On the December 28 edition of Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd moderated a discussion on the intersection of politics and comedy in American culture. Par for the course, the panel could not make it through the segment without taking a cheap shot at Fox News.
W. Kamau Bell, formerly the host of the FX comedy show Totally Biased, argued that the comedy shows and Fox News get to “bark” while other outlets are constrained by journalistic conventions. He championed the unbiased nature of left-wing media by stating that they are “afraid of barking,” which is news to anyone who has watched MSNBC. He declared:
BELL: Comedy gets to bark. And I think that – and the weird thing is that Fox News also gets to bark. And I think sometimes the left, you know, the left leaning media is afraid of barking. And so, the comics – you see this in a lot in the left wing media – they will play a clip of The Daily Show or they will play a clip of John Oliver and go ‘look at this guy barking. Anyway, back to a reasonable discussion, even though that's what I want you to believe. Let me have the reasonable discussion.’
In Bell’s world, the liberal media – aside from an occasional clip of Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert – maintains a reasonable discussion of the issues while Fox News simply barks away. Todd failed to challenge Bell on his dubious assertion, instead going quickly to commercial break.
Earlier in the segment, liberal comedian Lewis Black made a fair point about the cynicism of the American public regarding politics. He suggested that those in Washington live in a bubble, much like it’s perceived that Hollywood has a bubble of its own:
I really do think part of the problem is the cynicism is caused by the fact that in the course of my lifetime and having lived in Washington, that Washington is increasingly in a bubble much the same way that a lot of people who live in Hollywood are in a bubble. When I started going on the road 25 years ago and I was told, well you are too angry, they are not going to get it. What I was discovering was that they were angrier than I was.
He added that “there’s a sense of disenfranchisement now…that I have just never experienced in my lifetime.”
The relevant portion of the transcript is below.
CHUCK TODD, host: Should you guys be held responsible if people are cynical and think all government is broken? Because that's the other initial premise of this article.
LEWIS BLACK, comedian: Oh no, no, no, no, no. That started way before this. I really do think part of the problem is the cynicism is caused by the fact that in the course of my lifetime and having lived in Washington, that Washington is increasingly in a bubble much the same way that a lot of people who live in Hollywood are in a bubble. When I started going on the road 25 years ago and I was told, well you are too angry, they are not going to get it. What I was discovering was that they were angrier than I was. There's a sense of disenfranchisement now that I think is seen in the number of people who went and voted that I have just never experienced in my lifetime. I watch you and everybody elsewhere where somebody comes on – I don't know how you do it. I'd be barking at them. Because they’ll sit there and go (gargling noise).
TODD: We all sit there because we know the first time we bark, it’s the last time we do the show. Sometimes it's the last time you’re ever – all of a sudden, nobody will come on your show, right. There is that balance.
W. KAMAU BELL, comedian: And the thing that comedy gets to do –
TODD: You get to do stuff we don't.
BELL: Comedy gets to bark. And I think that – and the weird thing is that Fox News also gets to bark. And I think sometimes the left, you know the left leaning media is afraid of barking. And so, the comics – you see this in a lot in the left wing media – they will play a clip of The Daily Show or they will play a clip of John Oliver and go ‘look at this guy barking. Anyway, back to a reasonable discussion, even though that's what I want you to believe. Let me have the reasonable discussion.’
