In this upcoming election, Americans are nervous for the well-being of their country. False reports of Queen Elizabeth offering to be a write-in candidate get citizens' hopes up. Comedy news hosts, like Stephen Colbert or Trevor Noah, raise more hard-hitting questions than the actual media. The world is seeing a disintegration of quality information, and an increased "spin" on public knowledge. Episode 10 of Revisionist History, discussing the Satirical Paradox, highlights how the masses will follow what they want to follow, and political discourse is prone to be made into a comedy sketch.
The podcast explains how far the media has strayed from what it should be. Many years ago, the newspaper would contain headlines about breaking down trusts and monopolies (I know this because of my vast knowledge of Disney’s Newsies). Since then, the media is interested in scandals, affairs, and general wrongdoing in the personal lives of politicians. The people are forced to ask the question, “What can we believe?” The majority of our information is skewed, and not much of what we hear comes from somewhere we can trust. Sources such as Fox News or MSNBC “spin” the information that the people hear to the left or to the right. On the rare occasion that these sources provide actual knowledge regarding policy, they include veiled digs toward the politicians. Roe V. Wade has a sort of curse word association on the conservative Fox News. Obamacare has become an insult in all sorts of media. Because of its spin, media outlets are further sent into the realm of untrustworthiness.
People who yearn for activism in politics have lost all hope, and have turned to comedy news in order to see the truth in politics. Humorists utilize satire in order to make fun of policy makers. Stephen Colbert consistently calls out both of the current presidential candidates from the two major parties. In terms of consistent mockery of this current election season, Saturday Night Live emphasizes the subtleties of Hillary and The Donald–namely, Clinton’s over-ambition and robotic nature, and Trump’s absent-minded speech and debate sniffles. Alec Baldwin portrays Trump in a way so accurate that the Republican presidential candidate has tweeted a call to pull the weekly comedy show from the air.
To compare both aforementioned forms of news coverage would be like finding the likeness between a naked mole rat and a potted orchid. One is clearly more beautiful, less terrifying, and more pleasantly fragrant than the other (unless you’re into naked mole rats...I won’t judge). On one hand, the mole rat of actual media is covered in the stench of spun headlines. A typical name for someone sneaky or dishonest is “rat,” which is the perfect name to give to actual anchors of political media. The partisanship and polarization of the news is the root of most of the discourse in American politics. In terms of the orchid-like nature of satire, flawless and demure, people can gain a real sense of who it is that they are electing. Satirists punctuate their jokes with the underlying skin of career politicians. Like in Scooby Doo, the villain always has a mask removed to reveal their true identity.
With all of this information under scrutiny, it is no wonder that the American people turn to the very humorists who are unafraid to point a finger at the actual news anchors which are slacking at their job to inform the citizenry. Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah; these comedians seem to provide, and do provide, more quality knowledge of politicians’ quotes, ideals, and ethics than their “trusted” counterparts, like Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly. “The spin stops here?” Oh, sure it does, Bill. *changes channel to Comedy Central*
