The Death of Journalism

JFK unquestionably was better liked in the media than his Republican opponent, Vice President Richard Nixon. And television was kind to him because he struck a more attractive figure than Nixon. After the Kennedy-Nixon debate, famously, most radio listeners thought Nixon had won, while most who watched it on television thought Kennedy won.

Although there was some gauze-focused, syrupy coverage of the Kennedy "Camelot" in the White House, and a lot of understandably nostalgic retrospective coverage after his assassination, the news media played campaign coverage "down the middle," for the most part, and comedians had no significant persuasive role yet.

Half a century later, the news media were openly partisan in favor of Obama, and if the large news organizations took their role more seriously than Jon Stewart or Saturday Night Live's Tina entertainers, it was often difficult to distinguish. Documentary filmmaker John Ziegler calls it "media malpractice," and says that we have witnessed "the death of journalism."

It appears from this exit poll that dysfunctional public education and vapid, self-indulgent news practices have combined to produce a smug, opinionated, but disastrously ignorant electorate. http://www.howobamagotelected.com/assets/videos/interviews.html.

Humor in the Democratic Primaries

J.F.K. distinguished himself in part by his wit, but in the (pre-Vietnam) 1960 election the mass media were still somewhat deferential, or at least courteous, to political leaders on the national stage. There was no Laugh-In, no Rich Little, no Chevy Chase, no Saturday Night Live yet. And so J.F.K. could dish out the humor, but wasn't generally an object of parody or derision.

Times have changed. Despite the Liberal U.S. news media's obvious favor, Barack Obama has nevertheless been satirized and parodied to an extent J.F.K. could never have imagined.

The news media abstained from any serious scrutiny of Obama until the cumulative primary election results were irreversible, but all good things must come to an end, and when Saturday Night Live broke ranks to parody its own (NBC) newsman Tim Russert, much of the news herd shifted to more even-handed treatment of Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Neither would J.F.K. have recognized the cottage industry in humor driven by the news cycle, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Obama figured prominently in the Daily Show's April 14 "Gaffe-In" feature after his condescending comments about embittered, xenophobic blue-collar Pennsylvanians "clinging" to their (Christian) faith and their guns due to unkept political promises. http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=166074&title=headlines-gaffe-in

The most absurd and stinging parodies nowadays come from the blogosphere. Perhaps the zaniest is Red State Update, presented by two exaggerated "good ole boys" from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on YouTube.com. Here is their parody of former presidential candidate Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama, accomplished by overdubbing an actual joint interview. It is absurd, more than a little offensive, and side-splittingly hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsvJyJsoBLY