like state legislators and nuclear weapons.
There is also evidence that the daytime news coverage is not effective. Even when a reporter says that Trump didn't win by the biggest electoral college gap since Reagan repeating the arguments, no matter how false, and disproving them over and over again leads to viewers checking out. Treating nonsense like actual news makes it really hard to tell the difference between the two and makes it seem like nobody will ever find the truth.
Holding politicians accountable is what journalists need to be doing. During the Obama administration, they were able to do it, but they seem to be struggling with Trump. Think about the reaction the press had when Trump addressed the Congress in February. Daytime news networks absolutely fawned over President Trump, they could not stop talking about how Presidential he sounded. It was the comedians who brought up the fact that he didn't change his agenda, which the same liberal media that applauded his 'big boy' speech have spoken out against, and that Trump has been able to give good speeches before in the past but just goes right back calling people names and ranting off topic in the past. It's this kind of critical thinking that we need all the time, not just on late night television.
Political satire trains the brain to be skeptical and to really think what you're hearing or seeing not just taking in whatever is presented and believing it as fact immediately. Holding people accountable is what the news should be all about. It's not going to be easy and let's face it if journalists are not asking questions that make politicians squirm then they are not doing their job. It wasn't sunshine and daisies in the White House newsrooms during Obama's administration either.
Donald Trump does not want you to see the man behind the curtain, he wants you to focus on the wizard that will grant your wishes. Lately daytime news journalists have shown that they already have the brains, heart, and courage to ask the harder questions and to call out absurdity when they see it. Let's hope this trend continues. If not I'll be waiting till past 10'oclock to get my news.
