Atomic Nerds

Normally, it’s taken as a given on the right that the entirety of cable news save Fox leans left, and by the left that the entirety of “corporate media” (especially Fox, or Faux as you are bound by law to refer to it after you vote for your third Democrat) leans right. Liberals generally scoffed at the idea that the media was openly biased in favor of Obama during the last election*, although Hillary Clinton supporters certainly had little trouble believing it.

You probably know my position- I do think a lot of the media, especially MSNBC, fell a little bit to a lot in love with Obama’s story and became invested in him as “their” President. Which is probably why CNN and Wolf Blitzer felt they had to leap to the defense of the administration in order to protect it from the dangerous disinformation about Obama spread by that nefarious organ of right-wing dirty tricks, Saturday Night Live. I shit you not:

Blitzer’s opening line?

Seems no politician is safe from Saturday Night Live…

WELL FUCKING SPOTTED, EAGLE EYE. Welcome to the last thirty-four years. Saturday Night Live has been sending up every single occupant of the White House since its inception, from Gerald Ford right on through Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W, and now Obama. It’s what they DO. It’s never been particularly creative, either; they usually pick some political-cartoon perception, blow it as far out of proportion as they can get away with, and that’s your standard topical joke for the next four to eight years.

Blitzer goes on here to deliver two and a half minutes of hard-hitting probing into checking SNL’s “facts” and concluding that their portrayal of Obama as an incompetent who can’t get anything done isn’t “fair” because the things he listed are things that are “in progress” according to a political fact-checking site. A TOPICAL LATE-NIGHT COMEDY VARIETY SHOW WASN’T TOTALLY FAIR IN THEIR OVER-THE-TOP SATIRIZATION? THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE! STOP THE MOTHERFUCKING PRESSES AND LET’S GET THIS SHIT CLEARED UP BEFORE AMERICA GETS CONFUSED!

Naturally, the whole thing had to be contrasted with Tina Fey’s “dead on” portrayal of Sarah Palin, which consisted entirely of getting the outfit and the accent right and then proceeding to act out a generic “airhead beauty queen” stereotype. CNN goes on to inform us that “some people” think it might have affected national perception of Palin as a clueless lightweight- which is naturally now only important now that the far-off ghost of a possibility exists that the same thing might happen to poor, underexposed Obama, who just can’t seem to catch a break in the media cycle to get his own spin on things**.

But, it’s okay. We can all relax now. CNN is on the job to get the straight facts to America: Saturday Night Live will mock politicians, even this one!. Now that we are safely warned, we can bump that terror alert level back down to “sweaty palms” and move on to the healing.

*Although some of the very same media admit that it was.

**If the sarcasm in that sentence didn’t warp your monitor, you may need to adjust some settings.

Posted Ranting, current events, run that one by me again... |