10/16 - McCain/Obama roast each other at Al Smith dinner - Hillarious!

DP

McCain on Letterman

I need to watch the whole segment because he had McCain squirming a bit.

Oh, very good. Yeah, I thought McCain wa better too.

Why are comedians the only people with any journalistic integrity? Between the two Letterman segments on McCain and The Daily Show and SNL I've seen more spot on political commentary and hard-hitting questions that I've seen from any of the 24/7 new stations.

Pathetic.

kaostheory wrote:

Why are comedians the only people with any journalistic integrity?

Because, as sad an unrealistic as it sounds, Comedy Central is not concerned with people brushing them with BIASED MAIN STREET MEDIA smears.

MSNBC is ok with being slanted left, FOX is just a propaganda/bitter hate machine. Everyone else? They don't want to appear biased.

Spaz wrote:
kaostheory wrote:

Why are comedians the only people with any journalistic integrity?

Because, as sad an unrealistic as it sounds, Comedy Central is not concerned with people brushing them with BIASED MAIN STREET MEDIA smears.

MSNBC is ok with being slanted left, FOX is just a propaganda/bitter hate machine. Everyone else? They don't want to appear biased.

Nah, it's just that Comedy Central doesn't care about offending anyone. These shows have comedic immunity, and if someone takes offense, they can just accuse them of not having a sense of humour. The news programs have to worry about screwing themselves out of a big scoop. Katie Couric won't be getting the big Republican interview next term, I'll tell you that.

Jester's license.

Spunior wrote:

Jester's license. ;)

Good answer.

This conversation reminds me of Jon Stewart on Hardball. He directly attacked the media (including the show he was on) and the challenge was turned back on him as if he were every bit as legitimate a journalist.

LobsterMobster wrote:

This conversation reminds me of Jon Stewart on Hardball. He directly attacked the media (including the show he was on) and the challenge was turned back on him as if he were every bit as legitimate a journalist.

What was the quote? "You're comparing your news show to one that precedes a half hour of puppets and toilet humor. Great job."

Hannity kept wanting to talk about female sex toys and Stewart was like "I don't care about that story. You're a news show. Why are you talking about this."

I have to find that bit because it was just fantastic.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my brother when i asked him why the Daily show was the only "news" show that pointed out the hypocrisy of the supposedly "sexist" reaction to Palin vs. their own reaction to Clinton.
He told me that if mainstream news pointed out the hypocrisy of their guests, those guests would be loathe to come back and would just appear on other networks, making it harder for the critical network to do it's job.

Frankly, I think there is room for a network that examines everything more critically and tries to appeal to it's audience rather than pandering to the very people and parties it's supposed to be reporting on. This is what Stewart was talking about when he appeared on Crossfire and said that shows like that were essentially serving the purposes of the very parties they were supposed to be critical of.

A network can either attract big guests by sucking up to them or by earning a good reputation and good ratings. One of the only ways for a news show to get a good reputation is through good journalism, including asking its guests difficult questions.

If a news source is good enough, politicians will put up with the abuse in exchange for the visibility.

Both politicians were hilarious - kudos to whoever wrote their speeches.

LobsterMobster wrote:

A network can either attract big guests by sucking up to them or by earning a good reputation and good ratings. One of the only ways for a news show to get a good reputation is through good journalism, including asking its guests difficult questions.

If a news source is good enough, politicians will put up with the abuse in exchange for the visibility.

That might've been true in the past, but with 24 hour news networks devoted to certain slants, a politician can readily exclude anyone who would threaten them with actual journalism and still be visible and accessible to the people who already agree with them.

JoeBedurndurn wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

A network can either attract big guests by sucking up to them or by earning a good reputation and good ratings. One of the only ways for a news show to get a good reputation is through good journalism, including asking its guests difficult questions.

If a news source is good enough, politicians will put up with the abuse in exchange for the visibility.

That might've been true in the past, but with 24 hour news networks devoted to certain slants, a politician can readily exclude anyone who would threaten them with actual journalism and still be visible and accessible to the people who already agree with them.

The problem with that is that such slanted news organizations are demographically divided. If you want to make inroads into a fundy christian demographic, you can't just appear on MSNBC or NPR. If you want to have exposure to independent voters, you can't just appear on Fox News or the Rush Limbaugh Hour.

Part of the reason why Obama has done so well across demographics is his willingness to appear just about anywhere. Showing up and taking a grilling from Bill O'Reilly may not have won him the hardest of the hard core ideologues, but it certainly shook loose much of the scared liberal image.

Seth wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

This conversation reminds me of Jon Stewart on Hardball. He directly attacked the media (including the show he was on) and the challenge was turned back on him as if he were every bit as legitimate a journalist.

What was the quote? "You're comparing your news show to one that precedes a half hour of puppets and toilet humor. Great job."

Hannity kept wanting to talk about female sex toys and Stewart was like "I don't care about that story. You're a news show. Why are you talking about this."

I have to find that bit because it was just fantastic.

Here you are, monkey boy.

Boy, youtube has been really sucking for the last couple of days here, horribly slow. Is that happening for anyone else, or should I be yelling at my ISP?


McCain one.
The link isn't parsed properly.

Barack "Steve" Obama!

Excellent delivery by Obama, reckon he spent a few days at Comedy Camp?

Have I mentioned lately that John McCain's daughter is hot?

Rat Boy wrote:

Have I mentioned lately that John McCain's daughter is hot?

IMAGE(http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/picture-36.jpg)

Ulairi wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Have I mentioned lately that John McCain's daughter is hot?

IMAGE(http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/picture-36.jpg)

I pretty much say that with every post, don't I?

That's some good stuff, thanks for the links

I think McCain's jokes were easier to get, so he got bigger laughs more often, but I thought Obama had better (more clever) jokes.
And my god, McCain's attempts at smiling were scary. You could tell that Obama really thought McCain's jokes were funny, but McCain looked pretty pissed about some of Obama's jokes. He'd laugh for a couple of seconds, then go back into a scowl.

What a great event. The speech writers deserve a lot of credit (I'd love to know who the writers were.) Fantastic to see how much genuine respect the two men have for each other.