Saturday, April 17, 2010

When Photoshops Attack

Escher Gregory
I did this pic over a year ago.

It was good for a laugh.

A year later it has not only come to life like something out of the "Night Gallery" , but has become the official policy of "Meet the Press".

From "Washington Monthly":
Political Animal

April 12, 2010

DAVID GREGORY'S SENSE OF FACT-CHECKING....
The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz noted this morning that NBC's "Meet the Press," still the most watched Sunday public affair show, is poised to undergo some cosmetic changes. It will not, however, follow ABC's lead on the fact-checking front.
[A]ccepting a challenge from New York University's Jay Rosen, interim host Jake Tapper has arranged for the St. Petersburg Times' PolitiFact site to fact-check what "This Week" guests say after each program.

An "interesting idea," Gregory allows, but not one the NBC show will be emulating. "People can fact-check 'Meet the Press' every week on their own terms."
...

I don't call the mythohyperbolic goo that the teevee extrudes into millions of American homes every Sunday Morning "The Mouse Circus" for nothing.

What makes this tidbit a little different is Greggers' explicit endorsement of the I-don't-give-a-shit-if-guests-lie-as-long-as-it's-Shiny-Go-Boom ethos of the infotainment-industrial complex: usually the Circus' clowns and mimes and bearded ladies have the good sense to keep that kind of shop talk away from the tender ears of the rubes they're trying to fleece.

As usual, Colbert squeezes the stone until it weeps.
The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sunday Morning Fact-Checking - Jake Tapper & Bill Adair
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorFox News


Once the smoke has cleared, I'm betting that Greggers will turn out to be the wisest one of all. Because in the end, demanding that the Sunday Morning puppet show be held to anything remotely approaching the neighborhood of accuracy and integrity (or "this 'truth' gimmick, as I am willing to wager more than one network executive has called it) is bad for the bottom line.

After all, Tapper (whose attempt to trick Media into going out on a blind date with Facts I find admirable) is a "temp" with less to lose that his colleagues, while by all appearances Greggers wants to go gray(er) in his new gig.

And this being the case, I'm sure the memory of what befell the last handsome, vacant, bilaterally symmetrical copy-reciting haircut who shook his gilded cage a little too hard

is vivid in Gregger's mind

5 comments:

pwapvt said...

colbert & stewart have been keeping me sane for a couple of years now.

FreeRepublik said...

It's all great to decide that ratings are everything while truth and facts are secondary, but when Monday comes and everyone talks about things that were said on Sunday shows, and Meet the Press is not mentioned, it's got to mean something. I know I've moved to other shows. There has to be more of me out there...

prof fate said...

The Sword of Truth vs The AK-47 of Bullshit.

Yep. I'd say Mr. Colbert nailed that one.

Distributorcap said...

and gregory keeps asking why his ratings are half of russerts

andrea said...

Drifty, your insane baby eyes are showing up on Montreal Canadiens fans

http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/00596/habsfans_596601gm-a.jpg